You can find a quick tutorial on how to use ThreadSpotter to get full performance out of multi-core servers by going looking in the Compiler and Development Tools section of Sun's New ISV HPC Community website at:

http://partneradvantage.sun.com/partners/news/resources/hpc/

or on the Acumem Website.

Acumem Threadspotter and Acumem SlowSpotter

Multicore and many core computation is the only viable path for high-performance capability and throughput today. Most existing applications however are ill-suited for this transition as they have been written for historical single core systems and typically run far below their potential performance. Mainly this is due to system bottlenecks lurking in the multi core memory system. This is not just true for parallel applications, but also for sequential jobs run in a throughput manner. Often, simple fixes can improve the overall performance by a factor 2 or more. The Acumem SlowSpotter performance tool can tell development and infrastructure managers if their applications have this potential, and can instruct their programmers how to get there.

One-click analysis technology

The first step along your path towards better multicore performance is a deep analysis of your application and its performance potential. At the click of one button, the necessary performance information from your application is collected and the analysis of its whereabouts is automatically performed. The application is given a green or red light in each of four common performance bottleneck areas.

Identifying performance road blocks

Acumem’s analysis also produces detailed reports to guide a user along the path of necessary changes. A list of identified performance SlowSpots and associated performance statistics gives a good overview of the potential cost/benefit for each possible optimization. Clicking on one such optimization entry takes you to the source code and presents detailed suggestions for the changes needed.

Improved productivity and performance

Acumem’s technology differs from alternative solutions in many ways.

• You do not need to suspect a specific problem nor do you need to know what performance data to collect, as is the case for other so-called performance tools.

• There is no need to manually collect that performance data either – this is all done at the click of a button with no questions asked.

• Neither do you need access to a performance expert to analyze the data collected.

What previously cost performance experts weeks of wading through massive amounts of performance data and demanding performance analysis is now performed automatically in minutes. Acumem SlowSpotter automatically performs the analysis for you.

Multicore to the masses: a performance oracle and a teacher

While performance experts can enjoy higher productivity with Acumem SlowSpotter, it can also enable non-experts to perform much of the necessary improvements. Programmers can now analyze their newly produced code to ensure performance quality. Existing application can also easily be optimized without requiring special performance-expert knowledge. Acumem has coupled a context-sensitive learn-as-you-go tutorial with the suggestions for performance improvement. It takes you to the appropriate paragraph in one click, rather than requiring you to read the performance book from beginning to end. Using the tool will gradually turn users into performance experts. This is really required to bring multicore to the masses!

Go Green!

While the world is suddenly looking for green alternatives, the simplest way to get there is often over-looked. Improving your applications will not only make it run faster, it will also consume less resource while doing so. Multicore creates new challenges, but also new possibilities. Sun is in the forefront in understanding this potential and have collaborated with Acumem to make Acumem SlowSpotter available on Solaris and OpenSolaris from the first day it saw the Sun-light.

Availability

Acumem’s technology supports x86 (32 and 64 bits) running Solaris, Linux and soon also Windows. It is available in three different tools:

• SlowSpotter: Performs the analysis for you sequential application to improve its stand-alone performance as well as the overall throughput of its server by using less shared resources.

• SlowSpotter-Pro: Extends SlowSpotter’s capabilities to analysis of multi-threaded applications

• ThreadSpotter: Further add thread interaction analysis to allow optimizations applicable to multi-socket and multicore systems and for reduction of on-chip communication needs.

More Information

12-slide Presentation: Explaining an easy-to-use productivity tool in less than 5 minutes

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