Why CASE should extend into software performance - computer-aided software engineering

Software Magazine, July, 1990 by Connie U. Smith, Lloyd G. Williams

A REFRESHING APPROACH

A product with a refreshing approach to integration--even though it applies in a specialized environment seldom found in MIS applications--is CardTools from Ready Systems.

Likewise, the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Tex., a joint research consortium of U.S. computer manufacturers, has incorporated performance modeling capabilities into Verdi, their visual tool for designing distributed systems. Among other functions, it depicts a color animation of system behavior and reports times (mean, variance, distribution) between start and end markets. Verdi is currently only available to MCC's member companies.

Some vendors of SPE tools are not waiting for Case vendors. The first generation of performance modeling tools were oriented to capacity planners who were familiar with performance models and used them to study hardware trade-offs. However, the new generation of SPE tools is built for developers with some performance modeling skills who wish to use tools for software trade-off studies as well as hardware sizing.

PerSpective from Advanced System Technology in Denver combines elements of both Case and performance modeling tools. Traditional data and control-flow descriptions of software are integrated into stimulus-control-flows that are more amenable to performance evaluation. Specification of hardware architecture completes the information required to produce standard measures of performance using both analytic and discrete event simulation models.

Robert Goettge, president, said, "A prototype version of PerSpective was used to model the U.S. En-route Air Traffic Control software. The software specification consisted of more than 50 stimulus-control flows containing over 2000 modes. Performance predictions were sufficiently accurate that inconsistencies in physical data placement among centers were detected."

Apriori Systems, Inc., Chicago, has announced a tool that will allow software developers to model software performance. The analyst will describe business factors, database and process design and evaluate resulting performance metrics. Apriori plans to offer the product later this year.

Metron, based in the U.K., offers a performance engineering system consisting of an interactive, expert system, Perseus, combined with the firm's Athene systems modeling tool.

Meanwhile, the original vendors of software performance modeling tools, BGS Systems, Inc. (Crystal) and Performance Systems, Inc., Rockville, Md. (Scert II), offer enhancements to their products as users identify desirable new functions. Crystal, for example, provides a flat-file interface that, together with a user-defined translation utility, allows information from Case tools to be imported.

Another new tool bridges the gap between Case and SPE. Design Enhancer, marketed by Applied Computer Research, Phoenix, addresses the logical database design phase. It asks designers questions about the application, the execution environment and the database. It then produces reports suggesting additional data need, critical areas to watch and so forth.