Dartmouth SSF 1.0.5 Release Note

Dartmouth SSF (DaSSF)

Version 1.0.5

Release Note

Dartmouth SSF (DaSSF) is a process-oriented, conservatively synchronized parallel simulator, which is designed for but not exclusively for simulating very large scale multiprotocol communication networks. DaSSF is a C++ implementation of Scalable Simulation Framework (SSF), with the goal of achieving scalability, manageability, and portability for complex simulation models. Check out Dartmouth SSF Homepage for more detail.

This is version 1.0 of Dartmouth Scalable Simulation Framework. This distribution includes source code for the runtime system, example applications, as well as supporting documentation.

DaSSF is free software, see copyright notice at the end of this page for copying permission. DaSSF is distributed with open source. You can download Dartmouth SSF here.

New Features

InstantOutChannel class is provided that supports zero-time delay channel. Instead of having a positive channel delay, the user can provide a positive appointment delay. Refer to ssfext/instoutchannel.h for detail.

Also, modifications to the runtime system is made to allow global variables being shared, though there are still technical difficulties making it as fast as it was before on some of the platforms. On some platforms, it seems to be the only way to have the global variables shared using threads. The following table summarizes the up-to-date information on all available architectures.

Architecture Manage
Shared^* Manage
Private^** Comments

osf with gnu ld no yes ldscript, untested

without gnu ld yes no private globals

osf-thread no yes -ffixed-9

irix native compiler no yes sprocs() with PR_SALL

gnu compiler yes no private globals, crashed otherwise

irix-thread native compiler no yes getspecific()

gnu compiler no yes both -ffixed-23 and getspecific() crashed!

solaris with gnu ld no yes ldscript, untested

without gnu ld yes no private globals

solaris-thread no yes -ffixed-g5 crashed!

linux with gnu ld no yes ldscript

without gnu ld yes no untested, impossible?

linux-thread no yes getspecific()

cygwin32 yes no private globals

Architecture	Manage Shared^*	Manage Private^**	Comments
osf	with gnu ld	no	yes	ldscript, untested
without gnu ld	yes	no	private globals
osf-thread	no	yes	-ffixed-9
irix	native compiler	no	yes	sprocs() with PR_SALL
gnu compiler	yes	no	private globals, crashed otherwise
irix-thread	native compiler	no	yes	getspecific()
gnu compiler	no	yes	both -ffixed-23 and getspecific() crashed!
solaris	with gnu ld	no	yes	ldscript, untested
without gnu ld	yes	no	private globals
solaris-thread	no	yes	-ffixed-g5 crashed!
linux	with gnu ld	no	yes	ldscript
without gnu ld	yes	no	untested, impossible?
linux-thread	no	yes	getspecific()
cygwin32	yes	no	private globals

* "Manage Shared" refers to whether special mechanism must be provided to make global variables shared across multiple processors. An "yes" answer means global variables must be treated differently in order to make it shared. This is taken cared of in the runtime system. However, in user code, this means global variables are actually private (because there's no such mechanism available to the user). An "no" answer means global variables are shared by default. Therefore, user global variables are shared as expected.

** "Manage Private" means some special mechanism must be provided to access data that is private to the running processor. Only runtime system should concern about this option.

Architectures Supported

As for this release, DaSSF supports the following architectures:

SGI Origin 2000/IRIX
SGI PowerChallenge/IRIX
SGI Indy/IRIX
SUN Sparc SMP/SOLARIS
DEC Alpha/OSF
INTEL i386/LINUX
INTEL i386/WINDOWS (using Cygwin32)

Parallelization is fully supported on all these platforms.

