An on-line performance visualization technology

We present a new software technology for on-line performance analysis and visualization of complex parallel and distributed systems. Often heterogeneous, these systems need capabilities for flexible integration and configuration of performance analysis and visualization. Our technology is based on an object-oriented framework for rapid prototyping and development of distributable visual objects. The visual objects consist of two levels, a platform/device-specific low level, and an analysis- and visualization-specific high level. We have developed a very high-level, markup language, called VOML, and a compiler for component-based development of high-level visual objects. The VOML is based on a software architecture for on-line event processing and performance visualization called EPIRA. The technology lends itself to constructing high-level visual objects from globally distributed component definitions. We present details of the technology and tools used, and show how an example visual object can be rapidly prototyped from several reusable components.