


bspprof(1)                User Commands                bspprof(1)



NAME
     bspprof - The Oxford BSP Toolset communication profiler  for
     BSPlib


SYNOPSIS
     bspprof [_i_n_p_u_t-_f_i_l_e] [_o_u_t_p_u_t-_f_i_l_e] [_c_o_m_m_a_n_d-_l_i_n_e-_o_p_t_i_o_n_s]


DESCRIPTION
     The Oxford BSP toolset communication profiler analyses trace
     files  generated  during  the execution of a BSPlib program.
     The profiler converts trace files into PostScript (level  2)
     documents  that  are  suitable  for  visualisation on a wide
     variety of graphical devices. Trace files are  generated  by
     adding  the option -_p_r_o_f when compiling BSPlib programs with
     bspfront(1).

     The profiler produces three types of  PostScript  graphs  as
     output:


     1)   Strata-graphs for either the number of distinct commun-
          ications  that  occur over time, or the number of bytes
          communicated. Two graphs are presented per profile:

          a)   the number of bytes (or communications)  going  in
               to a processor.

          b)   the number of bytes (or communications) going  out
               from a processor.


     2)   _P_r_e_d_i_c_t_i_o_n _g_r_a_p_h_s that are similar to  _1)  except  that
          the lower graph shows the predicted cost of the commun-
          ication on the machine the profiler was run on. If the
          - _a_r_c_h command is used to specify another architecture,
          then that architectures BSP  parameters  will  be  used
          instead.  Alternatively,  the  BSP  parameters  of  the
          architecture which the prediction is for can be entered
          using the -slg option.


     3)   A _G _g_r_a_p_h, which is also based upon _1) except the  bot-
          tom  graph  shows the effect of g over time. For a true
          BSP machine, g should be constant.


OPTIONS
     Options must be separate: `-dr' is quite different from `- d
     - r  '.   Here  is  a summary of all the options, grouped by
     type. Explanations can be found in the appropriate  sections



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     below:


     Overall Options
          -title _s_t_r_i_n_g -zoom _f_r_o_m,_t_o -colo[u]r -letter -bytes -
          packets -ignore -outline

     Strata Graph Options
          -comm

     Prediction Graph Options
          -predict -slg _s,_l,_g,[_n_h_a_l_f] -arch _s_t_r_i_n_g -nhalfmodel -
          hgmodel -bisselingmodel

     G Graph
          -ggraph -ceilingg _i_n_t_e_g_e_r -hrelgl


OVERALL OPTIONS
     -t _s_t_r_i_n_g
          Use _s_t_r_i_n_g as the title of the profile.

     -zoom _f_r_o_m,_t_o
          Zoom in on the section of the profile between times (in
          seconds)  _f_r_o_m  and _t_o.  If a superstep stradles either
          _f_r_o_m or _t_o it is ignored.

     -colo[u]r
          Use coloured bars when producing the profile in prefer-
          ence to the default grey-scale hashing.

     -letter
          Generate a postscript file that will print on  American
          _l_e_t_t_e_r format paper. The default print area is A4.

     -bytes
          Displays the number of bytes transferred from each pro-
          cess during each superstep.

     -packets
          Displays the number of distinct messages from each pro-
          cess during each superstep.

     -ignore _f_i_l_e
          Don't profile any supersteps from the file _s_t_r_i_n_g.

     -outline
          Only show the accumulated message sizes  for  a  super-
          step. This option is useful to see the general shape of
          the profile without generating large postscript files.





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STRATA GRAPH OPTIONS
     -comm
          Produce a strata-graph  showing  two  graphs  with  the
          amounts of data entering and exiting each processor for
          each superstep over time.

PREDICTION GRAPH OPTIONS
     -predict
          Produce a graph that contrasts the experimental results
          with a prediction based upon the BSP cost model.

     -slg _s,_l,_g[,_n_h_a_l_f]
          When generating the prediction profile, the options to
          -_s_l_g are numbers which represent the BSP parameters:

          _s    is the _M_e_g_a_f_l_o_p/_s rating for the machine.

          _l    the minimum number of flops  for  a  barrier  syn-
               chronisation.

          _g    the asymptotic number of flops  required  for  all
               processors  to  communicate a single 32bit word to
               another process.

