A simple process for migrating server applications to SMP : s

A strong focus on quality attributes such as maintainability and flexibilit y has resulted in a number of new methodologies, e.g., object-oriented and component-based design, which can significantly limit the application perfo rmance. A major challenge is to fmd solutions that balance and optimize the quality attributes, e.g., symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) performance contr a maintainability and flexibility. We have studied three large real-time te lecommunication server applications developed by Ericsson. In all these app lications maintainability is strongly prioritized. The applications are als o very demanding with respect to performance due to real-time requirements on throughput and response time. SMP:s and multithreading are used in order to give these applications a high and scalable performance. Our main findi ng is that dynamic memory management is a major bottleneck in these types o f applications. The bottleneck can, however, be removed using memory alloca tors optimized for SMP:s or by reducing the number of allocations. We found that the number of allocations can be significantly reduced by using alter native design strategies for maintainability and flexibility. Based on our experiences we have defined a simple guideline-based process with the aim o f helping designers of server applications to establish a balance between S MP performance, maintainability and flexibility. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.