Comparative performance analysis of uniformly distributed applications

A simple programming model of distributed-memory message-passing computer systems is first applied to describe the coupled architecture/application by two sets of parameters. The node timing formula is then derived on the basis of scalar, vector and communication components. A set of suitability functions, extracted from the performance formulae, are defined. These functions are shown to be particularly useful for comparative performance analysis of both existing distributed-memory systems and new architectures under development