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Institute for Sustained Performance, Energy, and Resilience (SuPER)

The University of Tennessee (UTK) and University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) partnership supported the three main thrusts of the SUPER project---performance, energy, and resilience. The UTK-UTEP effort thus helped advance the main goal of SUPER, which was to ensure that DOE's computational scientists can successfully exploit the emerging generation of high performance computing (HPC) systems. This goal is being met by providing application scientists with strategies and tools to productively maximize performance, conserve energy, and attain resilience. The primary vehicle through which UTK provided performance measurement support to SUPER and the larger HPC community is the Performance Application Programming Interface (PAPI). PAPI is an ongoing project that provides a consistent interface and methodology for collecting hardware performance information from various hardware and software components, including most major CPUs, GPUs and accelerators, interconnects, I/O systems, and power interfaces, as well as virtual cloud environments. The PAPI software is widely used for performance modeling of scientific and engineering applications---for example, the HOMME (High Order Methods Modeling Environment) climate code, and the GAMESS and NWChem computational chemistry codes---on DOE supercomputers. PAPI is widely deployed as middleware for use by higher-level profiling, tracing, and sampling tools (e.g., CrayPat, HPCToolkit, Scalasca, Score-P, TAU, Vampir, PerfExpert), making it the de facto standard for hardware counter analysis. PAPI has established itself as fundamental software infrastructure in every application domain (spanning academia, government, and industry), where improving performance can be mission critical. Ultimately, as more application scientists migrate their applications to HPC platforms, they will benefit from the extended capabilities this grant brought to PAPI to analyze and optimize performance in these environments, whether they use PAPI directly, or via third-party performance tools. Capabilities added to PAPI through this grant include support for new architectures such as the lastest GPU and Xeon Phi accelerators, and advanced power measurement and management features. Another important topic for the UTK team was providing support for a rich ecosystem of different fault management strategies in the context of parallel computing. Our long term efforts have been oriented toward proposing flexible strategies and providing building boxes that application developers can use to build the most efficient fault management technique for their application. These efforts span across the entire software spectrum, from theoretical models of existing strategies to easily assess their performance, to algorithmic modifications to take advantage of specific mathematical properties for data redundancy and to extensions to widely used programming paradigms to empower the application developers to deal with all types of faults. We have also continued our tight collaborations with users to help them adopt these technologies to ensure their application always deliver meaningful scientific data. Large supercomputer systems are becoming more and more power and energy constrained, and future systems and applications running on them will need to be optimized to run under power caps and/or minimize energy consumption. The UTEP team contributed to the SUPER energy thrust by developing power modeling methodologies and investigating power management strategies. Scalability modeling results showed that some applications can scale better with respect to an increasing power budget than with respect to only the number of processors. Power management, in particular shifting power to processors on the critical path of an application execution, can reduce perturbation due to system noise and other sources of runtime variability, which are growing problems on large-scale power-constrained computer systems.

42 ENGINEERING↗

VERAIO Software Management Plan

VERAIO is a set of utility codes used to provide a common set of input and outputs to the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA). VERA is a collection of several different computer codes that all have a common input and output. This prevents the need to manage input and output from each individual code, allowing for ease of use and reducing errors associated with code operability. The VERAIO utilities include VERAIn, VERAView, and VERARun. Each of these utilities is described below. VERAIn is an input processor that reads an ASCII input file generated by users, parses the file, performs some error checking, and writes an XML file to be read by other VERA codes. The main purpose of VERAIn is to provide a common input to all of the VERA codes so users only need to learn one input. VERAIn is written in Perl and uses YAML configuration files to provide flexibility. VERAView is a graphical user interface (GUI) that reads a VERA HDF output file and allows users to visualize results. VERAView is written in Python. VERARun is a script that drives the VERA execution in a high performance computing (HPC) environment. Work performed at the code level supports the Quality Assurance Program Plan (QAPP) (VERA-QA-001), and VERA Software Quality Assurance Plan (VERA-QA-002).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Peer-to-peer architectures for exascale computing : LDRD final report.

