Towards the automated generation of hard disk models through physical geometry discovery

S. A. Wright*, S. J. Pennycook, S. A. Jarvis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

As the High Performance Computing industry moves towards the exascale era of computing, parallel scientific and engineering applications are becoming increasingly complex. The use of simulation allows us to predict how an application's performance will change with the adoption of new hardware or software, helping to inform procurement decisions. In this paper, we present a disk simulator designed to predict the performance of read and write operations to a single hard disk drive (HDD). Our simulator uses a geometry discovery benchmark (Diskovery) in order to estimate the data layout of the HDD, as well as the time spent moving the read/write head. We validate our simulator against two different HDDs, using a benchmark designed to simulate common disk read and write patterns, demonstrating accuracy to within 5% of the observed I/O time for sequential operations, and to within 10% of the observed time for seek-heavy workloads.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2012 SC Companion
Subtitle of host publicationHigh Performance Computing, Networking Storage and Analysis, SCC 2012
Pages437-445
Number of pages9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Event2012 SC Companion: High Performance Computing, Networking Storage and Analysis, SCC 2012 - Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Duration: 10 Nov 201216 Nov 2012

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2012 SC Companion: High Performance Computing, Networking Storage and Analysis, SCC 2012

Conference

Conference2012 SC Companion: High Performance Computing, Networking Storage and Analysis, SCC 2012
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySalt Lake City, UT
Period10/11/1216/11/12

Keywords

  • Data Storage Systems
  • File Systems
  • High Performance Computing
  • I/O
  • Simulation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computational Theory and Mathematics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Software

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Towards the automated generation of hard disk models through physical geometry discovery'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this