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NASA NTRS1999

Design Description of the X-33 Avionics Architecture

In this paper, we provide a design description of the X-33 avionics architecture. The X-33 is an autonomous Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) launch vehicle currently being developed by Lockheed Martin for NASA as a technology demonstrator for the VentureStar Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). The X-33 avionics provides autonomous control of die vehicle throughout takeoff, ascent, descent, approach, landing, rollout, and vehicle safing. During flight the avionics provides communication to the range through uplinked commands and downlinked telemetry. During pre-launch and post-safing activities, the avionics provides interfaces to ground support consoles that perform vehicle flight preparations and maintenance. The X-33 Avionics is a hybrid of centralized and distributed processing elements connected by three dual redundant Mil-Std 1553 data buses. These data buses are controlled by a central processing suite located in the avionics bay and composed of triplex redundant Vehicle Mission Computers (VMCs). The VMCs integrate mission management, guidance, navigation, flight control, subsystem control and redundancy management functions. The vehicle sensors, effectors and subsystems are interfaced directly to the centralized VMCs as remote terminals or through dual redundant Data Interface Units (DIUs). The DIUs are located forward and aft of the avionics bay and provide signal conditioning, health monitoring, low level subsystem control and data interface functions. Each VMC is connected to all three redundant 1553 data buses for monitoring and provides a complete identical data set to the processing algorithms. This enables bus faults to be detected and reconfigured through a voted bus control configuration. Data is also shared between VMCs though a cross channel data link that is implemented in hardware and controlled by AlliedSignal's Fault Tolerant Executive (FTE). The FTE synchronizes processors within the VMC and synchronizes redundant VMCs to each other. The FTE provides an output-voting plane to detect, isolate and contain faults due to internal hardware or software faults and reconfigures the VMCs to accommodate these faults. Critical data in the 1553 messages are scheduled and synchronized to specific processing frames in order to minimize data latency. In order to achieve an open architecture, military and commercial off-the-shelf equipment is incorporated using common processors, standard VME backplanes and chassis, the VxWorks operating system, and MartixX for automatic code generation. The use of off-the-shelf tools and equipment helps reduce development time and enables software reuse. The open architecture allows for technology insertion, while the distributed modular elements allow for expansion to increased redundancy levels to meet the higher reliability goals of future RLVs.

Reichenfeld, Curtis J.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Reactivation of Latent Viruses in Space

Reactivation of latent viruses is an important health risk for people working and living in physically isolated extreme environments such as Antarctica and space. Preflight quarantine does not significantly reduce the risk associated with latent viruses, however, pharmaceutical countermeasures are available for some viruses. The molecular basis of latency is not fully understood, but physical and psychosocial stresses are known to initiate the reactivation of latent viruses. Presumably, stress induced changes in selected hormones lead to alterations in the cell- mediated immune (CMI) response resulting in increased shedding of latent viruses. Limited access to space makes the use of ground-based analogs essential. The Australian Antarctic stations serve as a good stress model and simulate many aspects of space flight. Closed environmental chambers have been used to simulate space flight since the Skylab missions and have also proven to be a valuable analog of selected aspects of space flight.

Pierson, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Ambient Light Intensity, Actigraphy, Sleep and Respiration, Circadian Temperature and Melatonin Rhythms and Daytime Performance of Crew Members During Space Flight on STS-90 and STS-95 Missions

