Abstract

We propose a unified, low-overhead framework (ULF) to support continuous system profiling and optimization based on a specifically designed embedded board. Instead of building a new profiling tool from scratch, ULF provides a unified interface to integrate various existing profiling tools and optimizers, and helps to easily build future tools. ULF uses an embedded processor to offload tasks of post-processing profiling data, which reduces system overhead caused by profiling tools and makes ULF especially suitable for continuous profiling on production systems. By processing the profiling data in parallel and providing feedback promptly, ULF supports on-line optimization. Our case study on I/O profiling demonstrated that ULFenhanced profiling tool dramatically reduces overhead making continuous profiling on production systems feasible. Key words: Embedded system, continuous profiling, on-line optimization, performance evaluation 1

Citations