Is the PCM Ready for ACTORs and Multicore CPUs? — A Use Case-based Evaluation

Abstract

Multicore CPUs have been common for years. However, developing parallel software is still an issue. To ease the development, software developers can use a range of frameworks and approaches, e.g., OpenMP, MPI or ACTOR. These approaches have an enormous impact on the performance of the software. Thus, Software Performance Engineering (SPE) needs to consider the impact of the parallelization approaches to deliver reliable results. In this paper, we evaluate the capability of the Palladio Component Model1 (PCM) based on the use case of a bank transaction example with a realization following the ACTOR approach. We observed that the accuracy of the performance predictions is unsatisfying, the modeling is challenging, and the characteristics of the ACTOR approach cannot be modeled. In future we need to consider additional attributes or properties to enrich the PCM as well to include concepts like active resources, message passing, and automatization concepts.