Sleep disruption and associated waking sleepiness and fatigue are common during space flight. A survey of 58 crew members from nine space shuttle missions revealed that most suffered from sleep disruption, and reportedly slept an average of only 6.1 hours per day of flight as compared to an average of 7.9 hours per day on the ground. Nineteen percent of crewmembers on single shift missions and 50 percent of the crewmembers in dual shift operations reported sleeping pill usage (benzodiazepines) during their missions. Benzodiazepines are effective as hypnotics, however, not without adverse side effects including carryover sedation and performance impairment, anterograde amnesia, and alterations in sleep EEG. Our preliminary ground-based data suggest that pre-sleep administration of 0.3 mg of the pineal hormone melatonin may have the acute hypnotic properties needed for treating the sleep disruption of space flight without producing the adverse side effects associated with benzodiazepines. We hypothesize that pre-sleep administration of melatonin will result in decreased sleep latency, reduced nocturnal sleep disruption, improved sleep efficiency, and enhanced next-day alertness and cognitive performance both in ground-based simulations and during the space shuttle missions. Specifically, we have carried out experiments in which: (1) ambient light intensity aboard the space shuttle is assessed during flight; (2) the impact of space flight on sleep (assessed polysomnographically and actigraphically), respiration during sleep, circadian temperature and melatonin rhythms, waking neurobehavioral alertness and performance is assessed in crew members of the Neurolab and STS-95 missions; (3) the effectiveness of melatonin as a hypnotic is assessed independently of its effects on the phase of the endogenous circadian pacemaker in ground-based studies, using a powerful experimental model of the dyssomnia of space flight; (4) the effectiveness of melatonin as a hypnotic is assessed during the STS-90 (Neurolab) and STS-95 missions in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial. In both flight-based experiments, the effects of melatonin on sleep stages and spectral composition of the EEG during sleep will be determined as well as its effects on daytime alertness and performance; (5) the impact of space flight on sleep and waking neurobehavioral alertness and performance in 30-45-year-old astronauts is compared with its impact in a 77-year-old astronaut. This case study is the first to assess the effects of space flight on an older individual. Because the investigators are still blind to the treatment in this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, preliminary results will be presented independent of the drug condition.

Czeisler, Charles A.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Large-Scale Distributed Computational Fluid Dynamics on the Information Power Grid Using Globus

This paper describes an experiment in which a large-scale scientific application development for tightly-coupled parallel machines is adapted to the distributed execution environment of the Information Power Grid (IPG). A brief overview of the IPG and a description of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) algorithm are given. The Globus metacomputing toolkit is used as the enabling device for the geographically-distributed computation. Modifications related to latency hiding and Load balancing were required for an efficient implementation of the CFD application in the IPG environment. Performance results on a pair of SGI Origin 2000 machines indicate that real scientific applications can be effectively implemented on the IPG; however, a significant amount of continued effort is required to make such an environment useful and accessible to scientists and engineers.

Barnard, Stephen↗
NASA NTRS2000

Statistical Analysis of Risk Factors in the Prebreathe Reduction Protocol

The 165 exposures from four 2-hour protocols were analyzed for correlations or trends between decompression sickness (DCS) or venous gas emboli (VGE), and variables that affect risk in the subject and astronaut populations. The assumption in this global survey is that the distributions of gender, age, body mass index, etc., are equally represented in all four tested procedures. We used Student t-test for comparisons between means and chi-square test between comparisons of proportions with p<0.05 defining a significant level. The type and distribution of the 19 cases of DCS were similar to historical cases. There was no correlation of age, gender, body mass index or fitness level with greater incidence of DCS or VGE. However increased age was associated with more Grade IV VGE in males. The duration and quantity of exercise during prebreathe is inversely related to risk of DCS and VGE. The latency time for VGE was longer (103 min +/- 56 SD, n = 15) when the ergometry was done approximately 15 min into the prebreathe than when done at the start of the prebreathe (53 min +/- 31, n = 13). The order of the ergometry did not influence the overall DCS and VGE incidence. We identified variables other than those of the prebreathe procedures that influence the DCS and VGE outcome. The analysis suggests that males over 40 years have a high incidence of Grade IV VGE.

