Source:
IEEE Computer Architecture Letters (2016)
Abstract:
Adding new hardware features to a cloud computing server requires testing both the functionality and the performance of
the new hardware mechanisms. However, commonly used cloud computing server workloads are not well-represented by the SPEC
integer and floating-point benchmark and Parsec suites typically used by the computer architecture community. Existing cloud
benchmark suites for scale-out or scale-up computing are not representative of the most common cloud usage, and are very difficult to
run on a cycle-accurate simulator that can accurately model new hardware, like gem5. In this paper, we present PALMScloud, a suite of
cloud computing benchmarks for performance evaluation of cloud servers, that is ready to run on the gem5 cycle-accurate simulator.
We conduct a behavior characterization and analysis of the benchmarks. We hope that these cloud benchmarks, ready to run on a
dual-machine gem5 simulator or on real machines, can be useful to other researchers interested in improving hardware
micro-architecture and cloud server performance
