The roofline model: A pedagogical tool for program analysis and optimization

Abstract

This article consists of a collection of slides from the authors' conference presentation. The Roofline model is a visually intuitive figure for kernel analysis and optimization. The authors believe undergraduates will find it useful in assessing performance and scalability limitations. It is easily extended to other architectural paradigms. It is easily extendable to other metrics: performance (sort, graphics, crypto...) bandwidth (L2, PCIe, ...). A performance counters could be used to generate a runtime-specific roofline that would greatly aide the optimization.