1. A method for evaluating performance of direct memory access (DMA)-based algorithmic tasks on a target multi-core processing system, the method comprising the steps of: inputting a template for a specified task, the template including DMA-related parameters specifying DMA operations and computational operations to be performed; evaluating performance for the specified task by running a benchmark on the target multi-core processing system, the benchmark being operative to generate data access patterns using DMA operations and invoking prescribed computation routines as specified by the template; and providing results of the benchmark indicative of a measure of performance of the specified task corresponding to the target multi-core processing system.