Electrical switches are ubiquitous. Performance requirement for a switch is stringent. The operating mechanism mostly decides the performance of an electromechanical switch. However, design of such mechanisms, which involve discontinuous motions, is not much addressed in literature. The present work proposes a systematic procedure to design and analyze toggle based switching mechanisms. The work defined the toggle phenomenon rigorously, and, based on the behaviour of the toggles, provided a classification scheme for the switch mechanisms. The existing switches fall in two major categories viz., single-toggle and double-toggle switches. The double toggle mechanism is more suitable for high power breaking as it can isolate the system’s behaviour from the operator’s behaviour. The kinematic and geometric attributes of the operating mechanism which affect the toggle sequence and timings have been identified. A systematic simulation based study has been performed to identify the influence of different kinematic and dynamic parameters on the functionality of a double toggle switching mechanism. The influence of the variable moment of inertia and mechanism singularities arising out of introduction of the four bar sub chain on the performance of the system have been studied in detail. It is observed that the performance of the double toggle systems is less susceptible, though not immune to the user behaviour; in extreme scenarios the switching performance could become erratic. The use of an additional spring in an existing system enhanced the system performance; but, connecting the main spring with the coupler link altered the system performance more dramatically. Thus it established that the influence of the kinematic configuration on the performance of a switching mechanism is more pronounced than the dynamic characteristics of a comparable system. For the ab initio design of double toggle switching mechanisms, necessary structural criteria for a mechanism to exhibit double toggle phenomenon have been identified and verified with various 2 d.o.f. systems. It is also established that any double toggle mechanism cannot be used directly as a switching mechanism; the link dimensions, link arrangements and the stopper locations have to be chosen properly. Towards that end, three necessary kinematic criteria for a switching mechanism are identified. A few mechanisms which satisfy all structural and kinematic criteria are identified; the switching and toggle behaviour of these mechanisms are examined through simulations using Pro/Mechanism. Finally, considering all the conditions a is constructed with consideration of mass and geometric shape of the links. Thus, it established that the proposed methodology can systematically generate novel, structurally distinct electrical switches.

In an era of value based purchasing and healthcare reform, hospitals face the challenge of delivering high quality care in an environment of diminishing resources. This performance improvement project describes the use of master’s prepared nurses on medical surgical units to improve quality and patient satisfaction. The setting was five medical surgical units in a 200+ bed hospital in the southeastern United States. Declining resources necessitated an increase in the nurse to patient ratios on the units (from 5:1 to 6:1). The project involved the modification of the model of care through the change in nurse/patient ratios and the addition of master’s prepared nurses to coordinate and supplement the care of the staff RNs for complex patients. While inconclusive, the literature review confirmed the impact of master’s prepared nurses on quality metrics and did not conclusively confirm that delivering high quality, safe care was not possible with nurse/patient ratios of 1:6. The goal of the project was to determine if the presence of the master’s prepared nurse could mitigate the changes in ratios and produce high quality and satisfaction outcomes. Measures of success were drawn from archived standardized quality measures in the realms of service (HCAHPS questions), patient safety (CABSI, HAPU) and quality outcomes (core measures and 30 day readmissions). The project design was a retrospective, one-group pre-post design looking at two six-month intervals—before and after project implementation. Results demonstrated sustained or improved quality in six of ten measures. Highest positive impact was in readmissions and nurse sensitive indicators. The most negative results were in patient satisfaction. Modifying the model of care is an iterative process requiring continued evaluation and changes to improve outcomes. Results of this project supported the further evaluation of staffing and expansion of the number of master’s prepared nurses on medical surgical units.

