Definition of Success

• Goal is performance

  • Why else buy more CPUs?
  • However, performance is a nebulous concept
    • Very specific to workload
  • Systems programming is rife with trade-offs

• “Speed up”

  • Measurement of workload performance as number of CPUs increase
  • Ratio of score on N processors to score on 1

• Two goals for the OS

  • Don't get in the way of application speed-up
  • Facilitate application speed-up