An interactive visualization framework for performance analysis

Input-sensitive profiling is a recent methodology for analyzing how the performance of a routine scales as a function of the workload size. As increasingly more detailed profiles are collected by an input-sensitive profiler, the information conveyed to a user can quickly become overwhelming. In this paper, we present an interactive graphical tool called aprof-plot for visualizing performance profiles. Exploiting curve fitting techniques, aprof-plot can estimate the asymptotic complexity of each routine, pointing the attention of the programmer to the most critical routines of an application. A variety of routine-based charts can be automatically generated by our tool, allowing the developer to analyze the performance scalability of a routine. Several examples based on real-world applications are discussed, showing how to conduct an effective performance investigation using aprof-plot.