The goal of this research was to investigate the potential for employing dynamic, decentralized software architectures to achieve reliability in future high-performance computing platforms. These architectures, inspired by peer-to-peer networks such as botnets that already scale to millions of unreliable nodes, hold promise for enabling scientific applications to run usefully on next-generation exascale platforms ({approx} 10{sup 18} operations per second). Traditional parallel programming techniques suffer rapid deterioration of performance scaling with growing platform size, as the work of coping with increasingly frequent failures dominates over useful computation. Our studies suggest that new architectures, in which failures are treated as ubiquitous and their effects are considered as simply another controllable source of error in a scientific computation, can remove such obstacles to exascale computing for certain applications. We have developed a simulation framework, as well as a preliminary implementation in a large-scale emulation environment, for exploration of these 'fault-oblivious computing' approaches. High-performance computing (HPC) faces a fundamental problem of increasing total component failure rates due to increasing system sizes, which threaten to degrade system reliability to an unusable level by the time the exascale range is reached ({approx} 10{sup 18} operations per second, requiring of order millions of processors). As computer scientists seek a way to scale system software for next-generation exascale machines, it is worth considering peer-to-peer (P2P) architectures that are already capable of supporting 10{sup 6}-10{sup 7} unreliable nodes. Exascale platforms will require a different way of looking at systems and software because the machine will likely not be available in its entirety for a meaningful execution time. Realistic estimates of failure rates range from a few times per day to more than once per hour for these platforms. P2P architectures give us a starting point for crafting applications and system software for exascale. In the context of the Internet, P2P applications (e.g., file sharing, botnets) have already solved this problem for 10{sup 6}-10{sup 7} nodes. Usually based on a fractal distributed hash table structure, these systems have proven robust in practice to constant and unpredictable outages, failures, and even subversion. For example, a recent estimate of botnet turnover (i.e., the number of machines leaving and joining) is about 11% per week. Nonetheless, P2P networks remain effective despite these failures: The Conficker botnet has grown to {approx} 5 x 10{sup 6} peers. Unlike today's system software and applications, those for next-generation exascale machines cannot assume a static structure and, to be scalable over millions of nodes, must be decentralized. P2P architectures achieve both, and provide a promising model for 'fault-oblivious computing'. This project aimed to study the dynamics of P2P networks in the context of a design for exascale systems and applications. Having no single point of failure, the most successful P2P architectures are adaptive and self-organizing. While there has been some previous work applying P2P to message passing, little attention has been previously paid to the tightly coupled exascale domain. Typically, the per-node footprint of P2P systems is small, making them ideal for HPC use. The implementation on each peer node cooperates en masse to 'heal' disruptions rather than relying on a controlling 'master' node. Understanding this cooperative behavior from a complex systems viewpoint is essential to predicting useful environments for the inextricably unreliable exascale platforms of the future. We sought to obtain theoretical insight into the stability and large-scale behavior of candidate architectures, and to work toward leveraging Sandia's Emulytics platform to test promising candidates in a realistic (ultimately {ge} 10{sup 7} nodes) setting. Our primary example applications are drawn from linear algebra: a Jacobi relaxation solver for the heat equation, and the closely related technique of value iteration in optimization. We aimed to apply P2P concepts in designing implementations capable of surviving an unreliable machine of 10{sup 6} nodes.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

VERAIO Software Management Plan

VERAIO is a set of utility codes used to provide a common set of inputs and outputs to the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA). VERA is a collection of several different computer codes that all have a common input and output. This prevents the need to manage input and output from each individual code, allowing for ease of use and reducing errors associated with code operability. The VERAIO utilities include VERAIn, VERAView, and VERARun. Each of these utilities is described below. VERAIn is an input processor that reads an ASCII input file generated by users, parses the file, performs some error checking, and writes an XML file to be read by other VERA codes. The main purpose of VERAIn is to provide a common input to all of the VERA codes, so users only need to learn one input. VERAIn is written in Perl and uses YAML configuration files to provide flexibility. VERAView is a graphical user interface (GUI) that reads a VERA hierarchical data format (HDF) output file and allows users to visualize results. VERAView is written in Python. VERARun is a script that drives the VERA execution in a high performance computing (HPC) environment. Work performed at the code level supports the quality assurance program plan (QAPP) (VERA-QA-001) and the VERA Software Quality Assurance Plan (VERA-QA-002).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DYNA3D/ParaDyn Regression Test Suite Inventory

