Performance Tools

TAU (Tuning and Analysis Utilities)

TAU Performance System is a portable profiling and tracing toolkit for performance analysis of parallel programs written in Fortran, C, C++, Java, Python. Applications can be instrumented at the source code level using an automatic instrumentor tool based on the PDT (Program Database Toolkit), dynamically using DyninstAPI, at runtime in the Java virtual machine, or manually using the instrumentation API.

Learn about TAU:

• S. Shende and A. D. Malony, "The TAU Parallel Performance System" paper International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, SAGE Publications, 20(2):287-331, Summer 2006

• Visit TAU's website for more information.

PAPI (Performance Application Programming Interface)

PAPI aims to provide the tool designer and application engineer with a consistent interface and methodology for use of the performance counter hardware found in most major microprocessors. PAPI enables software engineers to see, in near real time, the relation between software performance and processor events.

Learn about PAPI

• Wolf, F., Mohr, B. "Hardware-Counter Based Automatic Performance Analysis of Parallel Programs" Proc. of the Minisymposium 'Performance Analysis', Conference on Parallel Computing (PARCO), Elsevier, Dresden, Germany, September 3, 2003.
• Visit PAPI's website for more information.

KOJAK

KOJAK is a performance-analysis tool for parallel applications supporting the programming models MPI, OpenMP, SHMEM, and combinations thereof. Its functionality addresses the entire analysis process including instrumentation, post-processing of performance data, and result presentation. It is based on the idea of automatically searching event traces of parallel applications for execution patterns indicating inefficient behavior. The patterns are classified by category and their significance is quantified for every program phase and system resource involved. The results are made available to the user in a flexible graphical user interface, where they can be investigated on varying levels of granularity.

• Publications
• Visit KOJAK's website for more information.

PerfSuite

PerfSuite is a collection of tools, utilities, and libraries for software performance analysis where the primary design goals are ease of use, comprehensibility, interoperability, and simplicity. This software can provide a good "entry point" for more detailed performance analysis and can help point the way towards selecting other tools and/or techniques using more specialized software if necessary (for example, tools/libraries from academic research groups or third-party commercial software).

• Publications
• Visit PerfSuite's website for more information.