Speaker
Professor J. Nelson Amaral, Department of Computer Science, University of Alberta
Topic
Tuning Serialization Policies in Hardware Transactional Memory
Abstract
Best-Effort Hardware Transactional Memory (BE-HTM) systems require non-speculative fallback policies, or serialization managers, in order to provide a guarantee of forward progress to each transaction. There are several choices of serialization managers that can be used to build a BE-HTM system. Most serialization managers have one or more parameters that change their behaviour. Several published studies compare two or more alternative serialization managers, but do not explore the tuning of these manager parameters. In this talk I will present evidence, based on experimentation with the IBM Blue Gene/Q machine, to support the claim that the tuning of parameters for a serialization manager is very important and that (1) a fair comparison of serialization managers must explore their tuning; and (2) tuning is essential for each new HTM design point and for each type of application target.
Speaker's biography
Jose Nelson Amaral is a professor in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta. He is the head of the Compiler Design and Optimization Laboratory. His areas of expertise also includes high-performance computing and computer architecture. He has published extensively in venues with peer-reviewing in these areas. Amaral is a senior member of the IEEE and ACM and has received the designation of Distinguished Engineer from ACM. In 2012 he was selected as "Faculty Fellow of the Year" by the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies in Toronto. Amaral is also currently a Director of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC).
Invited by Professor Sebastian Fischmeister