Gerth, Wayne A.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Relationship of Exercise, Age, and Gender on Decompression Sickness and Venous Gas Emboli During 2-Hour Oxygen Prebreathe Prior to Hypobaric Exposure

We evaluated four 2-hour oxygen prebreathe protocols combining adynamia (non-walking) and 4 different amounts of exercise for potential use with extravehicular activity (EVA) on the International Space Station. Phase I: upper and lower body exercises using dual-cycle ergometry (75% VO2 max for 10 min). Phase 11: same ergometry plus 24 min of light exercise that simulated space suit preparations. Phase III: same 24 min of light exercise but no ergometry, and Phase IV: 56 min of light exercise without ergometry. After 80 min on 100% O2, the subjects breathed 26.5% O2 - 73.5% N2 for 30 min at 10.2 psi. All subjects performed a series of upper body exercises from a recumbent position for 4 hrs at 4.3 psi to simulate EVA work. Venous gas emboli (VGE) were monitored every 12 min using precordial Doppler ultrasound. The 39 female and 126 male exposures were analyzed for correlations between decompression sickness (DCS) or VGE, and risk variables. The duration and quantity of exercise during prebreathe inversely relates to DCS and VGE incidence. The type and distribution of the 19 cases of DCS were similar to historical cases. There was no correlation of age, gender, body mass index, or fitness level with greater incidence of DCS or all VGE. However there were more Grade IV VGE in males > 40 years (10 of 19) than in those =< 40 years (3 of 107), with p<0.01 from Fisher's Exact Chi square The latency time for VGE was longer (103 min +/- 56 SD, n = 15 versus 53 min +/- 31, n =13) when the ergometry occurred about 15 min into the prebreathe than when performed at the start of the prebreathe, but the order of the ergometry did not influence the overall DCS and VGE incidence. An increasing amount of exercise during prebreathes reduced the risk of DCS during subsequent exposures to 4.3 psi. Age, gender, or fitness level did not correlate with the incidence of DCS or VGE (combination of Grades I-IV). However males greater than 40 years had a higher incidence of Grade IV VGE.

Conkin, J.↗
NASA NTRS2001

A Space Based Internet Protocol System for Sub-Orbital Tracking and Control

Personnel from the Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility (GSFC/WFF) in Virginia are responsible for the overall management of the NASA Sounding Rocket Program. Payloads are generally in support of NASA's Space Science Enterprise's missions and return a variety of scientific data as well as providing a reasonably economical means of conducting engineering tests for instruments and devices used on satellites and other spacecraft. The fifteen types of sounding rockets used by NASA can carry payloads of various weights to altitudes from 50 km to more than 1,300 km. Launch activities are conducted not only from established missile ranges, but also from remote locations worldwide requiring mobile tracking and command equipment to be transported and set up at considerable expense. The advent of low earth orbit (LEO) commercial communications satellites provides an opportunity to dramatically reduce tracking and control costs of launch vehicles and Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) by reducing or eliminating this ground infrastructure. Additionally, since data transmission is by packetized Internet Protocol (IP), data can be received and commands initiated from practically any location. A low cost Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) system is currently under development for sounding rockets which also has application to UAVs and scientific balloons. Due to relatively low data rate (9600 baud) currently available, the system will first be used to provide GPS data for tracking and vehicle recovery. Range safety requirements for launch vehicles usually stipulate at least two independent tracking sources. Most sounding rockets flown by NASA now carry GPS receivers that output position data via the payload telemetry system to the ground station. The Flight Modem can be configured as a completely separate link thereby eliminating requirement for tracking radar. The system architecture which integrates antennas, GPS receiver, commercial satellite packet data modem, and a single board computer with custom software is described along with the technical challenges and the plan for their resolution. These include antenna development, high Doppler rates, reliability, environmental ruggedness, hand over between satellites and data security. An aggressive test plan is included which in addition to environmental testing measures bit error rate, latency and antenna patterns. Actual flight tests are planned for the near future on aircraft, long duration balloons and sounding rockets and these results as well as the current status of the project are reported.

