High Performance Computing Productivity Study - Evaluation of Parallel Tools Platform (PTP) Eclipse Plug-In
This report is a DARPA funded Work For Others (WFO) evaluation of the Parallel Tools Platform (PTP) version 5.0.3 (Released October 18, 2011). PTP is currently being developed and supported as an open source product managed by Project Lead Greg Watson and team at IBM plus several other contributors. The tool has been in development since 2005 with a goal of providing an infrastructure for the integration of high performance computing tools. Basic functionality such as source code editing, compiling, launching, and debugging, plus more advanced features including performance monitoring and deployment have been bundled into an Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE) plug-in to give parallel application programmers the features and improved productivity gained from using a common, well established development platform. The evaluation encompasses the basic aspects of using PTP, beginning with the installation and configuration of the plug-in, followed by code development and debugging. Each aspect is evaluated based on the expectations of my experience as an Eclipse user and is presented in the following format: • Feature description • User Experience • Evaluation The feature description is based on the provided documentation for PTP and the ‘generic’ expectations of what the feature should provide. The user experience reveals the actual use and exercise of the feature – specifically in the context and perspective of the evaluation platform provided by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The evaluation of each feature includes the overall outcome of the user experience, along with the expectations that were not met, met, or exceeded along with any issues that were encountered.