L’objet de cette thèse est l’élaboration d’un modèle logique de mesure du maintien des valeurs, ainsi que son opérationnalisation afin d’entreprendre l’évaluation de la performance des systèmes de santé. Le maintien des valeurs est l’une des quatre fonctions de la théorie de l’action sociale de T.Parsons permettant d’analyser les systèmes d’action. Les autres fonctions sont l’adaptation, la production et l’atteinte des buts. Cette théorie est la base du modèle EGIPSS (évaluation globale et intégrée de la performance des systèmes de santé), dans lequel cette thèse s’insère. La fonction étudiée correspond, dans l’oeuvre de T.Parsons, au sous-système culturel. Elle renvoie à l’intangible, soit à l’univers symbolique par lequel l’action prend son sens et les fonctions du système s’articulent. Le modèle logique de mesure du maintien des valeurs est structuré autour de deux concepts principaux, les valeurs individuelles et organisationnelles et la qualité de vie au travail. À travers les valeurs individuelles et organisationnelles, nous mesurons la hiérarchie et l’intensité des valeurs, ainsi que le niveau de concordance interindividuelle et le degré de congruence entre les valeurs individuelles et organisationnelles. La qualité de vie au travail est composée de plusieurs concepts permettant d’analyser et d’évaluer l’environnement de travail, le climat organisationnel, la satisfaction au travail, les réactions comportementales et l’état de santé des employés. La mesure de ces différents aspects a donné lieu à la conception de trois questionnaires et de trente indicateurs. Ma thèse présente, donc, chacun des concepts sélectionnés et leurs articulations, ainsi que les outils de mesure qui ont été construits afin d’évaluer la dimension du maintien des valeurs. Enfin, nous exposons un exemple d’opérationnalisation de ce modèle de mesure appliqué à deux hôpitaux dans la province du Mato Grosso du Sud au Brésil. Cette thèse se conclut par une réflexion sur l’utilisation de l’évaluation comme outil de gestion soutenant l’amélioration de la performance et l’imputabilité. Ce projet comportait un double enjeu. Tout d’abord, la conceptualisation de la dimension du maintien des valeurs à partir d’une littérature abondante, mais manquant d’intégration théorique, puis la création d’outils de mesure permettant de saisir autant les aspects objectifs que subjectifs des valeurs et de la qualité de vie au travail. En effet, on trouve dans la littérature de nombreuses disciplines et de multiples courants théoriques tels que la psychologie industrielle et organisationnelle, la sociologie, les sciences infirmières, les théories sur le comportement organisationnel, la théorie des organisations, qui ont conçu des modèles pour analyser et comprendre les perceptions, les attitudes et les comportements humains dans les organisations. Ainsi, l’intérêt scientifique de ce projet découle de la création d’un modèle dynamique et intégrateur offrant une synthèse des différents champs théoriques abordant la question de l’interaction entre les perceptions individuelles et collectives au travail, les conditions objectives de travail et leurs influences sur les attitudes et les comportements au travail. D’autre part, ce projet revêt un intérêt opérationnel puisqu’il vise à fournir aux décideurs du système de santé des connaissances et données concernant un aspect de la performance fortement négligé par la plupart des modèles internationaux d’évaluation de la performance. / The purpose of my thesis is to develop a logical model to measure the latency that we also call the values maintenance and its operationalization in order to evaluate health systems performance. Latency is one of the four functions of the general theory of action developed by T. Parsons. His theory is the basis of the EGIPSS model (Comprehensive and Integrated Assessment of the Performance of Health Systems), in which my thesis is inserted. The function of latency is viewed by Parsons as a sub-cultural system. This function reflects the intangible or symbolic universe in which the action takes its meaning. It connects the four functions of the system together. The logical model for measuring latency is structured around two main dimensions, individual and organizational values and quality of life at work. Through individual and organizational values, we measure the intensity and the hierarchy of values, and the level of concordance between individuals and the degree of congruence between the individual and organizational values. Quality of work life is composed of several concepts to analyze and assess work environment, organizational climate, job satisfaction, behavioural responses and health status of employees. The measurement of these aspects has led to the design of questionnaires and thirty three indicators. Thus, my thesis presents each of the selected concepts, as well as, their articulation and measurement tools that were built to assess the latency function. Finally, I present an example of the operationalization of the measurement model and the results of the evaluation which have been taken place in two hospitals in the state of Mato Grosso of south in Brazil. This thesis ends with a reflection on the use of evaluation as a management tool supporting performance improvement and accountability. This project involved a dual challenge. On the one hand, the conceptualization of the construct of maintenance of values from an extensive literature, but lacking of theoretical integration, and the creation of measurement tools to capture all aspects of objective and subjective values and quality of work life. Indeed, we find in the literature many disciplines and multiple theoretical approaches such as industrial and organizational psychology, sociology, nursing, theories of organizational behavior, organizational theory, which developed models to analyze and understand the perceptions, attitudes and human behavior in organizations. Thus, the scientific interest of this project arises from the creation of a dynamic and integrated model which synthesizes different theoretical fields addressing the issue of the interaction between individual and collective perceptions at work, the objective conditions of work and their influence on attitudes and behaviors at work. In addition, this project has an operational interest because it aims to provide to decision-makers knowledge and evidences on aspects of performance that have been neglected by most international models for performance evaluation.