Bull, Barton↗
NASA NTRS2001

Telemetry Tracking and Control Through Commercial LEO Satellites

Personnel from the Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility (GSFC/WFF in Virginia have successfully tested commercial LEO communications satellites for sounding rocket, balloon and aircraft flight TT&C. The Flight Modern became a GSFC/WFF Advanced Range Technology Initiative (ARTI) in an effort to streamline TT&C capability to the user community at low cost. Ground tests of the Flight Modem verified duplex communications quality of service and measured transmission latencies. These tests were completed last year and results reported in the John Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) 4th International Symposium on Reducing Spacecraft Costs for Ground Systems and Operations. The second phase of the Flight Modem baseline test program was a demonstration of the ruggedized version of the WFF Flight Modem flown on a sounding rocket launched it the Swedish rocket range (Esrangc) near Kiruna, Sweden, with results contained in this paper. Aircraft flight tests have been and continue to be conducted. Flights of opportunity are being actively pursued with other centers, ranges and users at universities. The WFF Flight Modem contains a CPS receiver to provide vehicle position for tracking and vehicle recovery. The system architecture, which integrates antennas, CPS receiver, commercial satellite packet data modem and a single board computer with custom software, is described. Small satellite use of the WFF Flight Modem is also being investigated, The Flight Modem provides an independent vehicle position source for Range Safety applications. The LEO communication system contains a coarse position location system, which is compared to GPS ace acy. This comparison allows users, to determine the need for a CPS receiver in addition to the satellite packet data modem for their application.

Streich, Ronald C.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Air Traffic Control Improvement Using Prioritized CSMA

Version 7 simulations of the industry-standard network simulation software "OPNET" are presented of two applications of the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN), Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast mode (ADS-B), over VHF Data Link mode 2 (VDL-2). Communication is modeled for air traffic between just three cities. All aircraft are assumed to have the same equipage. The simulation involves Air Traffic Control (ATC) ground stations and 105 aircraft taking off, flying realistic free-flight trajectories, and landing in a 24-hr period. All communication is modeled as unreliable. Collision-less, prioritized carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) is successfully tested. The statistics presented include latency, queue length, and packet loss. This research may show that a communications system simpler than the currently accepted standard envisioned may not only suffice, but also surpass performance of the standard at a lower cost of deployment.

Robinson, Daryl C.↗
NASA NTRS2001

A Space Based Internet Protocol System for Launch Vehicle Tracking and Control

Personnel from the Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility (GSFC/WFF) in Virginia are responsible for the overall management of the NASA Sounding Rocket and Scientific Balloon Programs. Payloads are generally in support of NASA's Space Science Enterprise's missions and return a variety of scientific data as well as providing a reasonably economical means of conducting engineering tests for instruments and devices used on satellites and other spacecraft. Sounding rockets used by NASA can carry payloads of various weights to altitudes from 50 km to more than 1,300 km. Scientific balloons can carry a payload weighing as much as 3,630 Kg to an altitude of 42 km. Launch activities for both are conducted not only from established ranges, but also from remote locations worldwide requiring mobile tracking and command equipment to be transported and set up at considerable expense. The advent of low earth orbit (LEO) commercial communications satellites provides an opportunity to dramatically reduce tracking and control costs of these launch vehicles and Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) by reducing or eliminating this ground infrastructure. Additionally, since data transmission is by packetized Internet Protocol (IP), data can be received and commands initiated from practically any location. A low cost Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) system is currently under development for sounding rockets that also has application to UAVs and scientific balloons. Due to relatively low data rate (9600 baud) currently available, the system will first be used to provide GPS data for tracking and vehicle recovery. Range safety requirements for launch vehicles usually stipulate at least two independent tracking sources. Most sounding rockets flown by NASA now carry GP~ receivers that output position data via the payload telemetry system to the ground station. The Flight Modem can be configured as a completely separate link thereby eliminating the requirement for tracking radar. The system architecture that integrates antennas, GPS receiver, commercial satellite packet data modem, and a single board computer with custom software is described along with the technical challenges and the plan for their resolution. These include antenna development, high Doppler rates, reliability, environmental ruggedness, hand over between satellites, and data security. An aggressive test plan is included which, in addition to environmental testing, measures bit error rate, latency and antenna patterns. Actual launches on a sounding rocket and various aircraft flights have taken place. Flight tests are planned for the near future on aircraft, long duration balloons and sounding rockets. These results, as well as the current status of the project, are reported.

