Doi: 10.1145/1498765.1498785
The Roofline model offers insight on how
to improve the performance of software
and hardware.
BY SAmueL WiLLiAmS, AnDRe W WAteRmAn, AnD DAViD PAtteRSon
Roofline:
An insightful
Visual
Performance
model for
multicore
Architectures
conVentional WiSdom in
computer architecture
produced similar designs. Nearly every desktop
and server computer uses caches, pipelining,
superscalar instruction issue, and out-of-order
execution. Although the instruction sets varied, the
microprocessors were all from the same school of
design. The relatively recent switch
to multicore means that microprocessors will become more diverse,
since no conventional wisdom has yet
emerged concerning their design. For
example, some offer many simple processors vs. fewer complex processors,
some depend on multithreading, and
some even replace caches with explic-
itly addressed local stores. Manufacturers will likely offer multiple products with differing numbers of cores
to cover multiple price-performance
points, since Moore’s Law will permit
the doubling of the number of cores
per chip every two years.
4 While diversity may be understandable in this
time of uncertainty, it exacerbates the
APriL 2009 | voL. 52 | no. 4 | communicAtionS of the Acm
65
