Performance Analysis and Debugging Tools at Scale

This chapter explores present-day challenges and those likely to arise as new hardware and software technologies are introduced on the path to exascale. It covers some of the underlying hardware, software, and techniques that enable tools and debuggers. Performance tools and debuggers are critical components that enable computational scientists to fully exploit the computing power of While high-performance computing systems. Instrumentation is the insertion of code to perform measurement in a program. It is vital step in performance analysis, especially for parallel programs. The essence of a debugging tool is enabling observation, exploration, and control of program state, such that a developer can, for example, verify that what is currently occurring correlates to what is intended. The increased complexity and volume of performance and debugging data likely to be seen on exascale systems risks overwhelming tool users. Tools and debuggers may need to develop advanced techniques such as automated filtering and analysis to reduce the complexity seen by the user.