Bull, Barton↗
NASA NTRS1994

High Performance Programming Using Explicit Shared Memory Model on Cray T3D1

The Cray T3D system is the first-phase system in Cray Research, Inc.'s (CRI) three-phase massively parallel processing (MPP) program. This system features a heterogeneous architecture that closely couples DEC's Alpha microprocessors and CRI's parallel-vector technology, i.e., the Cray Y-MP and Cray C90. An overview of the Cray T3D hardware and available programming models is presented. Under Cray Research adaptive Fortran (CRAFT) model four programming methods (data parallel, work sharing, message-passing using PVM, and explicit shared memory model) are available to the users. However, at this time data parallel and work sharing programming models are not available to the user community. The differences between standard PVM and CRI's PVM are highlighted with performance measurements such as latencies and communication bandwidths. We have found that the performance of neither standard PVM nor CRI s PVM exploits the hardware capabilities of the T3D. The reasons for the bad performance of PVM as a native message-passing library are presented. This is illustrated by the performance of NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) programmed in explicit shared memory model on Cray T3D. In general, the performance of standard PVM is about 4 to 5 times less than obtained by using explicit shared memory model. This degradation in performance is also seen on CM-5 where the performance of applications using native message-passing library CMMD on CM-5 is also about 4 to 5 times less than using data parallel methods. The issues involved (such as barriers, synchronization, invalidating data cache, aligning data cache etc.) while programming in explicit shared memory model are discussed. Comparative performance of NPB using explicit shared memory programming model on the Cray T3D and other highly parallel systems such as the TMC CM-5, Intel Paragon, Cray C90, IBM-SP1, etc. is presented.

Simon, Horst D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Evaluation Metrics for the Paragon XP/S-15

On February 17th 1993, the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) facility located at the NASA Ames Research Center installed a 224 node Intel Paragon XP/S-15 system. After its installation, the Paragon was found to be in a very immature state and was unable to support a NAS users' workload, composed of a wide range of development and production activities. As a first step towards addressing this problem, we implemented a set of metrics to objectively monitor the system as operating system and hardware upgrades were installed. The metrics were designed to measure four aspects of the system that we consider essential to support our workload: availability, utilization, functionality, and performance. This report presents the metrics collected from February 1993 to August 1993. Since its installation, the Paragon availability has improved from a low of 15% uptime to a high of 80%, while its utilization has remained low. Functionality and performance have improved from merely running one of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks to running all of them faster (between 1 and 2 times) than on the iPSC/860. In spite of the progress accomplished, fundamental limitations of the Paragon operating system are restricting the Paragon from supporting the NAS workload. The maximum operating system message passing (NORMA IPC) bandwidth was measured at 11 Mbytes/s, well below the peak hardware bandwidth (175 Mbytes/s), limiting overall virtual memory and Unix services (i.e. Disk and HiPPI I/O) performance. The high NX application message passing latency (184 microns), three times than on the iPSC/860, was found to significantly degrade performance of applications relying on small message sizes. The amount of memory available for an application was found to be approximately 10 Mbytes per node, indicating that the OS is taking more space than anticipated (6 Mbytes per node).

