Special Issue on

Performance Modeling and Evaluation of
High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Systems

to appear in Elsevier

Performance Evaluation: An International Journal

The world's unfulfilled appetite for high computation power, supported by advances in VLSI and communications technology as well as algorithms, has led to the rapid deployment of a wide range of parallel and distributed systems. Many factors affect the performance of these systems, including the processors and hardware architecture, the communication network, the various system software components, and the mapping of end-user applications and their algorithms to the architecture. Analyzing performance factors in such systems has proven to be a challenging task that requires the innovative performance analysis tools and methods to keep up with the rapid evolution and ever increasing complexity of such systems. Along the line of three major evaluation techniques: measurement, analytic modeling and simulation, this special issue will cover various topics on quantitative modeling, simulation and measurement/testing of parallel and distributed systems. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Integrated performance tool environments
• Analytical modeling
• Performance measurement and monitoring
• Performance tuning and testing
• Performance metrics
• Innovative and parallel simulation techniques and tools
• Performance predictions
• Workload characterization and traffic modeling
• Performance of memory systems
• I/O Interconnects
• Performance of communication networks
• Performance-directed system design
• Performance implications of parallel and distributed systems
• Case studies of in-depth performance analysis on existing systems
• System case studies showing the role of performance tools in the design of systems
• Educational performance tools for parallel and distributed systems

Prospective authors are invited to submit their original and previously unpublished papers to any one of the guest editors by December 1, 2003. The authors are encouraged to submit by e-mail an electronic copy of the paper in pdf or ps format. If electronic submission is not possible, six hard copies of the manuscript should be submitted. Contributed papers may not exceed 25 double-spaced pages including all figures and illustrations. The first page of the submission should include the title, the names and affiliations of the authors, including complete postal and e-mail addresses, telephone, and fax numbers, a 150-word abstract, and 5-7 index terms (keywords). Submitted papers will undergo the standard review procedures of the journal of Performance Evaluation.