Workload Design: Selecting Representative Program-Input Pairs

Having a representative workload of the target domain of a microprocessor is extremely important throughout its design. The composition of a workload involves two issues: (i) which benchmarks to select and (ii) which input data sets to select per benchmark. Unfortunately, it is impossible to select a huge number of benchmarks and respective input sets due to the large instruction counts per benchmark and due to limitations on the available simulation time. In this paper, we use statistical data analysis techniques such as principal components analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis to efficiently explore the workload space. Within this workload space, different input data sets for a given benchmark can be displayed, a distance can be measured between program-input pairs that gives us an idea about their mutual behavioral differences and representative input data sets can be selected for the given benchmark. This methodology is validated by showing that program-input pairs that are close ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2002
• Where: IEEEPACT
• Authors: Lieven Eeckhout, Hans Vandierendonck, Koenraad De Bosschere
• Keywords: Distributed And Parallel Computing, IEEEPACT 2002, Input Data Sets, Workload, Workload Space