Traversat, Bernard↗
NASA NTRS2001

Using EEG To Detect and Monitor Mental Fatigue

This project aims to develop EEG-based methods for detecting and monitoring mental fatigue. Mental fatigue poses a serious risk, even when performance is not apparently degraded. When such fatigue is associated with sustained performance of a single type of cognitive task it may be related to the metabolic energy required for sustained activation of cortical areas specialized for that task. The objective of this study was to adapt EEG to monitor cortical energy over a long period of performance of a cognitive task. Multielectrode event related potentials (ERPs) were collected every 15 minutes in nine subjects who performed a mental arithmetic task (algebraic sum of four randomly generated negative or positive digits). A new problem was presented on a computer screen 0.5 seconds after each response; some subjects endured for as long as three hours. ERPs were transformed to a quantitative measure of scalp electrical field energy. The average energy level at electrode P3 (near the left angular gyrus), 100-300 msec latency, was compared over the series of ERPs. For most subjects, scalp energy density at P3 gradually fell over the period of task performance and dramatically increased just before the subject was unable to continue the task. This neural response can be simulated for individual subjects using, a differential equation model in which it is assumed that the mental arithmetic task requires a commitment of metabolic energy that would otherwise be used for brain activities that are temporarily neglected. Their cumulative neglect eventually requires a reallocation of energy away from the mental arithmetic task.

Montgomery, Leslie↗
NASA NTRS1994

Automated Instrumentation, Monitoring and Visualization of PVM Programs Using AIMS

We present views and analysis of the execution of several PVM codes for Computational Fluid Dynamics on a network of Sparcstations, including (a) NAS Parallel benchmarks CG and MG (White, Alund and Sunderam 1993); (b) a multi-partitioning algorithm for NAS Parallel Benchmark SP (Wijngaart 1993); and (c) an overset grid flowsolver (Smith 1993). These views and analysis were obtained using our Automated Instrumentation and Monitoring System (AIMS) version 3.0, a toolkit for debugging the performance of PVM programs. We will describe the architecture, operation and application of AIMS. The AIMS toolkit contains (a) Xinstrument, which can automatically instrument various computational and communication constructs in message-passing parallel programs; (b) Monitor, a library of run-time trace-collection routines; (c) VK (Visual Kernel), an execution-animation tool with source-code clickback; and (d) Tally, a tool for statistical analysis of execution profiles. Currently, Xinstrument can handle C and Fortran77 programs using PVM 3.2.x; Monitor has been implemented and tested on Sun 4 systems running SunOS 4.1.2; and VK uses X11R5 and Motif 1.2. Data and views obtained using AIMS clearly illustrate several characteristic features of executing parallel programs on networked workstations: (a) the impact of long message latencies; (b) the impact of multiprogramming overheads and associated load imbalance; (c) cache and virtual-memory effects; and (4significant skews between workstation clocks. Interestingly, AIMS can compensate for constant skew (zero drift) by calibrating the skew between a parent and its spawned children. In addition, AIMS' skew-compensation algorithm can adjust timestamps in a way that eliminates physically impossible communications (e.g., messages going backwards in time). Our current efforts are directed toward creating new views to explain the observed performance of PVM programs. Some of the features planned for the near future include: (a) ConfigView, showing the physical topology of the virtual machine, inferred using specially formatted IP (Internet Protocol) packets; and (b) LoadView, synchronous animation of PVM-program execution and resource-utilization patterns.

Mehra, Pankaj↗
NASA NTRS1994

Toward Automatic Scalability Analysis of Message Passing Programs: A Case Study

Scalability analysis forms an important component of any performance debugging cycle, for massively parallel machines. However, tools that help in performing such analysis for parallel programs are non-existent. The primary reason for lack of such tools is the complexity involved in capturing program dynamics such as communication-computation overlap, communication latencies and memory hierarchy reference patterns. In this paper, we highlight some simple techniques that can be used to study scalability of explicit message-passing parallel programs that consider the above issues. We start from the high level source code and use a methodology for deducing communication characteristics and its impact on the total execution time of the program. The approach is validated with the help of a pipelined method for solving scalar tri-diagonal systems, using both simulations and symbolic cost models on the Intel hypercube.

