For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 (Order by SD Catalog No. C13.10:401). Price $1.80 As part of the Federal Information Processing Standards Program, One of the Task Groups is FIPS Task Group 10 - Computer Component With this volume, the proceedings of the CPEUG are for the first time being made available in a form that is readily accessible not only to Federal agencies but to the general public as well. This is in recognition of the fact that computer performance evaluation is important not only for Federal ADP installations but also for those of the private sector. It is expected, therefore, that this volume will be useful in improving ADP management through the use of performance evaluation in both the private and public sectors. Acknowledgement is made of the assistance of Dr. Joseph 0. Ruth M. Davis, Ph.D., Director National Bureau of Standards ABSTRACT The Eighth Meeting of the Computer Performance Evaluation Users Group (CPEUG), sponsored by the United States Army Computer Systems Command and the National Bureau of Standards, was held December 4-7, 1973, at NBS, Gaithersburg. The program chairman for this meeting was Merton J. Batchelder of the U.S. Army Computer Systems Command at Fort Belvoir, Virginia 22060 (CSCS-ATA Stop H-14). About 150 attendees at this meeting heard the 17 papers presented on computer performance, evaluation and measurement. Among the papers presented were those dealing with hardware and software monitors, workload definition and benchmarking, a report of FIPS Task Force 13, computer scheduling and evaluation in time-sharing as well as MVT environment, human factors in performance analysis, dollar effectiveness in evaluation, simulation techniques in hardware allocation, a FEDSIM status report as well as other related topics. These proceedings represent a major source in the limited literature on computer performance, evaluation and measurement. Key words: Computer evaluation; computer performance; computer scheduling; hardware monitors; simulation of computer systems; software monitors; systems design and evaluation; time-sharing systems evaluation PREFACE The evolution and rapid growth of computer performance, evaluation and measurement has been the result of an amalgam of developments in the computer field, namely: the growing complexity of modern digital computer systems; the refinement of both multiprogramming and multiprocessing capabilities of an increasing number of computer systems; ⚫ the concomitant expansion and complexity of systems programming; the accelerated trend toward the establishment of computer networks; the myriad of applications programs in business, technical, scientific, industrial and military fields; and the emphasis on massive data bases for information retrieval, data analysis, and administrative management. lem of exact specification is made the more difficult by the recent birth and development of computer performance, evaluation and measurement as a discipline within computer science. Among the early practitioners of this discipline were the members of CPEUG [Computer Performance Evaluation Users Group], individuals from many United States Governmental agencies involved in various phases of this field. At about the same time, there were a number of academicians as well as analysts from business and industry working in this area, and this gave rise to the formation within the Association for Computing Machinery of SIGME [ Special Interest Group in Measurement and Evaluation] which is currently known as SIGMETRICS. In its formative period of growth, computer performance, evaluation and measurement has relied heavily upon modeling and simulation. It has been concerned with the design of computer systems as well as the analysis of the behavior of these systems. The analyst, on the one hand, has used simulation to secure detailed information about a system that he has created, or about which his knowledge is limited. On the other hand, the analyst has used simulation to test various hypotheses about the system in an effort to improve its performance. It is a quixotic hope that as this discipline grows it will become more interdisciplinary and involve the work not only of modelers, simulators and statisticians, but also behavioral scientists, economic analysts and management scientists. Computer performance, evaluation and measurement is replete with benefits for the computer community the manufacturer of modern electronic processing equipment, the user of that equipment, especially the manager responsible for the complete operations, as well as the purchasers of this equipment. It is cap able of providing many urgently needed answers |