Introduction to Computer System Performance Evaluation

by Krishna Kant

Book Overview

Designed for use in graduate courses in systems performance, systems modelling, advanced operating systems, computer networks and or queuing theory, this text explores performance modelling and analysis techniques needed by computer architects and systems analysts to evaluate systems.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0070335869
• ISBN13: 9780070335868
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 612 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.8" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Somewhat dated...but still has much to offer

This book is now ten years old but it still has much to say regarding the mathematical and simulation modeling of computer systems. In addition, many of the results in the book are directly relevant to computer network modeling and simulation, the latter taking on enormous importance due to the explosion of the Internet and of ever-changing WAN technologies. Also, the author devotes a lot of time to the validation and calibration of performance models. This is a topic that is usually glossed over in other books on the subject. Chapter 1 is an introduction to performance measures and evaluation techniques. It is out of date in some places, due to the hardware and operating systems the author discusses at various places in the book, these being available at the time at which the book was written. The SPEC benchmarking standard is discussed, but this benchmark has changed considerably since the book was written, and now has its own website. The author is careful to note the difficulties in applying performance evaluation measures used for single processor machines to those with highly parallel architectures. In chapter 2 the author discusses hardware, software, and hybrid measurement techniques for measuring computer system performance. "Primitive" measurements are defined, and he explains how a condition for measurement can be recognized as sampled or trace monitoring. The pitfalls involved in performing measurements in these three techniques are discussed, along with other issues that effect measurement. One of the most interesting points the author makes here regards the use of the performance index and its connection with the control parameter. The next chapter is very useful for those who need to do simulation modeling. Since such modeling is dependent on random number generation, the author discusses this along with the statistical data analysis techniques that must be used when analyzing the results of these simulations. He describes three different ways to organize simulation runs, and how to choose the input factors to make the simulations less time-consuming. And, regression analysis, so important to performance modeling, is treated in great detail, along with variance reduction techniques. Queuing theory, of upmost importance in computer and network modeling, is discussed in chapter 4. The open and closed models are treated in detail, and the performance parameters of queues delineated. The throughput, utilization, and arrival laws, along with the famous Little's law are derived. The reader involved in Web server performance modeling will benefit greatly from the reading of this chapter. And, most importantly, the author discusses techniques for validating queuing models, a rare undertaking in books on this subject. The dialog gets much more mathematical in chapter 5, which discusses the stochastic processes of isolated X/Y/c queues, for X the interarrival-time distribution, Y the service-time distribution, and c the number of serve