Directory Structure of the Distribution

The distribution should contain following directories listed alphabetically. Some of the directories may not be part of your distribution for the sake of limited space.

app example applications

bin utility executables (internal use)

config configurations for all supported platforms (internal use)

doc documentations

include standard header files

lib runtime libraries

p4 DaSSF preprocessing scripts (internal use)

src source code for runtime system

tst tests

Installation

The basic compilation steps are as follows, though further configuration can be performed by passing arguments in step 1. We'll get into that in the next session.

make reset
This will tide up the directory tree, just in case;
./configure
This step configures DaSSF with the correct configuration. It will check all the system requirements for DaSSF on the architecture you are using.
make
This step will build the runtime system;
make examples
This step is optional unless you want to build all the examples distributed with the release;

Local Configuration

Local configuration can be perform at the time when you're running ./configure, by passing arguments to this program. The system will then set the correct flags and put them in a configuration file (i.e. config/Makefile.common). This file will be included by all Makefiles, which in turn affects the compilation. When you configure a new set of options, remember to recompile the runtime system and your application. For example, if you want to disable debugging and runtime checking so to run simulation faster, you may do the following:

    % ./configure --disable-debug --disable-scrutiny
    % make reset; make
    % cd your-app-dir; make reset; make depend; make

Global definitions

The following switches are listed along with their usage. These pre-definitions are universal, independent of the architecture selected:

--enable-debug --disable-debug Enable/disable debugging information. (Default: --disable-debug)

--enable-scrutiny --disable-scrutiny Enable/disable runtime checking. This may slow down simulation when enabled. (Default: --enable-scrutiny)

--enable-stats --disable-stats Enable/disable collection of statistics. (Default: --enable-stats)

--with-central --without-central --with-collective --without-collective --with-distributed --without-distributed Different stealing schemes adopted by the runtime system. It's experimental. Ignore it if you don't know what it is doing. (Default: --with-central)

--with-native --without-native Compiling rts with native compiler or not, if the native compiler is available. Using native compiler is usually faster than GNU C/C++ (at least, it is so on SGI). (Default: --with-native)

--with-thread --without-thread Using POSIX threads or UNIX processes. This is used to choose the SSF architecture used. See the table for supported architectures for detail. (Default: --without-thread)

Definitions for SGI/IRIX

--with-fastm --without-fastm Link with/without fast math library (-lfastm). (Default: --without-fastm)

--with-dplace --without-dplace Whether or not use memory placement library. This feature is only available on SGI Origin 2000, the system will detect whether you can use it or not automatically. (Default: --without-dplace)

Definitions for SUN/SOLARIS

--with-sparc-V9 --without-sparc-V9 Whether or not use compiler options for Sparc V9 processors. Compilation error will result if the machine does not allow V9 ISA. (Default: --without-sparc-V9)

Copyright

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any individual or institution obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to use, copy, modify, and distribute without restriction, provided that this copyright and permission notice is maintained, intact, in all copies and supporting documentation.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL DARTMOUTH COLLEGE BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

app	example applications
bin	utility executables (internal use)
config	configurations for all supported platforms (internal use)
doc	documentations
include	standard header files
lib	runtime libraries
p4	DaSSF preprocessing scripts (internal use)
src	source code for runtime system
tst	tests

`--enable-debug --disable-debug`	Enable/disable debugging information. (Default: `--disable-debug`)
`--enable-scrutiny --disable-scrutiny`	Enable/disable runtime checking. This may slow down simulation when enabled. (Default: `--enable-scrutiny`)
`--enable-stats --disable-stats`	Enable/disable collection of statistics. (Default: `--enable-stats`)
`--with-central --without-central --with-collective --without-collective --with-distributed --without-distributed`	Different stealing schemes adopted by the runtime system. It's experimental. Ignore it if you don't know what it is doing. (Default: `--with-central`)
`--with-native --without-native`	Compiling rts with native compiler or not, if the native compiler is available. Using native compiler is usually faster than GNU C/C++ (at least, it is so on SGI). (Default: `--with-native`)
`--with-thread --without-thread`	Using POSIX threads or UNIX processes. This is used to choose the SSF architecture used. See the table for supported architectures for detail. (Default: `--without-thread`)

`--with-fastm --without-fastm`	Link with/without fast math library (-lfastm). (Default: `--without-fastm`)
`--with-dplace --without-dplace`	Whether or not use memory placement library. This feature is only available on SGI Origin 2000, the system will detect whether you can use it or not automatically. (Default: `--without-dplace`)