Engineering topics

Richardson, Brad

Publications and source records attributed to Richardson, Brad.

5 records

DOE OSTI2025

Lowering and Runtime Support for Fortran’s Multi-Image Parallel Features using LLVM Flang, PRIF, and Caffeine

This paper provides an overview of the multi-image parallel features in Fortran 2023 and their implementation in the LLVM flang compiler and the Caffeine parallel runtime library. The features of interest support a Single-Program, Multiple-Data (SPMD) programming model based on executing multiple “images”, each of which is a program instance. The features also support a Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) in the form of “coarray” distributed data structures. The paper discusses the lowering of multi-image features to the Parallel Runtime Interface for Fortran (PRIF) and the implementation of PRIF in the Caffeine parallel runtime library. This paper also provides an early view into the design of a new multi-image dialect of the LLVM Multi-Level Intermediate Representation (MLIR). We describe validation and testing of the resulting software stack, and demonstrate that performance compares favorably to another open-source compiler and runtime library: GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) gfortran and OpenCoarrays, respectively.

Bonachea, Dan↗

DOE OSTI2025

Automatically parallelizing batch inference on deep neural networks using Fiats and Fortran 2023 `do concurrent`

This paper introduces novel programming strategies that leverage features of the Fortran 2023 standard of the International Standards Organization (ISO) to automatically parallelize computations on deep neural networks. The paper focuses on the interplay of object-oriented, parallel, and functional programming paradigms in the Fiats deep learning library. We demonstrate how several infrequently used language features play a role in enabling efficient, parallel execution. Specifically, the ability to explicitly declare that a procedure is pure facilitates inference in the context of the language’s loop-parallelism construct `do concurrent`. Also, explicitly prohibiting the overriding of a parent type’s type-bound procedures eliminates the need for dynamic dispatch in performance-critical code. Finally, this paper uses batch inference calculations on a neural network surrogate for atmospheric aerosol dynamics to demonstrate that LLVM Flang compiler’s automatic parallelization of `do concurrent` achieves roughly the same performance and scalability as achieved by OpenMP compiler directives. We also demonstrate that double-precision inference costs 37–72% longer runtime than default-real precision with most values in the range 57-60%.

Rouson, Damian↗

DOE OSTI2024

Parallel Runtime Interface for Fortran (PRIF): A Multi-Image Solution for LLVM Flang

Fortran compilers that provide support for Fortran’s native parallel features often do so with a runtime library that depends on details of both the compiler implementation and the communication library, while others provide limited or no support at all. This paper introduces a new generalized interface that is both compiler- and runtime-library-agnostic, providing flexibility while fully supporting all of Fortran’s parallel features. The Parallel Runtime Interface for Fortran (PRIF) was developed to be portable across shared- and distributed-memory systems, with varying operating systems, toolchains and architectures. It achieves this by defining a set of Fortran procedures corresponding to each of the parallel features defined in the Fortran standard that may be invoked by a Fortran compiler and implemented by a runtime library. PRIF aims to be used as the solution for LLVM Flang to provide parallel Fortran support. This paper also briefly describes our PRIF prototype implementation: Caffeine.

Bonachea, Dan↗

DOE OSTI2024

A Full-Stack Exploration of Language-Based Parallelism in Fortran 2023

This poster explores native parallel features in Fortran 2023 through the lens of supporting applications with libraries, compilers, and parallel runtimes. The language revision informally named Fortran 2008 introduced parallelism in the form of Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) execution with two broad feature sets: (1) loop-level parallelism via do concurrent and (2) a Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) comprised of distributed “coarray” data structures. Fortran’s native parallelism has demonstrated high performance [1] and reduced the burden of inserting what sometimes amounts to more directives than code. Several compilers support both feature sets, typically by translating do concurrent into serial do loops annotated by parallel directives and by translating SPMD/PGAS features into direct calls to a communication library. Our research focuses primarily on two questions: (1) can the compiler’s parallel runtime library be developed in the language being compiled (Fortran) and (2) can we define an interface to the runtime that liberates compilers from being hardwired to one runtime and vice versa. We are answering these questions by developing the Parallel Runtime Interface for Fortran (PRIF) [2] and the Co-Array Fortran Framework of Efficient Interfaces to Network Environments (Caffeine) [3]. Caffeine is initially targeting adoption by LLVM Flang, a new open-source Fortran compiler developed by a broad community in industry, academia, and government labs. We are also exploring the use of these features in Inference-Engine, a deep learning library designed to facilitate neural network training and inference for high-performance computing applications written in modern Fortran.

Rasmussen, Katherine↗

DOE OSTI2024

Parallel Runtime Interface for Fortran (PRIF) Specification (Rev. 0.4)

This document specifies an interface to support the parallel features of Fortran, named the Parallel Runtime Interface for Fortran (PRIF). PRIF is a proposed solution in which the runtime library is responsible for coarray allocation, deallocation and accesses, image synchronization, atomic operations, events, and teams. In this interface, the compiler is responsible for transforming the invocation of Fortran-level parallel features into procedure calls to the necessary PRIF procedures. The interface is designed for portability across shared- and distributed-memory machines, different operating systems, and multiple architectures. Implementations of this interface are intended as an augmentation for the compiler's own runtime library. With an implementation-agnostic interface, alternative parallel runtime libraries may be developed that support the same interface. One benefit of this approach is the ability to vary the communication substrate. A central aim of this document is to define a parallel runtime interface in standard Fortran syntax, which enables us to leverage Fortran to succinctly express various properties of the procedure interfaces, including argument attributes.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