The purpose of this research was to explore employees’ experiences of performance management appraisals. There is an increasing need to ensure that performance appraisals realise performance improvement and professional development goals while safeguarding the dignity of employees. This study followed a qualitative research design and was conducted in a South African banking organisation with five participants at varying employment levels. Purposive, non-probability sampling was used to select the participants and a semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant. The interviews were transcribed and the data was analysed using the discourse analysis method in keeping with social constructivism. Various insights about the employees’ experiences of performance management appraisals can be drawn from the overall research findings, which are likely to benefit the field of industrial and organisational psychology and managers in various organisations in conducting more effective performance appraisals by ensuring that they are fair and ethical, and can facilitate professional growth. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The main aim of this study was to investigate the implementation of the performance management system in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation of the Botswana public service and to identify the factors that facilitated and hindered the successful implementation of the programme. This study used a mixed methods research design which combines both qualitative and quantitative research design. The study used the model of social programmes, which is a holistic and comprehensive analytical framework that is used to study the implementation of social intervention programmes. Research data was obtained using a triangulation of research methods (case study, evaluation research and survey method) and data sources (literature review, document analysis, self-administered questionnaires and follow-up personal interviews). A sample of 90 respondents was selected using the purposive sampling strategy. The study found that the implementation of the performance management system in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation was problematic because of unclear and ambiguous foreign policy goals and objectives; lack of broad-based support and critical mass of champions of the performance management system; use of command-and-control management model rather than empowerment and the adaptation model; inadequate human and institutional capacities; ineffective supporting systems of the performance management system; weak accountability and responsibility mechanisms; weak intra-ministerial and inter-ministerial communication, co-operation, collaboration and co-ordination; inadequate information and communications technology infrastructure and unfavourable international environment. This study contributed to the existing literature by investigating the implementation of the performance management system in the global environment from a public service perspective rather than a private sector perspective, which relies on the experiences of multinational companies. The study findings provide some invaluable insights that may improve the implementation of the performance management system in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation of the Botswana public service by proposing recommendations to the identified problems. The recommendations include: setting clear and specific foreign policy objectives; creating a critical mass of champions of the performance management system; strengthening human and institutional capacities; promoting effective implementation and use of supporting systems of the performance management system; strengthening accountability and responsibility mechanisms; strengthening intra-ministerial and inter-ministerial communication, co-operation, collaboration, and co-ordination; strengthening decentralisation and empowerment principles and upgrading information and communications technology infrastructure. / Public Administration and Management / DPA

Thèse de doctorat effectuée en cotutelle au Département d’administration de la santé Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal et à l’École doctorale Biologie-Santé Faculté de médecine, Université de Nantes, France / L’objectif de la thèse est d’approfondir la compréhension des enjeux liés au processus d’introduction du changement dans les organisations. Ce sujet semble important vu les enjeux majeurs auxquels sont actuellement confrontées les organisations pour implanter des changements jugés nécessaires. Notre recherche aborde l’analyse du changement dans les organisations selon une approche systémique. Cette approche a été développée dans le cadre de la thèse et propose de voir l’implantation du changement jugé nécessaire dans les organisations, non comme des initiatives isolées et déconnectées de l’environnement, mais plutôt comme des processus émergents ou programmés permettant autant le changement de l’organisation que le changement et l’évolution de l’environnement dans une perspective de co-évolution des organisations et de leur