FAST: A Functional Algoritm Simulation Testbed

In this paper we extend the practical range of simulations of parallel executions by what we call \func-tional algorithm simulation," that is, simulation without actually performing most of the numerical computations involved. We achieve this by introducing a new approach for generating and collecting communication and computation characteristics for a class of parallel scientiic algorithms. We describe FAST (Fast Algorithm Simulation Testbed), a prototype system that we developed to implement and test our approach. FAST overcomes some of the diiculties imposed by the very high complexity of interesting sci-entiic algorithms, collects proole information representative of the algorithms rather than the underlying mapping strategies and hardware-design choices, and allows a performance assessment of parallel machines with various sizes and diierent interconnection schemes.