The Power status dialog supports up to sixty-four simultaneous isolation threads. Serious power!
In this example, diagnostics are being calculated on a system that supports thirty-two processing threads, all of which have been enabled for this run. For each enabled thread, the number of isolation tests and the percentage complete is displayed. In addition to the enable button, each
thread also has a yellow “display” button. If you click on this button, then the detailed calculation status for that thread will be displayed in the yellow window at the bottom of the dialog.
Diagnostics calculated using the Power dialog have been calibrated to optimize performance for a large number of parallel threads. As the number of threads increase, however, you can run into situations where threads finish faster than new ones can be launched. To reduce the time that each processor is idle (waiting for a thread to be launched), multiple isolation sequences can be generated within each thread. The number of sequences remaining to be calculated for each thread is displayed on that thread’s yellow “display” button. The number of active threads—as well as the number of isolation sequences currently being assigned to newly-launched threads
(the “Load”)—is displayed in the center of the dialog:
In this example, 32 threads are in progress and the isolation sequences for 6 detection tests will be calculated within each newly-added thread.
Although the slider in this section of the dialog can be used to manually set the load for newly- added threads, you may be better off (at least at first) if you let eXpress adjust the load based on performance. When the time that completed threads “wait” to be re-launched is relatively long, the load will be automatically increased to maximize CPU usage. When the idle time is relatively short, the load will be automatically decreased to maximize parallel processing. Moreover, as the calculation of isolation sequences approaches its end, the load will be automatically reduced so that the maximum number of threads will be used for as long as possible.
Because all large systems are not the same, eXpress provides you with the ability to customize the various parameters used by the automatic load adjustment routines. This is done using the Power Isolation Thread Options dialog, which can be invoked either from the Diagnostic Options dialog or (as isolation is calculated) directly from the Power thread dialog.