environnement. Au niveau des organisations, cette approche systémique amène à se pencher sur la question des possibilités réelles des organisations de produire les changements jugés nécessaires. Elle cherche à comprendre pourquoi, malgré les possibilités réelles des organisations de créer des conditions favorables à l’acceptation et à l’implantation du changement et de l’innovation, les organisations ne s’engagent pas à créer de telles conditions et par conséquent ont des difficultés à produire le changement. Dans le cadre de la recherche, nous avons étudié le changement des pratiques professionnelles et managériales dans le contexte hospitalier français suite à l’introduction d’une innovation d’amélioration de la performance hospitalière, et notamment le projet PATH de l’OMS Europe. Il s’agissait pour nous d’analyser la dynamique de l’implantation de PATH dans la production des effets et le degré d’implantation de PATH, tout en faisant ressortir les facteurs contextuels qui permettent d’expliquer les variations dans le degré d’implantation et les effets. Les résultats de notre recherche soutiennent la proposition qu’il est probablement possible de prédire le niveau d’atteinte des objectifs poursuivis par un changement à partir de la connaissance des capacités collectives de l’organisation pour produire le changement et la façon dont elles ont été mobilisées pour atteindre les objectifs poursuivis. Ils envoient un signal fort aux établissements de santé qui voudraient réussir l’implantation des pratiques novatrices d’amélioration de la performance hospitalière qu’ils doivent s’occuper du contexte dans lequel les efforts de l’implantation sont pratiqués et que ces efforts ne sauraient être entrepris tant que des conditions favorables à l’acceptation et à la réalisation du changement ne sont pas mises en place. Les conditions favorables se matérialiseraient dans les établissements par la mise en place de structures favorisant le travail en groupe multi professionnels, de formations relatives à l’implantation de l’innovation, de coordination de l’action collective, d’implication des utilisateurs finals de l’innovation dans tous le processus d’implantation et de soutien du leadership médical et administratif. / The objective of the thesis is to look further into the comprehension of the issues related to the process of introduction of the change into the organizations. This subject seems important in view of the major challenges currently facing the organizations to implement changes considered to be necessary. Our research approaches the analysis of the change in the organizations according to a systemic approach. This approach was developed within the framework of the thesis and proposes to see the introduction of the change considered to be necessary in the organizations, not like isolated and disconnected initiatives from the environment, but rather like emergent or programmed processes allowing the change of the organization as much that the change and the evolution of the environment in a context of co-evolution of the both entities. To the level of the organizations, this systemic approach for analysing the change in the organizations brings to consider the question of the real possibilities of the organizations to produce changes deemed necessary. She seeks to understand why, despite the real possibilities of the organizations to create favourable conditions for the acceptance and to the implementation of the change and of the innovation, the organizations are not committed to create such conditions and consequently have difficulties in produce the change. Within the framework of research, we studied the change of the professional and managerial practices in the French hospital context following the introduction of a hospital performance improvement innovation: the WHO Europe’s project PATH. Our objectives were to analyse the dynamics of the implementation of PATH in the production of effects and the degree of implementation of PATH, and to identify the contextual factors that allow explaining the variations in the degree of implementation and the effects. The results of our research support the proposal which it is probably possible to predict the level of achievement of objectives pursued by the change from the knowledge of the collective capacities of the organization to produce the change and the way in which they were mobilized to achieve the objectives pursued. They send a signal to the hospitals which would like to introduce innovative hospital performance improvement practices that they must deal with the context in which the implementation efforts are practiced and that these efforts could not be undertaken as long as favourable conditions for the acceptance and for the implementation of the change are not put in place. These favourable conditions are materialized in hospitals by structures supporting multidisciplinary group work, by training related to the implementation of the innovation, by a coordination of the collective action, by the end-users of the innovation implication in all the implementation processes and by the medical and management leadership support.

