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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 235 records · Page 13

Simulation of 24,000 Electron Dynamics: Real-Time Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) with the Real-Space Multigrids (RMG)

Here, we present the theory, implementation, and benchmarking of a real-time time-dependent density functional theory (RT-TDDFT) module within the RMG code, designed to simulate the electronic response of molecular systems to external perturbations. Our method offers insights into nonequilibrium dynamics and excited states across a diverse range of systems, from small organic molecules to large metallic nanoparticles. Benchmarking results demonstrate excellent agreement with established TDDFT implementations and showcase the superior stability of our time integration algorithm, enabling long-term simulations with minimal energy drift. The scalability and efficiency of RMG on massively parallel architectures allow for simulations of complex systems, such as plasmonic nanoparticles with thousands of atoms. Future extensions, including nuclear and spin dynamics, will broaden the applicability of this RT-TDDFT implementation, providing a powerful toolset for studies of photoactive materials, nanoscale devices, and other systems where real-time electronic dynamics is essential.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Automatic identification and classification of Palomar Transient Factory astrophysical objects in GLADE

Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is a comprehensive detection system for the identification and classification of transient astrophysical objects. In this paper, we make two significant contributions to the PTF pipeline. First, we present an experimental study that evaluates a novel implementation of the real-time classifier in GLADE - a parallel data processing system that combines the efficiency of a database with the extensibility of map-reduce. We show how each stage in the classifier maps optimally into GLADE tasks by taking advantage of the unique features of the system - range-based data partitioning, columnar storage, multi-query execution, and in-database support for complex aggregate computation. Second, we introduce a novel parallel similarity join algorithm for advanced transient classification. In conclusion, we implement this algorithm in GLADE and execute it on a massive supercomputer with more than 3,000 threads, achieving more than three orders of magnitude improvement over the PostgreSQL solution.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

A domain-specific compiler for a parallel multiresolution adaptive numerical simulation environment

This paper describes the design and implementation of a layered domain-specific compiler to support MADNESS---Multiresolution ADaptive Numerical Environment for Scientific Simulation. MADNESS is a high-level software environment for the solution of integral and differential equations in many dimensions, using adaptive and fast harmonic analysis methods with guaranteed precision. MADNESS uses k-d trees to represent spatial functions and implements operators like addition, multiplication, differentiation, and integration on the numerical representation of functions. The MADNESS runtime system provides global namespace support and a task-based execution model including futures. MADNESS is currently deployed on massively parallel supercomputers and has enabled many science advances. Due to the highly irregular and statically unpredictable structure of the k-d trees representing the spatial functions encountered in MADNESS applications, only purely runtime approaches to optimization have previously been implemented in the MADNESS framework. This paper describes a layered domain-specific compiler developed to address some performance bottlenecks in MADNESS. The newly developed static compile-time optimizations, in conjunction with the MADNESS runtime support, enable significant performance improvement for the MADNESS framework.

Rajbhandari, Samyam↗

SIESTA-SIPs: Massively parallel spectrum-slicing eigensolver for an ab initio molecular dynamics package

Integration of Shift-and-Invert Parallel spectral transformation (SIPs) eigensolver (as implemented in the SLEPc library) into an ab initio molecular dynamics package, SIESTA, is described. The effectiveness of the code is demonstrated on applications to polyethylene chains, boron nitride sheets, and bulk water clusters. For problems with the same number of orbitals, the performance of the SLEPc eigensolver depends on the sparsity of the matrices involved, favoring reduced dimensional systems such as polyethylene or boron nitride sheets in comparison to bulk systems like water clusters. For all problems investigated, performance of SIESTA-SIPs exceeds the performance of SIESTA with default solver (ScaLAPACK) at the larger number of cores and the larger number of orbitals. A method that improves the load-balance with each iteration in the self-consistency cycle by exploiting the emerging knowledge of the eigenvalue spectrum is demonstrated

