Paje, an interactive visualization tool for tuning multi-threaded parallelapplications

This paper describes Paje, an interactive visualization tool for displaying the execution of parallel applications where a potentially large number of communicating threads of various life-times execute on each node of a dist ributed memory parallel system. Paje is capable of representing a wide vari ety of interactions between threads. The main characteristics of Paje, inte ractivity and scalability, are exemplified by the performance tuning of a m olecular dynamics application. In order to be easily extensible, the archit ecture of the system was based on components which are connected in a data flow graph to produce a given visualization tool. Innovative components wer e designed, in addition to "classical" components existing in similar visua lization systems, to support scalability and interactivity. (C) 2000 Elsevi er Science B.V. All rights reserved.