L’objectif de la thèse est d’approfondir la compréhension des enjeux liés au processus d’introduction du changement dans les organisations. Ce sujet semble important vu les enjeux majeurs auxquels sont actuellement confrontées les organisations pour implanter des changements jugés nécessaires. Notre recherche aborde l’analyse du changement dans les organisations selon une approche systémique. Cette approche a été développée dans le cadre de la thèse et propose de voir l’implantation du changement jugé nécessaire dans les organisations, non comme des initiatives isolées et déconnectées de l’environnement, mais plutôt comme des processus émergents ou programmés permettant autant le changement de l’organisation que le changement et l’évolution de l’environnement dans une perspective de co-évolution des organisations et de leur environnement. Au niveau des organisations, cette approche systémique amène à se pencher sur la question des possibilités réelles des organisations de produire les changements jugés nécessaires. Elle cherche à comprendre pourquoi, malgré les possibilités réelles des organisations de créer des conditions favorables à l’acceptation et à l’implantation du changement et de l’innovation, les organisations ne s’engagent pas à créer de telles conditions et par conséquent ont des difficultés à produire le changement. Dans le cadre de la recherche, nous avons étudié le changement des pratiques professionnelles et managériales dans le contexte hospitalier français suite à l’introduction d’une innovation d’amélioration de la performance hospitalière, et notamment le projet PATH de l’OMS Europe. Il s’agissait pour nous d’analyser la dynamique de l’implantation de PATH dans la production des effets et le degré d’implantation de PATH, tout en faisant ressortir les facteurs contextuels qui permettent d’expliquer les variations dans le degré d’implantation et les effets. Les résultats de notre recherche soutiennent la proposition qu’il est probablement possible de prédire le niveau d’atteinte des objectifs poursuivis par un changement à partir de la connaissance des capacités collectives de l’organisation pour produire le changement et la façon dont elles ont été mobilisées pour atteindre les objectifs poursuivis. Ils envoient un signal fort aux établissements de santé qui voudraient réussir l’implantation des pratiques novatrices d’amélioration de la performance hospitalière qu’ils doivent s’occuper du contexte dans lequel les efforts de l’implantation sont pratiqués et que ces efforts ne sauraient être entrepris tant que des conditions favorables à l’acceptation et à la réalisation du changement ne sont pas mises en place. Les conditions favorables se matérialiseraient dans les établissements par la mise en place de structures favorisant le travail en groupe multi professionnels, de formations relatives à l’implantation de l’innovation, de coordination de l’action collective, d’implication des utilisateurs finals de l’innovation dans tous le processus d’implantation et de soutien du leadership médical et administratif. / The objective of the thesis is to look further into the comprehension of the issues related to the process of introduction of the change into the organizations. This subject seems important in view of the major challenges currently facing the organizations to implement changes considered to be necessary. Our research approaches the analysis of the change in the organizations according to a systemic approach. This approach was developed within the framework of the thesis and proposes to see the introduction of the change considered to be necessary in the organizations, not like isolated and disconnected initiatives from the environment, but rather like emergent or programmed processes allowing the change of the organization as much that the change and the evolution of the environment in a context of co-evolution of the both entities. To the level of the organizations, this systemic approach for analysing the change in the organizations brings to consider the question of the real possibilities of the organizations to produce changes deemed necessary. She seeks to understand why, despite the real possibilities of the organizations to create favourable conditions for the acceptance and to the implementation of the change and of the innovation, the organizations are not committed to create such conditions and consequently have difficulties in produce the change. Within the framework of research, we studied the change of the professional and managerial practices in the French hospital context following the introduction of a hospital performance improvement innovation: the WHO Europe’s project PATH. Our objectives were to analyse the dynamics of the implementation of PATH in the production of effects and the degree of implementation of