ab initio↗

Parallel Preconditioning for CFD Problems on the CM-5

Up to today, preconditioning methods on massively parallel systems have faced a major difficulty. The most successful preconditioning methods in terms of accelerating the convergence of the iterative solver such as incomplete LU factorizations are notoriously difficult to implement on parallel machines for two reasons: (1) the actual computation of the preconditioner is not very floating-point intensive, but requires a large amount of unstructured communication, and (2) the application of the preconditioning matrix in the iteration phase (i.e. triangular solves) are difficult to parallelize because of the recursive nature of the computation. Here we present a new approach to preconditioning for very large, sparse, unsymmetric, linear systems, which avoids both difficulties. We explicitly compute an approximate inverse to our original matrix. This new preconditioning matrix can be applied most efficiently for iterative methods on massively parallel machines, since the preconditioning phase involves only a matrix-vector multiplication, with possibly a dense matrix. Furthermore the actual computation of the preconditioning matrix has natural parallelism. For a problem of size n, the preconditioning matrix can be computed by solving n independent small least squares problems. The algorithm and its implementation on the Connection Machine CM-5 are discussed in detail and supported by extensive timings obtained from real problem data.

Simon, Horst D.↗

Overcoming rule-based rigidity and connectionist limitations through massively-parallel case-based reasoning

Symbol manipulation as used in traditional Artificial Intelligence has been criticized by neural net researchers for being excessively inflexible and sequential. On the other hand, the application of neural net techniques to the types of high-level cognitive processing studied in traditional artificial intelligence presents major problems as well. A promising way out of this impasse is to build neural net models that accomplish massively parallel case-based reasoning. Case-based reasoning, which has received much attention recently, is essentially the same as analogy-based reasoning, and avoids many of the problems leveled at traditional artificial intelligence. Further problems are avoided by doing many strands of case-based reasoning in parallel, and by implementing the whole system as a neural net. In addition, such a system provides an approach to some aspects of the problems of noise, uncertainty and novelty in reasoning systems. The current neural net system (Conposit), which performs standard rule-based reasoning, is being modified into a massively parallel case-based reasoning version.

Barnden, John↗

Implementing Scientific Simulation Codes Highly Tailored for Vector Architectures Using Custom Configurable Computing Machines

The motivation for this work comes from an observation that amidst the push for Massively Parallel (MP) solutions to high-end computing problems such as numerical physical simulations, large amounts of legacy code exist that are highly optimized for vector supercomputers. Because re-hosting legacy code often requires a complete re-write of the original code, which can be a very long and expensive effort, this work examines the potential to exploit reconfigurable computing machines in place of a vector supercomputer to implement an essentially unmodified legacy source code. Custom and reconfigurable computing resources could be used to emulate an original application's target platform to the extent required to achieve high performance. To arrive at an architecture that delivers the desired performance subject to limited resources involves solving a multi-variable optimization problem with constraints. Prior research in the area of reconfigurable computing has demonstrated that designing an optimum hardware implementation of a given application under hardware resource constraints is an NP-complete problem. The premise of the approach is that the general issue of applying reconfigurable computing resources to the implementation of an application, maximizing the performance of the computation subject to physical resource constraints, can be made a tractable problem by assuming a computational paradigm, such as vector processing. This research contributes a formulation of the problem and a methodology to design a reconfigurable vector processing implementation of a given application that satisfies a performance metric. A generic, parametric, architectural framework for vector processing implemented in reconfigurable logic is developed as a target for a scheduling/mapping algorithm that maps an input computation to a given instance of the architecture. This algorithm is integrated with an optimization framework to arrive at a specification of the architecture parameters that attempts to minimize execution time, while staying within resource constraints. The flexibility of using a custom reconfigurable implementation is exploited in a unique manner to leverage the lessons learned in vector supercomputer development. The vector processing framework is tailored to the application, with variable parameters that are fixed in traditional vector processing. Benchmark data that demonstrates the functionality and utility of the approach is presented. The benchmark data includes an identified bottleneck in a real case study example vector code, the NASA Langley Terminal Area Simulation System (TASS) application.

Rutishauser, David↗

cuTS: Scaling Subgraph Isomorphism on Distributed Multi-GPUSystems Using Trie Based Data Structure

Subgraph isomorphism is a pattern-matching algorithm widely used in many domains such as chem-informatics, bioinformatics, databases, and social network analysis. It is computationally expensive and is a proven NP-hard problem. The massive parallelism offered by the GPU hardware is well suited for solving the subgraph isomorphism. However, current GPU implementations are far from the achievable performance. Moreover, the enormous memory requirement of current approaches limits the problem size that can be handled. This work analyzes the fundamental challenges associated with processing the subgraph isomorphism on GPUs and develops an efficient GPU hardware-aware implementation. We also develop a new GPU-friendly trie-based data structure to drastically reduce the intermediate storage space requirement. Hence, our approach runs larger benchmarks than the competitors. We also develop the first distributed sub-graph isomorphism algorithm for GPUs. Our experimental evaluation section demonstrates the efficacy of our approach by comparing the execution time and number of cases that we can handle against the state-of-the-art GPU implementations.

