High-level application-specific performance analysis using the G-PM tool

The paper presents an approach to overcome a traditional problem of parallel performance analysis tools: performance data often are too low level and cannot easily be mapped to the application’s code structure, e.g. its execution phases. The G-PM tool offers the user an easy but flexible means to define her/his own high-level, application specific metrics based on existing metrics and application events. We discuss the basic concepts of G-PM from the user’s point of view, its design, and some implementation issues, including the language PMSL which supports the specification of user-defined metrics. In the main part of the paper, we present a case study based on a real world medical application from the EU funded CrossGrid project, which demonstrates the concept of user-defined metrics as well as its usefulness in practice.