Future software design is also memory design. We have been studying the performance of the Windows NT operating system running on Alpha computers. The technique we use, PatchWrx, is focussed on understanding operating system performance, but may be applied to user code also. The technique involves patching all the binary executables of the operating system to record all the branching behavior, then postprocessing to reconstruct the entire dynamic instruction and data streams. Direct measurements of the SQLserver database application reveal that its memory access pattern is indistinguishable from white noise, and that caches therefore don't work.
Pointer structures are death.
He joined Digital in 1980, and has worked on VAX microcode, the Alpha architecture, and binary translation. Prior to 1980, he worked at IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Burroughs, and taught Computer Science at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Sites received a B.S. in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University, and studied Computer Architecture at the University of North Carolina. He holds 19 patents on computer hardware and software inventions, and is co-editor of The Alpha Architecture Reference Manual.