The PARSEC benchmark suite: characterization and architectural implications

ABSTRACT

This paper presents and characterizes the Princeton Application Repository for Shared-Memory Computers (PARSEC), a benchmark suite for studies of Chip-Multiprocessors (CMPs). Previous available benchmarks for multiprocessors have focused on high-performance computing applications and used a limited number of synchronization methods. PARSEC includes emerging applications in recognition, mining and synthesis (RMS) as well as systems applications which mimic large-scale multithreaded commercial programs. Our characterization shows that the benchmark suite covers a wide spectrum of working sets, locality, data sharing, synchronization and off-chip traffic. The benchmark suite has been made available to the public.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.0 GENERAL

General Terms:
Experimentation, Measurement, Performance

Keywords:
benchmark suite, multithreading, performance measurement, shared-memory computers