ProcSimity: an experimental tool for processor allocation and scheduling in highly parallel systems

ProcSimity is a software tool that supports research in processor allocation and scheduling for highly parallel systems. ProcSimity´s multicomputer simulator supports experimentation with selected allocation and scheduling algorithms on architectures with a range of network topologies and for several current routing and flow control mechanisms. Message-passing can be simulated in detail at the flit level or at a higher level of modeling. Our tool supports both stochastic job streams as well as communication patterns from actual parallel applications, including several of the NAS parallel benchmarks. ProcSimity´s visualisation and performance analysis tool allows the user to view a dynamic animation of the selected algorithms as well as a variety of system and job level performance metrics. ProcSimity has been successfully used in experiments investigating the feasibility of non-contiguous processor allocation in meshes and k-ary n-cubes