Xiang, Lizhi↗

Ferroelectric/Optoelectronic Memory/Processor

Proposed hybrid optoelectronic nonvolatile analog memory and data processor comprises planar array of microscopic photosensitive ferroelectric capacitors performing massively parallel analog computations. Processors overcome electronic crosstalk and limitations on number of input/output contacts inherent in electronic implementations of large interconnection arrays. Used in general optical computing, recognition of patterns, and artificial neural networks.

Thakoor, Sarita↗

Tuning HDF5 subfiling performance on parallel file systems

Subfiling is a technique used on parallel file systems to reduce locking and contention issues when multiple compute nodes interact with the same storage target node. Subfiling provides a compromise between the single shared file approach that instigates the lock contention problems on parallel file systems and having one file per process, which results in generating a massive and unmanageable number of files. In this paper, we evaluate and tune the performance of recently implemented subfiling feature in HDF5. In specific, we explain the implementation strategy of subfiling feature in HDF5, provide examples of using the feature, and evaluate and tune parallel I/O performance of this feature with parallel file systems of the Cray XC40 system at NERSC (Cori) that include a burst buffer storage and a Lustre disk-based storage. We also evaluate I/O performance on the Cray XC30 system, Edison, at NERSC. Our results show performance benefits of 1.2X to 6X performance advantage with subfiling compared to writing a single shared HDF5 file. We present our exploration of configurations, such as the number of subfiles and the number of Lustre storage targets to storing files, as optimization parameters to obtain superior I/O performance. Based on this exploration, we discuss recommendations for achieving good I/O performance as well as limitations with using the subfiling feature.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Scalable molecular dynamics on CPU and GPU architectures with NAMD

NAMD is a molecular dynamics program designed for high-performance simulations of very large biological objects on CPU- and GPU-based architectures. NAMD offers scalable performance on petascale parallel supercomputers consisting of hundreds of thousands of cores, as well as on inexpensive commodity clusters commonly found in academic environments. It is written in C++ and leans on Charm++ parallel objects for optimal performance on low-latency architectures. NAMD is a versatile, multipurpose code that gathers state-of-the-art algorithms to carry out simulations in apt thermodynamic ensembles, using the widely popular CHARMM, AMBER, OPLS, and GROMOS biomolecular force fields. Here, we review the main features of NAMD that allow both equilibrium and enhanced-sampling molecular dynamics simulations with numerical efficiency. We describe the underlying concepts utilized by NAMD and their implementation, most notably for handling long-range electrostatics; controlling the temperature, pressure, and pH; applying external potentials on tailored grids; leveraging massively parallel resources in multiple-copy simulations; and hybrid quantum-mechanical/molecular-mechanical descriptions. We detail the variety of options offered by NAMD for enhanced-sampling simulations aimed at determining free-energy differences of either alchemical or geometrical transformations and outline their applicability to specific problems. Last, we discuss the roadmap for the development of NAMD and our current efforts toward achieving optimal performance on GPU-based architectures, for pushing back the limitations that have prevented biologically realistic billion-atom objects to be fruitfully simulated, and for making large-scale simulations less expensive and easier to set up, run, and analyze. NAMD is distributed free of charge with its source code at www.ks.uiuc.edu.