The following table constitutes an initial assessment of feature coverage across the regression test suite used for DYNA3D and ParaDyn. It documents the regression test suite at the time of production release 10.1 in September 2010. The columns of the table represent groupings of functionalities, e.g., material models. Each problem in the test suite is represented by a row in the table. All features exercised by the problem are denoted by a check mark in the corresponding column. The definition of ''feature'' has not been subdivided to its smallest unit of user input, e.g., algorithmic parameters specific to a particular type of contact surface. This represents a judgment to provide code developers and users a reasonable impression of feature coverage without expanding the width of the table by several multiples. All regression testing is run in parallel, typically with eight processors. Many are strictly regression tests acting as a check that the codes continue to produce adequately repeatable results as development unfolds, compilers change and platforms are replaced. A subset of the tests represents true verification problems that have been checked against analytical or other benchmark solutions. Users are welcomed to submit documented problems for inclusion in the test suite, especially if they are heavily exercising, and dependent upon, features that are currently underrepresented.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Reinforcement Learning for Load-balanced Parallel Particle Tracing

We explore an online reinforcement learning (RL) paradigm to dynamically optimize parallel particle tracing performance in distributed-memory systems. Our method combines three novel components: (1) a work donation algorithm, (2) a high-order workload estimation model, and (3) a communication cost model. First, we design an RL-based work donation algorithm. Our algorithm monitors workloads of processes and creates RL agents to donate data blocks and particles from high-workload processes to low-workload processes to minimize program execution time. The agents learn the donation strategy on the fly based on reward and cost functions designed to consider processes' workload changes and data transfer costs of donation actions. Second, we propose a workload estimation model, helping RL agents estimate the workload distribution of processes in future computations. Third, we design a communication cost model that considers both block and particle data exchange costs, helping RL agents make effective decisions with minimized communication costs. We demonstrate that our algorithm adapts to different flow behaviors in large-scale fluid dynamics, ocean, and weather simulation data. Our algorithm improves parallel particle tracing performance in terms of parallel efficiency, load balance, and costs of I/O and communication for evaluations with up to 16,384 processors.

Distributed and parallel particle tracing↗

TH-A-19A-04: Latent Uncertainties and Performance of a GPU-Implemented Pre-Calculated Track Monte Carlo Method

Purpose: Assessing the performance and uncertainty of a pre-calculated Monte Carlo (PMC) algorithm for proton and electron transport running on graphics processing units (GPU). While PMC methods have been described in the past, an explicit quantification of the latent uncertainty arising from recycling a limited number of tracks in the pre-generated track bank is missing from the literature. With a proper uncertainty analysis, an optimal pre-generated track bank size can be selected for a desired dose calculation uncertainty. Methods: Particle tracks were pre-generated for electrons and protons using EGSnrc and GEANT4, respectively. The PMC algorithm for track transport was implemented on the CUDA programming framework. GPU-PMC dose distributions were compared to benchmark dose distributions simulated using general-purpose MC codes in the same conditions. A latent uncertainty analysis was performed by comparing GPUPMC dose values to a “ground truth” benchmark while varying the track bank size and primary particle histories. Results: GPU-PMC dose distributions and benchmark doses were within 1% of each other in voxels with dose greater than 50% of Dmax. In proton calculations, a submillimeter distance-to-agreement error was observed at the Bragg Peak. Latent uncertainty followed a Poisson distribution with the number of tracks per energy (TPE) and a track bank of 20,000 TPE produced a latent uncertainty of approximately 1%. Efficiency analysis showed a 937× and 508× gain over a single processor core running DOSXYZnrc for 16 MeV electrons in water and bone, respectively. Conclusion: The GPU-PMC method can calculate dose distributions for electrons and protons to a statistical uncertainty below 1%. The track bank size necessary to achieve an optimal efficiency can be tuned based on the desired uncertainty. Coupled with a model to calculate dose contributions from uncharged particles, GPU-PMC is a candidate for inverse planning of modulated electron radiotherapy and scanned proton beams. This work was supported in part by FRSQ-MSSS (Grant No. 22090), NSERC RG (Grant No. 432290) and CIHR MOP (Grant No. MOP-211360)