Sarukkai, Sekhar R.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Automated Performance Prediction of Message Passing Parallel Programs

As the trend toward massively parallel processing continues, the need for tools that can predict scalability trends becomes greater. While high level languages Eke HPF have come into greater use, explicit message-passing programs proliferate, and will probably do so for some time, thanks to the onslaught of standards such as MPI. Much work has been done to create simple models that represent important characteristics of parallel programs, such as latency, network contention, and communication volume. But many of these methods still require a substantial manual effort to represent an application in the model's format. The YAPP ("Yet Another Performance Predictor") tool is an attempt to automate the formation of first-order expressions for completion time, with a minimum of programmer assistance. The content of this paper is as follows: First, we explore the implementation details of YAPP, and illustrate with examples some of the reasons that automatic prediction is difficult. In the following sections, we present the results of four applications, using execution traces on the Intel i860, analyze the error in YAPP's predictions, explain the limitations of our implementation, and mention possible future additions. In particular, we illustrate techniques used to identify pipeline communication patterns, and demonstrate how compiler analysis and regression are combined to automate the prediction process.

Block, Robert J.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Automated Instrumentation, Monitoring and Visualization of PVM Programs Using AIMS

We present views and analysis of the execution of several PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine) codes for Computational Fluid Dynamics on a networks of Sparcstations, including: (1) NAS Parallel Benchmarks CG and MG; (2) a multi-partitioning algorithm for NAS Parallel Benchmark SP; and (3) an overset grid flowsolver. These views and analysis were obtained using our Automated Instrumentation and Monitoring System (AIMS) version 3.0, a toolkit for debugging the performance of PVM programs. We will describe the architecture, operation and application of AIMS. The AIMS toolkit contains: (1) Xinstrument, which can automatically instrument various computational and communication constructs in message-passing parallel programs; (2) Monitor, a library of runtime trace-collection routines; (3) VK (Visual Kernel), an execution-animation tool with source-code clickback; and (4) Tally, a tool for statistical analysis of execution profiles. Currently, Xinstrument can handle C and Fortran 77 programs using PVM 3.2.x; Monitor has been implemented and tested on Sun 4 systems running SunOS 4.1.2; and VK uses XIIR5 and Motif 1.2. Data and views obtained using AIMS clearly illustrate several characteristic features of executing parallel programs on networked workstations: (1) the impact of long message latencies; (2) the impact of multiprogramming overheads and associated load imbalance; (3) cache and virtual-memory effects; and (4) significant skews between workstation clocks. Interestingly, AIMS can compensate for constant skew (zero drift) by calibrating the skew between a parent and its spawned children. In addition, AIMS' skew-compensation algorithm can adjust timestamps in a way that eliminates physically impossible communications (e.g., messages going backwards in time). Our current efforts are directed toward creating new views to explain the observed performance of PVM programs. Some of the features planned for the near future include: (1) ConfigView, showing the physical topology of the virtual machine, inferred using specially formatted IP (Internet Protocol) packets: and (2) LoadView, synchronous animation of PVM-program execution and resource-utilization patterns.

Mehra, Pankaj↗
NASA NTRS1995

Automated Performance Prediction of Message-Passing Parallel Programs

The increasing use of massively parallel supercomputers to solve large-scale scientific problems has generated a need for tools that can predict scalability trends of applications written for these machines. Much work has been done to create simple models that represent important characteristics of parallel programs, such as latency, network contention, and communication volume. But many of these methods still require substantial manual effort to represent an application in the model's format. The NIK toolkit described in this paper is the result of an on-going effort to automate the formation of analytic expressions of program execution time, with a minimum of programmer assistance. In this paper we demonstrate the feasibility of our approach, by extending previous work to detect and model communication patterns automatically, with and without overlapped computations. The predictions derived from these models agree, within reasonable limits, with execution times of programs measured on the Intel iPSC/860 and Paragon. Further, we demonstrate the use of MK in selecting optimal computational grain size and studying various scalability metrics.

Block, Robert J.↗