Identification

Title

Context Switch Time Scalability: Benchmark Results

Abstract

The work a computer system performs to temporarily suspend execution of one process and resume execution of another process is called a context switch. The time it takes for a computer system to perform a context switch is often cited as an important performance metric. Lengthy context switch time can result in poor performance in process-intensive applications such as distributed servers or interactive systems. However, context switch time is usually assumed to be constant for a particular system. This document describes a benchmark program which shows that for many systems this is not the case. The program was run on a variety of UNIXï¿½ï¿½-based systems at NCAR, and the results are given in both tabular and graphical form. They show that for many systems, context switch time increases, sometimes dramatically, with the number of concurrent processes running in the system. This non-scalability of context switch times leads to diminishing returns when, for example, upgrading to a faster processor in order to support more interactive users.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7z60nfk

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

1992-01-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact