Norbert Manthey nmanthey@conp-solutions.com
The goal of SpecSAT is to understand how well a SAT solver performs on a given hardware platform. This is done be running a fixed SAT solver on a fixed set of benchmark formulas, and measuring the wall clock time this computation takes.
Besides benchmarking hardware configuration, also other features of the platform or even the solver implementation can be benchmarked. An example list of features is using "huge pages" for memory management, using the prefetching unit of the CPU, using different compilation flags, or even use different layout of the data structures within the SAT solver (without influencing its search steps). To use a stable build, docker is used to create the SAT solver binary.
As parallel SAT solvers allow to run different solving configurations in parallel, we also measure how well a parallel solver performs on the given architecture - both when using the number of all CPUS, as well as using only physical CPUS (i.e. excluding logical CPUs).
To just benchmark your hardware, use the below command. This will run all measurements inside a python virtual environment. A report of your setup will automatically be written into the 'archive' directory. Finally, the generated report, as well as all solver output, will be added to an archive tar file.
./SpecSAT.sh -A "" -i 3 -Z archive.tar.xz
A more complex example, to use more capabilities of the used SAT solver and to better test the limits of the system, is to compile the SAT solver using its own dockerfile (so that it links against a recent libc), and then use transparent huge pages via madvise in the SAT solver. Finally, for restricted networks, the docker commands can use the host network. The following command achieves this, and stores the report in the specified file:
./SpecSAT.py -d \
--sat-measure-extra-env=GLIBC_TUNABLES=glibc.malloc.hugetlb=1 \
--sat-use-solver-docker -u \
-H \
-r report.json
To improve the efficiency of the used solver, a different compiler for the solver can be specified. Furthermore, solver additional compile time parameter can be specified.
To see the available command line parameter, run:
./SpecSAT.py -h
The measured data can be strored to report files, where also a full report with the native results can be stored:
./SpecSAT.py -r full-report.json -o output.json
To build the SAT solver, we use a Docker container to make sure we use the same libraries and dependencies. However, some systems that should be evaluated do not come with a docker setup, and the user might lack administrator privileges to add docker. To work-around these situations, the tool allows to store the used SAT solver in a ZIP file. Next, the binary in that file can be used in a follow up run on the actual target machine. The steps are as follows:
First, run a lite run, and build the SAT solver in a docker container. Also, store the solver in an archive.
./SpecSAT.py -l -z mergesat.tar.xz -o precompile-report.json
On the target machine, we can then receive the target file, extract it, and then forward it to SpecSAT.
tar xJf mergesat.tar.xz
./SpecSAT.sh -r full-report.json -o output.json --solver-location mergesat
Note: the new tool will now complain about using an external solver, and suggests the measurement might not be correct. You can compare the md5 sum of the used binary against the precompiled binary to make sure the results are actually correct:
On the build machine:
grep "md5" precompile-report.json
On the measurement machine:
grep "md5" output.json
To build the SAT solver, we use a Docker container to make sure we use the same
libraries and dependencies. The used container file does not work on ARM right
now. Hence, please use the --no-docker parameter to disable using docker.
To not bother with setting up the environment, a convenience wrapper is provided. This wrapper takes care of setting up the dependencies in a virtual environment (via venv). Furthermore, the wrapper supports two command line parameters:
<some_path>/SpecSAT.sh --run-from-install [args]
... will run SpecSAT.py with args args in the directory where the tool itself
is located. This allows to use the tool in e.g. a distributed environment.
<some_path>/SpecSAT.sh --force-install [args]
... will run the wrapper, and re-install the python dependencies. This command is only required, in case the python dependencies change.
To execute SpecSAT, non-default python packages need to be installed. The list of packages to be installed is listed in the file requirements.txt. This package list can be installed via
python3 -m pip install --upgrade --user -U -r requirements.txt
Note: to not pollute the configuration of your python installation, you should
consider running SpecSAT in a virtual environment, e.g. venv. If you do not
want to maintain this venv separately, the script SpecSAT.sh will take care
of the extra steps automatically.
