Performance Testing - Performance measurements displayed

Performance Testing

Overview

Performance measurements displayed by the Windows Task Manager show that both processors in a dual-core system are 50% busy even when the system is empty and idle before the load has been applied. Clicking on the  Processes tab shows that there is a polling process whose processor utilization is 100%. The polling process is intended to check if an arriving message queue is nonempty, and then forward any waiting messages to an application process for handling. An examination of the design document reveals that the polling process should repeatedly check the queue to see if a message has arrived, and then forward it for processing elsewhere. The specification contains no statement about how often polling must occur or about how the polling process should behave as long as the queue is empty. Neither does the corresponding functional requirement.

Requirements

Write a 4–6-page paper in which you:

· Explain why the displayed CPU utilization of a single process is 100% while the utilization of both processors is only 50%. What feature of the operating system might make this possible?

· Explain a design change to the polling process that will fix the CPU utilization problem and why it does not impose a theoretical constraint on the maximum polling rate.

· Propose a concise and focused performance test plan that you will use to check that the remedy works as desired once it has been implemented. Use specific examples.

· Explain the undesirable impact on the function, capacity, and performance of the system if the problem is not urgently fixed, and fully discuss a root cause for each.

· Conclusion