Multiple Gantt Chart Visualization for Multi-Dimensional Trace Files

Proformance trace data visualization is a way to understand the performance behavior of
an application on a computer system. In this paper we describe the design and implementation
of a visualization tool, UTE Gantt Chart, for visualizing multi-dimensional trace
files. Particularly we are interested in traces from Message Passing Interface (MPI) programs
and Web servers. Based on a scalable, self-defining interval file format, the visualization
tool is capable of showing multiple time-space diagrams (Gantt Charts), all with a
single click. Since the amount of trace data may be large, utilities are developed to convert
and merge multiple event trace files into one scalable, self-defining interval file for
visualization. The interval format allows the development of multiple time-space diagrams,
such as thread-activity view, CPU-activity view, connected thread-activity view,
thread-CPU view, and CPU-Thread view, all available with a single click.