CHIRON PARALLEL PROGRAM PERFORMANCE VISUALIZATION SYSTEM

Chiron is a prototype visualization system for displaying the memory system performance of shared memory multiprocessor applications. The system uses 3D graphics techniques to display large amounts of both code-oriented and data-oriented information. Chiron is designed to isolate problems such as low cache block utilization, improper layout of data in memory resulting in excessive replacement interference, and improper partitioning of work among the processors resulting in excessive coherence interference. A 3D interactive user interface provides the user with flexibility in displaying the data and facilitates the job of focusing in on memory bottlenecks. The paper describes the design and implementation of Chiron, and illustrates its use.