Understanding Data Access Patterns Using Object-Differentiated Memory Profiling

The information provided by commonly used code-oriented profilers can be complemented by means of data-oriented profiling techniques. Based on a data-oriented approach, in this study we leverage techniques developed in previous papers to analyze the data access characteristics of a range of U.S. Department of Energy applications representative of different application domains. By analyzing object-differentiated memory access profiles, we identify markedly different access patterns across application stages. We find read-only and read-write periods, relatively large periods without accessing particular objects, and a variety of data access rates. This information is useful for devising software optimizations, for software and hardware code sign, and for data distribution and partitioning in heterogeneous memory systems.