PATH, and to identify the contextual factors that allow explaining the variations in the degree of implementation and the effects. The results of our research support the proposal which it is probably possible to predict the level of achievement of objectives pursued by the change from the knowledge of the collective capacities of the organization to produce the change and the way in which they were mobilized to achieve the objectives pursued. They send a signal to the hospitals which would like to introduce innovative hospital performance improvement practices that they must deal with the context in which the implementation efforts are practiced and that these efforts could not be undertaken as long as favourable conditions for the acceptance and for the implementation of the change are not put in place. These favourable conditions are materialized in hospitals by structures supporting multidisciplinary group work, by training related to the implementation of the innovation, by a coordination of the collective action, by the end-users of the innovation implication in all the implementation processes and by the medical and management leadership support. / Thèse de doctorat effectuée en cotutelle au Département d’administration de la santé Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal et à l’École doctorale Biologie-Santé Faculté de médecine, Université de Nantes, France

本研究為一縱貫性之實證研究，主要目的是透過分析兩年360度回饋的資料，進一步探討全員品質管理才能對360度回饋公平知覺、滿意度、行為改變、與績效提升的影響。 本研究樣本為國內某建築業之初階與中階主管，第一年總計62位，第二年總計92位。研究結果顯示，全員品質管理才能與360度回饋公平知覺、滿意度、行為改變意圖，皆達顯著正相關。此外，雙因子變異數分析結果顯示，全員品質管理才能的高低會影響他評結果、目標達成、以及領導效能的改變，如進一步以相依樣本t考驗進行事後比較，則發現全員品質管理才能低分組兩年間績效改變的進步幅度大於高分組。 最後，本研究進一步指出研究之限制，與後續研究之建議、企業實行360度回饋之實務建議。

The main aim of this study was to investigate the implementation of the performance management system in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation of the Botswana public service and to identify the factors that facilitated and hindered the successful implementation of the programme. This study used a mixed methods research design which combines both qualitative and quantitative research design. The study used the model of social programmes, which is a holistic and comprehensive analytical framework that is used to study the implementation of social intervention programmes. Research data was obtained using a triangulation of research methods (case study, evaluation research and survey method) and data sources (literature review, document analysis, self-administered questionnaires and follow-up personal interviews). A sample of 90 respondents was selected using the purposive sampling strategy. The study found that the implementation of the performance management system in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation was problematic because of unclear and ambiguous foreign policy goals and objectives; lack of broad-based support and critical mass of champions of the performance management system; use of command-and-control management model rather than empowerment and the adaptation model; inadequate human and institutional capacities; ineffective supporting systems of the performance management system; weak accountability and responsibility mechanisms; weak intra-ministerial and inter-ministerial communication, co-operation, collaboration and co-ordination; inadequate information and communications technology infrastructure and unfavourable international environment. This study contributed to the existing literature by investigating the implementation of the performance management system in the global environment from a public service perspective rather than a private sector perspective, which relies on the experiences of multinational companies. The study findings provide some invaluable insights that may improve the implementation of the performance management system in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation of the Botswana public service by proposing recommendations to the identified problems. The recommendations include: setting clear and specific foreign policy objectives; creating a critical mass of champions of the performance management system; strengthening human and institutional capacities; promoting effective implementation and use of supporting systems of the performance management system; strengthening accountability and responsibility mechanisms; strengthening intra-ministerial and inter-ministerial communication, co-operation, collaboration, and co-ordination; strengthening decentralisation and empowerment principles and upgrading information and communications technology infrastructure. / Public Administration and Management / DPA

On certain CPUs part of the Intel Xeon Scalable CPU family, the level three (L3) cache is shared among the CPU cores residing on the same CPU socket. This has benefits in that a larger and more scalable cache space is available to the CPU cores. However, when the L3 cache is shared between CPU cores and thereby by the applications running there, the applications can affect the performance of each other if some of them have high L3 cache usage. This can be particularly problematic if an application is over-utilizing the L3 cache and effectively evicting the data of other applications, which are more prioritized, from the L3 cache. Such applications are called L3 cache noisy neighbors. The experiments in this thesis study the effect L3 cache noisy neighbors have on other, more prioritized, applications and if Intel Cache Allocation Technology (CAT) can be used to limit the performance impact the noisy neighbors have. Intel CAT provides functionality to control the amount of L3 cache allocated to a CPU core and by allocating less L3 cache to a noisy neighbor it no longer shares as much L3 cache with the prioritized applications and thus the prioritized applications can again utilize more of the L3 cache and regain their performance. The research question of this thesis is to investigate in what cases Intel CAT can provide advantages and where it is a disadvantage to use it by studying its use for three commonly used applications; bzip2, Redis, and Graph500. All the three applications were significantly impacted when running simultaneously with a noisy neighbor and for the Redis application there was a decrease of 49.2% in the number of ’GET’ requests per second that the Redis server could handle and an 18.2% decrease for ’SET’ requests. For the bzip2 and Graph500 applications, there was a 14.7% and 28.1% increase in execution time respectively. Intel CAT was successfully used to limit the impact of the noisy neighbor on the three applications. For the Redis application, the number of requests per second increased by 8.6% for the ’GET’ operation and by 4.2% for the ’SET’ operation. For the bzip2 and Graph500 applications, there was a 5.8% and 12.0% decrease in execution time respectively. Moreover, the thesis studies the scenario when only prioritized applications are running and if their performance can be increased by isolating the L3 cache for each one of them so that they cannot cause L3 cache evictions for each other. The use case of Intel CAT in such a scenario is not as clear as when mitigating the impact of a noisy neighbor but some performance benefits can be observed when running multiple Redis instances on the same machine and isolating some of the L3 cache available to them. / För vissa processorer som tillhör familjen Intel Xeon Scalable är den tredje nivåns cache (L3-cache) delad mellan CPU-kärnorna som befinner sig på samma CPU-sockel. Detta har fördelen att ett större och mer skalbart cacheutrymme blir tillgängligt för CPU-kärnorna. Att L3-cache är delat mellan kärnorna innebär däremot att applikationerna som kör där kan påverka varandras prestanda om någon av dem överutnyttjar L3-cache. När en applikation överutnyttjar L3-cache leder det till att data från andra applikationer, som kan vara mer prioriterade, inte längre får plats i cachen. Sådana applikationer kallas för ”L3-cache noisy neigbors”. Experimenten i denna studie undersöker effekterna av L3-cache noisy neigbors på mer prioriterade applikationer och om Intel Cache Allocation Technology (CAT) kan användas för att begränsa den påverkan som L3-cache noisy neigbors har. Intel CAT har funktionalitet för att kontrollera mängden L3-cache som allokeras till en CPU-kärna och genom att allokera mindre L3-cache till en noisy neigbor så delar den inte lika mycket L3-cache med de prioriterade applikationerna och därmed kan de prioriterade applikationerna återfå sin prestanda. Frågeställningen för denna studie är att undersöka i vilka användningsområden Intel CAT har fördelar och när det är en nackdel att använda det genom att studera dess användning för tre välanvända applikationer, bzip2, Redis och Graph500. Prestandan för alla av dessa tre applikationer blev tydligt påverkad när de kördes samtidigt som en noisy neigbor och Intel CAT kunde användas för att minska den påverkan. För Redis ökade antalet frågor som hanterades av Redis med 8.6% för GET-operationer och 4.2% för SET-operationer. För bzip2 och Graph500 observerades en minskning i exekveringstid på 5.8% och 12.0% respektive. Denna uppsats undersöker även scenariot där bara prioriterade applikationer körs och om deras prestanda kan ökas genom att isolera L3-cache för var och en av dem så att de inte tar plats från varandra i L3-cachen. När Intel CAT användes i ett sådant scenario är fördelarna inte lika tydliga som när påverkan av en noisy neighbor begränsades men en viss förbättring i prestanda går att observera när flera Redisservrar körs på samma maskin och en del av L3-cachen isoleras till var och en av dem.