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

NEAMS Workbench Status and Capabilities

The mission of the US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program is to develop, apply, deploy, and support state-of-the-art predictive modeling and simulation tools for the design and analysis of current and future nuclear energy systems. This is accomplished by using computing architectures that range from laptops to leadership-class facilities. The NEAMS Workbench is a new initiative that will facilitate the transition from conventional tools to highfidelity tools by providing a common user interface for model creation, review, execution, output review, and visualization for integrated codes. The Workbench can use common user input, including engineering-scale specifications that are expanded into application-specific input requirements through the use of customizable templates. The templating process can enable multifidelity analysis of a system from a common set of input data. Additionally, the common user input processor can provide an enhanced alternative application input that provides additional conveniences compared with native input, especially for legacy codes. Expansion of the integrated codes and application templates available in the Workbench will broaden the NEAMS user community and will facilitate system analysis and design. Current and planned capabilities of the NEAMS Workbench are detailed herein.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

A communication-avoiding, hybrid-parallel, rank-revealing orthogonalization method.

Orthogonalization consumes much of the run time of many iterative methods for solving sparse linear systems and eigenvalue problems. Commonly used algorithms, such as variants of Gram-Schmidt or Householder QR, have performance dominated by communication. Here, 'communication' includes both data movement between the CPU and memory, and messages between processors in parallel. Our Tall Skinny QR (TSQR) family of algorithms requires asymptotically fewer messages between processors and data movement between CPU and memory than typical orthogonalization methods, yet achieves the same accuracy as Householder QR factorization. Furthermore, in block orthogonalizations, TSQR is faster and more accurate than existing approaches for orthogonalizing the vectors within each block ('normalization'). TSQR's rank-revealing capability also makes it useful for detecting deflation in block iterative methods, for which existing approaches sacrifice performance, accuracy, or both. We have implemented a version of TSQR that exploits both distributed-memory and shared-memory parallelism, and supports real and complex arithmetic. Our implementation is optimized for the case of orthogonalizing a small number (5-20) of very long vectors. The shared-memory parallel component uses Intel's Threading Building Blocks, though its modular design supports other shared-memory programming models as well, including computation on the GPU. Our implementation achieves speedups of 2 times or more over competing orthogonalizations. It is available now in the development branch of the Trilinos software package, and will be included in the 10.8 release.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Implementation of McMurchie–Davidson Algorithm for Gaussian AO Integrals Suited for SIMD Processors

We report an implementation of the McMurchie− Davidson evaluation scheme for 1- and 2-particle Gaussian AO integrals designed for processors with Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) instruction sets. Like in our recent MD implementation for graphical processing units (GPUs) [Asadchev, A.; Valeev, E. F.. J. Chem. Phys. 2024, 160, 244109.], variable-sized batches of shellsets of integrals are evaluated at a time. By optimizing for the floating point instruction throughput rather than minimizing the number of operations, this approach achieves up to 50% of the theoretical hardware peak FP64 performance for many common SIMD-equipped platforms (AVX2, AVX512, NEON), which translates to speedups of up to 30 over the state-of-the-art one-shellset-at-a-time implementation of Obara−Saika-type schemes in Libint for a variety of primitive and contracted integrals. As with our previous work, we rely on the standard C++ programming language such as the std::simd standard library feature to be included in the 2026 ISO C++ standard without any explicit code generation to keep the code base small and portable. The implementation is part of the open source LibintX library freely available at https://github.com/ValeevGroup/libintx.

Basis sets↗

NEAMS Workbench 1.0 Beta

The mission of the US Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) Program is to develop, apply, deploy, and support state-of-the-art predictive modeling and simulation tools for the design and analysis of current and future nuclear energy systems. This is accomplished using computing architectures that range from laptops to leadership-class facilities. The NEAMS Workbench is a new initiative that will facilitate the transition from conventional tools to high-fidelity tools by providing a common user interface for model creation, review, execution, output review, and visualization for integrated codes. The Workbench can use common user input, including engineering scale specifications that are expanded into application-specific input requirements through the use of customizable templates. The templating process enables multi-fidelity analysis of a system from a common set of input data. Additionally, the common user input processor can provide an enhanced alternative application input that provides additional conveniences over the native input, especially for legacy codes. Expansion of the integrated codes and application templates available in the Workbench will broaden the NEAMS user community and will facilitate system analysis and design. Current and planned capabilities of the NEAMS Workbench are detailed here.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NEAMS Workbench Status and Capabilities

