Topic 02, performance evaluation and prediction

The performance of parallel and distributed systems and applications—its evaluation, analysis, and optimization—is at once a fundamental topic for research investigation and a technological problem that requires innovations in tools and techniques to keep pace with system and application evolution. This dual view of performance “science” and performance “technology” jointly spans broad fields of performance modelling, evaluation, instrumentation, measurement, analysis, monitoring, optimization, and prediction. Fourteen research papers were submitted to this workshop of which eight were selected for inclusion in the conference. The topics covered by the accepted papers have quite a broad range, which reflects the applicability of performancerelated topics at all levels of computing systems from architecture and networking through to high level application development in the many programming paradigms which are in current use. A continuing challenge to the area is to seek abstractions and generic techniques which apply across these boundaries. Two themes particularly dominate the accepted papers and these form the basis of the two sessions of the Topic: first, the prediction of performance and performance modelling, and second, techniques to analyse actual performance and practical reports of analyses in specific cases.