By their fruits shall ye know them: A Data Analyst's Perspective on Massively Parallel System Design

Abstract

Increasingly parallel systems promise a remedy for the current stagnation of single-core performance. However, the battle to find the most appropriate architecture for the resulting massively parallel systems is still ongoing. Currently, there are two active contenders: Massively Parallel Single Instruction Multiple Threads (SIMT) systems such as GPGPUs and Many Core Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) systems such as Intel's Xeon Phi. While the former is more versatile, the latter is an efficient, time-tested technology with a clear migration path. In this study, we provide a data management perspective to the debate: we study the implementation and performance of a set of common data management operations on an SIMT device (an Nvidia GTX 780) and compare it to a Many Core SIMD system (an Intel Xeon Phi). We interpret the results to pinpoint architectural decisions and tradeoffs that lead to suboptimal performance and point out potential areas for improvement in the next generation of these devices.