System-Level Performance Metrics for Multiprogram Workloads

Assessing the performance of multiprogram workloads running on multithreaded hardware is difficult because it involves a balance between single-program performance and overall system performance. This article argues for developing multiprogram performance metrics in a top-down fashion starting from system-level objectives. The authors propose two performance metrics: average normalized turnaround time, a user-oriented metric, and system throughput, a system-oriented metric.