+ A joint work between Professors Tim Brecht, Ashif Harji, and + Peter Buhr, this talk describes experiences using the Linux + kernel as a platform for conducting performance evaluations. +
++ Linux provides researchers with a full-fledged operating system that is + widely used and open source. However, due to its complexity and rapid + development, care should be exercised when using Linux for performance + experiments, especially in systems research. The size and continual + evolution of the Linux code-base makes it difficult to understand, and + as a result, decipher and explain the reasons for performance + improvements. In addition, the rapid kernel development cycle means + that experimental results can be viewed as out of date, or meaningless, + very quickly. We demonstrate that this viewpoint is incorrect because + kernel changes can and have introduced both bugs and performance + degradations. +
++ This talk describes some of our experiences using the Linux kernel as a + platform for conducting performance evaluations and some performance + regressions we have found. Our results show, these performance + regressions can be serious (e.g., repeating identical experiments + results in large variability in results) and long lived despite having + a large negative impact on performance (one problem appears to have + existed for more than 3 years). Based on these experiences, we argue + that it is often reasonable to use an older kernel version, + experimental results need careful analysis to explain why a change in + performance occurs, and publishing papers that validate prior research + is essential. +
++ This is joint work with Ashif Harji and Peter Buhr. +
++ This talk will be about 20-25 minutes long with lots of time for + questions and discussion afterwards. +
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