A tool to assess the communication cost of parallel kernels on heterogeneous platforms

Ensuring applications to achieve an efficient usage of resources and fast execution time in the complex current heterogeneous high-performance computing platforms is a paramount problem. Essential efforts to reach the goal are the optimal partitioning of the data space between the processes composing a typical task/data-parallel application, and their right mapping and deployment on the platform. The computational and communication performance modeling describing the platform and the application behaviors is an increasingly recognized approach. This paper discusses the utility of the \(\uptau\)–Lop analytic communication performance model in facing these issues and contributes with a practical symbolic computation tool that represents, manipulates and accurately evaluates the formal communication cost expression derived from a hybrid kernel. We identify a set of scenarios where the tool could be applied, provide with both basic and advanced use examples and evaluate the tool on real-life kernels.