          _n_h_a_l_f
               the number of words required for the communication
               performance to deteriorate to 2g.
     See _b_s_p_p_a_r_a_m(_1) for information concerning the BSP parameter
     database.

     -arch _s_t_r_i_n_g
          Specifies that the  program  was  run  on  architecture
          _s_t_r_i_n_g;  where  _s_t_r_i_n_g is one of the valid architecture
          options that is returned from bsparch -help.

     -hgmodel
          The formula h.g is used as the cost of  communicating a
          h-relation.

     -nhalfmodel
          The formula h.g.(nhalf/h +1) is used  as  the  cost  of
          communicating a h-relation. i.e., messages smaller than
          nhalf are attributed a larger cost to take into  effect
          communication startup costs. This is the most accurate,
          and therefore the default cost model used in  the  pro-
          filer.

     -bisselingmodel
          The formula h.g.nhalf is used as the cost of   communi-
          cating  a  h-relation.  This  will give an upper bound,
          pessimistic cost of communication.




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G GRAPH
     -ggraph
          For each superstep, assume that l is fixed, and plot  a
          graph for the variance of g realised for the superstep.
          Although the BSP model assumes a fixed g,  this  option
          is  useful when trying to visualise the effects of con-
          tention in  the  implementation;  or  alternatively  to
          check if a machine is truly scalable!

     -ceilingg _n_u_m_b_e_r
          Specify the maximum value of g to show in the  lower  G
          graph. This option is useful when useful when trying to
          scale multiple graphs to the same ranges.

     -hrelgl
          In the ggraph, we assume that l  is  constant,  and  we
          plot the variance of g. When the size of the h-relation
          is much smaller than l/g, then a small variance at run-
          time  in  l  will produce a large variance in g. By de-
          fault, when generating the profile for the G graph,  h-
          relations  smaller  than l/g are _i_g_n_o_r_e_d. With this op-
          tion, they are plotted as small white dots.

FILES
     The file _R_O_O_T_D_I_R/include/bsp_parameters.ascii  contains  the
     BSP  parameters for various platforms; where _R_O_O_T_D_I_R is usu-
     ally set in the top level Makefile of the BSPlib source.


SEE ALSO
     bsplib(3), bspfront(1), bsparch(1)

     ``_T_h_e _t_h_e_o_r_y, _p_r_a_c_t_i_c_e,  _a_n_d  _a  _t_o_o_l  Jonathan  Hill,  Paul
     Crumpton,  and David Burgess. In EuroPar'96. LNCS, Springer-
     Verlag, August 1996. See:
     _f_t_p://_f_t_p._c_o_m_l_a_b._o_x._a_c._u_k/_p_u_b/_D_o_c_u_m_e_n_t_s/_t_e_c_h_p_a_p_e_r_s/_J_o_n_a_t_h_a_n._H_i_l_l/_H_i_l_l_C_r_u_m_p_t_o_n_B_u_r_g_e_s_s__e_u_r_o_p_a_r_9_6._p_s._Z

     The Oxford BSP toolset web pages can be found  at:
     _h_t_t_p://_w_w_w._b_s_p-_w_o_r_l_d_w_i_d_e._o_r_g/_i_m_p_l_m_n_t_s/_o_x_t_o_o_l/


BUGS
     Problems  and  bug  reports  should  be  mailed  to  _b_s_p_l_i_b-
     _b_u_g_s@_c_o_m_l_a_b._o_x._a_c._u_k



COPYING
     Copyright 1995,1996,1997 University of Oxford

     Permission  to  use,  copy,  modify,  and  distribute   this
     software,  and  to incorporate it, in whole or in part, into



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     other software, is  hereby  granted  without  fee,  provided
     that:

     i    the above copyright notice and this  permission  notice
          appear  in all copies of the source code, and the above
          copyright notice appear in clearly visible form on  all
          supporting documentation   and distribution media;

     ii    modified versions of this software be accompanied by a
          complete  change  history  describing author, date, and
          modifications made;


     iii   and any redistribution of the software, in original or
          modified form, be without fee and subject to these same
          conditions.

AUTHORS
     Jonathan.Hill@comlab.ox.ac.uk

     http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/people/jonathan.hill.html


































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