Requirements of I/O Systems for Parallel Machines: An
Application-driven Study
Requirements of I/O Systems for Parallel Machines: An
Application-driven Study
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Date
1998-10-15
Authors
Uysal, Mustafa
Acharya, Anurag
Saltz, Joel
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Abstract
I/O-intensive parallel programs have emerged as one of the leading
consumers of cycles on parallel machines. This change has been driven
by two trends. First, parallel scientific applications are being used
to process larger datasets that do not fit in memory. Second, a large
number of parallel machines are being used for non-scientific
applications. Efficient execution of these applications requires
high-performance I/O systems which have been designed to meet their
I/O requirements. In this paper, we examine the I/O requirements for
data-intensive parallel applications and the implications of these
requirements for the design of I/O systems for parallel machines. We
attempt to answer the following questions. First, what is the
steady-state as well peak I/O rate required? Second, what spatial
patterns, if any, occur in the sequence of I/O requests for individual
applications? Third, what is the degree of intra-processor and
inter-processor locality in I/O accesses? Fourth, does the application
structure allow programmers to disclose future I/O requests to the I/O
system? Fifth, what patterns, if any, exist in the sequence of
inter-arrival times of I/O requests? To address these questions, we
have analyzed I/O request traces for a diverse set of I/O-intensive
parallel applications. This set includes seven scientific
applications and four non-scientific applications.
(Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-97-49)