Performance oriented design using HL

Performance is often a key factor in determining the success of a parallel software system. Hence it is important that software engineers have techniques and tools which enable them to explore the performance implications of design alternatives early in the development cycle. The paper describes an approach to performance prediction based on the simulation of a high-level description of the proposed solution. Initially, only skeleton descriptions are required to produce estimates of system performance. As the development process progresses, these can be supplemented with more details of the solution, allowing more accurate performance measures to be produced. This approach is demonstrated using an example which clearly shows the outputs which can be produced from simulation and the benefits of adopting performance prediction techniques