The SpecSAT tool uses the SAT solver MergeSat as a SAT backend to perform
measurements. The input problems to be solved are generated with the tool
modgen. Both tools are considered state-of-the-art tools, so that using them
for measurements provides meaningful results.
The generated benchmarks are large enough to represent currently challenging
input sizes for a SAT solver. MergeSat can solve input by using multiple
compute resources. This parallel solving is implemented in a deterministic way.
For measurements, this configuration allows to re-run the parallel solving with
the exact same algorithmic steps.
To make sure the expected results are obtained, the output of the sequential solving process is validated against the known number of search conflicts the SAT solver will produce when solving a given formula. For the parallel search, no such expectation is used, as the number of generated conflicts also depends on the number of used cores.
SpecSAT is implemented under the MIT license. The used SAT solver MergeSat
also uses the MIT license. The benchmark generation tool modgen is distributed
via the GPL license. Please make sure these licenses fit your use case.
The score for the hardware is computed based on the wall clock time it takes to solve the predefined benchmarks. To compute the efficiency of the hardware with respect to parallel SAT solving, the CPU time is also considered. For the benchmark with the highest computation time, also the variance is computed. Using multiple iterations of measurements is supported, and allows to reduce the variance of the obtained data points.
This score scales linear with the wall clock time of the sequential solving. The smaller the obtained number, the better the platform is for sequential SAT solving.
This score scales linear with the wall clock time of the parallel solving, when using all available cores of the platform. The smaller the number, the better the given platform is for parallel SAT solving.
Note: there is no linear relation between sequential and parallel score, as the performed search steps are different.
This score takes the efficiency of the platform into account, and shows whether there is potential room for improvement. In case the solver runs as efficient as possible (efficiency = 1), the score_efficiency value is equal to the Score__Full_Parallel value. The score decreases linear to the double of this score depending on the measured efficiency of the solver when using all cores, i.e.:
efficiency_score = score_full_parallel * (2 - efficiency)
SAT solvers are assumed to be bound by the memory bandwidth. When using all cores of the platform, the available memory bandwidth per used core should be lower compared to using only every second core.
This score hence is the ratio of the measured efficiency of the solver when using half of the available cores vs using all cores, i.e.:
half_core_efficiency_factor = efficiency(n/2) / efficiency(n),
where n is the number of available cores.
Data about different hosts can be stored automatically as part of the repository of the SpecSAT tool. To benchmark your system, and automatically store a report, follow the steps below! Depending on your hardware, executing the measurement might take up to two hours.
Note: the report is supposed to not contain any personal data. However, before making your data public, make sure you checked the details!
- clone the repository locally
- run the tool, and generate an auto-report, by running
./SpecSAT.sh -A "" -i 3 - create a git branch in your local repository (e.g.
git checkout -b ...) - add the new report file to the branch
- create a pull request in the main repository with your change
When contributing data to the SpecSAT repository, make sure you provide your change with the MIT license.
In case the tool returns with a non-zero exit code, and you want to report an issue, please make sure to run the tool with the default setup. If the error still persist, one of the following error conditions might be true:
- The used platform is not supported (currently only x86_64) Feel free to extend SpecSAT to support your platform. Further extensions are not considered at the time of writing.
- The used platform triggers a different behavor in the used solver.
- Something else.
In case you want to report an issue, feel free to create an issue in github. Please re-run SpecSAT in debug mode, and collect all output in an archive. Add this archive to the github issue.
Submit an issue here: https://github.com/conp-solutions/SpecSAT/issues
Use these parameters to enable debugging and create an archive: -d -Z specsat.tar.xz
Full command to create relevant output for investigation:
./SpecSAT.sh -A "" -d -i 3 -Z archive.tar.xz