Modern multiprocessor systems contain a wealth of compute, memory, and communication network resources, such that multiple applications can often successfully execute on and compete for these resources. Unfortunately, good performance for individual applications in addition to achieving overall system efficiency proves a difficult task, especially for applications with low parallel efficiency (speedup per utilized computational core). Limitations to parallel efficiency arise out of factors such as algorithm design, excess synchronization, limitations in hardware resources, and sub-optimal task placement on CPUs.

In this work, we introduce MAPPER, a Manager of Application Parallelism via Performance Efficiency Regulation. MAPPER monitors and coordinates all participating applications by making two coupled decisions: how much parallelism to afford to each application, and which specific CPU cores to schedule applications on. While MAPPER can work for generic applications without modifying their parallel runtimes, we introduce a simple interface that can be used by parallel runtime systems for a tighter integration, resulting in better task granularity control. Using MAPPER can result in up to 3.3X speedup, with an average performance improvement of 20%.