Performance evaluation of communicating processes

This paper concerns the performance evaluation of an operating system based on communicating processes. Processes communicate via messages and there is no shared data. Execution of a program is abstracted as a sequence of events to denote significant computational steps. A finite state machine model of computation is used for the specifications of abstract computational properties and, thereafter, for the selective analysis of measurement data. A set of conventions is developed to characterize the performance of communicating processes. A hierarchical layering technique is used to concisely describe the characteristics of large systems. A performance monitoring system was implemented and applied to the analysis of RIG, a message-based operating system.