The mission of the US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program is to develop, apply, deploy, and support state-of-the-art predictive modeling and simulation tools for the design and analysis of current and future nuclear energy systems. This is accomplished by using computing architectures that range from laptops to leadership-class facilities. The NEAMS Workbench is a new initiative that will facilitate the transition from conventional tools to high fidelity tools by providing a common user interface for model creation, review, execution, output review, and visualization for integrated codes. The Workbench can use common user input, including engineering-scale specifications that are expanded into application-specific input requirements through the use of customizable templates. The templating process can enable multifidelity analysis of a system from a common set of input data. Additionally, the common user input processor can provide an enhanced alternative application input that provides additional conveniences over the native input, especially for legacy codes. Expansion of the integrated codes and application templates available in the Workbench will broaden the NEAMS user community and will facilitate system analysis and design. Current and planned capabilities of the NEAMS Workbench are detailed here.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Empirical Memory-Access Cost Models in Multicore NUMA Architectures

Data location is of prime importance when scheduling tasks in a non-uniform memory access (NUMA) architecture. The characteristics of the NUMA architecture must be understood so tasks can be scheduled onto processors that are close to the task's data. However, in modern NUMA architectures, such as AMD Magny-Cours and Intel Nehalem, there may be a relatively large number of memory controllers with sockets that are connected in a non-intuitive manner, leading to performance degradation due to uninformed task-scheduling decisions. In this paper, we provide a method for experimentally characterizing memory-access costs for modern NUMA architectures via memory latency and bandwidth microbenchmarks. Using the results of these benchmarks, we propose a memory-access cost model to improve task-scheduling decisions by scheduling tasks near the data they need. Simple task-scheduling experiments using the memory-access cost models validate the use of empirical memory-access cost models to significantly improve program performance.

BENCHMARKS↗

RIKEN/RBRC Workshop: Future Directions in High Energy QCD

The RIKEN BNL Research Center (RBRC) was established in April 1997 at Brookhaven National Laboratory. It is funded by the "Rikagaku Kenkyusho" (RIKEN, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research of Japan. The Memorandum of Understanding between RIKEN and BNL, initiated in 1997, has been renewed in 2002 and again in 2007. The Center is dedicated to the study of strong interactions, including spin physics, lattice QCD, and RHIC physics through the nurturing of new generations of young physicists. The RBRC has both a theory and experimental component. The RBRC Theory Group and the RBRC Experimental Group consists of a total of 25-30 researchers. Positions include the following: full time RBRC Fellow, half-time RHIC Physics Fellow, and full-time, post-doctoral Research Associate. The RHIC Physics Fellows hold joint appointments with RBRC and other institutions and have tenure track positions at their respective universities or BNL. To date, RBRC has ~100 graduates of which 27 theorists and 14 experimenters have attained tenure positions at major institutions world wide. Beginning in 2001 a new RIKEN Spin Program (RSP) category was implemented at RBRC. These appointments are joint positions of RBRC and RIKEN and include the following positions in theory and experiment: RSP Researchers, RSP Research Associates, and Young Researchers, who are mentored by senior RRC Scientists. A number of RIKEN Jr. Research Associates and Visiting Scientists also contribute to the physics program at the Center. RBRC has an active workshop program on strong interaction physics with each workshop focused on a specific physics problem. In most cases all the talks are made available on the RBRC website. In addition, highlights to each speaker's presentation are collected to form proceedings which can therefore be made available within a short time after the workshop. To date there are one hundred and two proceedings volumes available. A 10 teraflops RBRC QCDOC computer funded by RIKEN, Japan, was unveiled at a dedication ceremony at BNL on May 26, 2005. This supercomputer was designed and built by individuals from Columbia University, IBM, BNL, RBRC, and the University of Edinburgh, with the U.S.D.O.E. Office of Science providing infrastructure support at BNL. Physics results were reported at the RBRC QCDOC Symposium following the dedication. QCDSP, a 0.6 teraflops parallel processor, dedicated to lattice QCD, was begun at the Center on February 19, 1998, was completed on August 28, 1998, and was decommissioned in 2006. It was awarded the Gordon Bell Prize for price performance in 1998. The next generation computer in this sequence, QCDCQ (400 Teraflops), will become operational in the summer of 2012.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Proceedings of RIKEN BNL Research Center Workshop, Volume 113: Thermal Radiation Workshop

