A quantitative measure of portability with application to bandwidth-latency models for parallel computing

We introduce a novel methodology for the quantitative assessment of the effectiveness and portability of models of parallel computation. Specifically, we relate the effectiveness of a model M, adopted for algorithm design, with respect to a platform M’, where algorithms developed for M are ultimately executed, to the product of cross-simulation slowdowns between M and M’. The portability of M with respect to a class of platforms can be estimated by its minimum effectiveness over the platforms in the class. We apply our methodology to assess the portability of enhanced variants of the BSP model with respect to processor networks, with particular emphasis on multidimensional arrays.