Specification of performance problems in MPI programs with ASL

Performance analysis is an important step in tuning performance critical applications. It is a cyclic process of measuring and analyzing performance data which is driven by the programmers hypotheses on potential performance problems. Currently this process is controlled manually by the programmer. The implicit knowledge applied in this cyclic process must be formalized in order to be reused in the automation of performance analysis tools. This article describes the performance property specification language ASL developed in the APART Esprit IV working group. ASL allows the specification of performance data via an object model and of performance properties via a specially designed notation. Performance bottlenecks can then be identified based on the specification since bottlenecks are viewed as performance properties with a huge negative impact. We present the ASL language in the context of MPI applications.