high-performance computing↗

Onset of natural selection in populations of autocatalytic heteropolymers

We present that reduction of information entropy along with ever-increasing complexity is among the key signatures of life. Understanding the onset of such behavior in the early prebiotic world is essential for solving the problem of the origin of life. Here we study a general problem of heteropolymers capable of template-assisted ligation based on Watson-Crick-like hybridization. The system is driven off-equilibrium by cyclic changes in the environment. We model the dynamics of 2-mers, i.e., sequential pairs of specific monomers within the heteropolymer population. While the possible number of them is Z 2 (where Z is the number of monomer types), we observe that most of the 2-mers get extinct, leaving no more than 2Z survivors. This leads to a dramatic reduction of the information entropy in the sequence space. Our numerical results are supported by a general mathematical analysis of the competition of growing polymers for constituent monomers. This natural-selection-like process ultimately results in a limited subset of polymer sequences. Importantly, the set of surviving sequences depends on initial concentrations of monomers and remains exponentially large (2 L down from Z L for length L) in each of realizations. Therefore, an inhomogeneity in initial conditions allows for a massively parallel search of the sequence space for biologically functional polymers, such as ribozymes. We also propose potential experimental implementations of our model in the contexts of either biopolymers or artificial nano-structures.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Mapping robust parallel multigrid algorithms to scalable memory architectures

The convergence rate of standard multigrid algorithms degenerates on problems with stretched grids or anisotropic operators. The usual cure for this is the use of line or plane relaxation. However, multigrid algorithms based on line and plane relaxation have limited and awkward parallelism and are quite difficult to map effectively to highly parallel architectures. Newer multigrid algorithms that overcome anisotropy through the use of multiple coarse grids rather than relaxation are better suited to massively parallel architectures because they require only simple point-relaxation smoothers. In this paper, we look at the parallel implementation of a V-cycle multiple semicoarsened grid (MSG) algorithm on distributed-memory architectures such as the Intel iPSC/860 and Paragon computers. The MSG algorithms provide two levels of parallelism: parallelism within the relaxation or interpolation on each grid and across the grids on each multigrid level. Both levels of parallelism must be exploited to map these algorithms effectively to parallel architectures. This paper describes a mapping of an MSG algorithm to distributed-memory architectures that demonstrates how both levels of parallelism can be exploited. The result is a robust and effective multigrid algorithm for distributed-memory machines.

Overman, Andrea↗

A Low-Power High-Speed Smart Sensor Design for Space Exploration Missions

A low-power high-speed smart sensor system based on a large format active pixel sensor (APS) integrated with a programmable neural processor for space exploration missions is presented. The concept of building an advanced smart sensing system is demonstrated by a system-level microchip design that is composed with an APS sensor, a programmable neural processor, and an embedded microprocessor in a SOI CMOS technology. This ultra-fast smart sensor system-on-a-chip design mimics what is inherent in biological vision systems. Moreover, it is programmable and capable of performing ultra-fast machine vision processing in all levels such as image acquisition, image fusion, image analysis, scene interpretation, and control functions. The system provides about one tera-operation-per-second computing power which is a two order-of-magnitude increase over that of state-of-the-art microcomputers. Its high performance is due to massively parallel computing structures, high data throughput rates, fast learning capabilities, and advanced VLSI system-on-a-chip implementation.

Fang, Wai-Chi↗

Techniques for Enabling Highly Efficient Message Passing on Many-Core Architectures

Many-core architecture provides a massively parallel environment with dozens of cores and hundreds of hardware threads. Scientific application programmers are increasingly looking at ways to utilize such large numbers of lightweight cores for various programming models. Efficiently executing these models on massively parallel many-core environments is not easy, however and performance may be degraded in various ways. The first author's doctoral research focuses on exploiting the capabilities of many-core architectures on widely used MPI implementations. While application programmers have studied several approaches to achieve better parallelism and resource sharing, many of those approaches still face communication problems that degrade performance. In the thesis, we investigate the characteristics of MPI on such massively threaded architectures and propose two efficient strategies -- a multi-threaded MPI approach and a process-based asynchronous model -- to optimize MPI communication for modern scientific applications.

Si, Min↗

A Well-Posed Two Phase Flow Model and its Numerical Solutions for Reactor Thermal-Fluids Analysis

A 7-equation two-phase flow model and its numerical implementation is presented for reactor thermal-fluids applications. The equation system is well-posed and treats both phases as compressible flows. The numerical discretization of the equation system is based on the finite element formalism. The numerical algorithm is implemented in the next generation RELAP-7 code (Idaho National Laboratory (INL)’s thermal-fluids code) built on top of an other INL’s product, the massively parallel multi-implicit multi-physics object oriented code environment (MOOSE). Some preliminary thermal-fluids computations are presented.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