The RIKEN BNL Research Center (RBRC) was established in April 1997 at Brookhaven National Laboratory. It is funded by the "Rikagaku Kenkyusho" (RIKEN, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) of Japan. The Memorandum of Understanding between RIKEN and BNL, initiated in 1997, has been renewed in 2002, 2007 and again in 2012. The Center is dedicated to the study of strong interactions, including spin physics, lattice QCD, and RHIC physics through the nurturing of a new generation of young physicists. The RBRC has both a theory and experimental component. The RBRC Theory Group and the RBRC Experimental Group consists of a total of 25-30 researchers. Positions include the following: full time RBRC Fellow, half-time RHIC Physics Fellow, and full-time post doctoral Research Associate. The RHIC Physics Fellows hold joint appointments with RBRC and other institutions and have tenure track positions at their respective universities or BNL. To date, RBRC has over 95 graduates (Fellows and Post- docs) of which approximately 40 theorists and 20 experimenters have already attained tenure positions at major institutions worldwide. Beginning in 2001 a new RIKEN Spin Program (RSP) category was implemented at RBRC. These appointments are joint positions of RBRC and RIKEN and include the following positions in theory and experiment: RSP Researchers, RSP Research Associates, and Young Researchers, who are mentored by senior RBRC Scientists. A number of RIKEN Jr. Research Associates and Visiting Scientists also contribute to the physics program at the Center. RBRC has an active workshop program on strong interaction physics with each workshop focused on a specific physics problem. In most cases all the talks are made available on the RBRC website. In addition, highlights to each speaker’s presentation are collected to form proceedings which can therefore be made available within a short time after the workshop. To date there are over one hundred proceeding volumes available. A 10 teraflops RBRC QCDOC computer funded by RIKEN, Japan, was unveiled at a dedication ceremony at BNL on May 26, 2005. This supercomputer was designed and built by individuals from Columbia University, IBM, BNL, RBRC, and the University of Edinburgh, with the U.S. D.O.E. Office of Science providing infrastructure support at BNL. Physics results were reported at the RBRC QCDOC Symposium following the dedication. QCDSP, a 0.6 teraflops parallel processor, dedicated to lattice QCD, was begun at the Center on February 19, 1998, was completed on August 28, 1998, and was decommissioned in 2006. It was awarded the Gordon Bell Prize for price performance in 1998. QCDOC was decommissioned in May 2012. The next generation computer in this sequence, QCDCQ (600 Teraflops), is currently operational and is expected to produce many more interesting discoveries in the future.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Proceedings of RIKEN BNL Research Center Workshop: The Physics of p ↑ +A Collisions at RHIC

The RIKEN BNL Research Center (RBRC) was established in April 1997 at Brookhaven National Laboratory. It is funded by the "Rikagaku Kenkyusho" (RIKEN, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) of Japan. The Memorandum of Understanding between RIKEN and BNL, initiated in 1997, has been renewed in 2002, 2007 and again in 2012. The Center is dedicated to the study of strong interactions, including spin physics, lattice QCD, and RHIC physics through the nurturing of a new generation of young physicists. The RBRC has both a theory and experimental component. The RBRC Theory Group and the RBRC Experimental Group consists of a total of 25-30 researchers. Positions include the following: full time RBRC Fellow, half-time RHIC Physics Fellow, and full-time postdoctoral Research Associate. The RHIC Physics Fellows hold joint appointments with RBRC and other institutions and have tenure track positions at their respective universities or BNL. To date, RBRC has over 95 graduates (Fellows and Post- docs) of which approximately 40 theorists and 20 experimenters have already attained tenure positions at major institutions worldwide. Beginning in 2001 a new RIKEN Spin Program (RSP) category was implemented at RBRC. These appointments are joint positions of RBRC and RIKEN and include the following positions in theory and experiment: RSP Researchers, RSP Research Associates, and Young Researchers, who are mentored by senior RBRC Scientists. A number of RIKEN Jr. Research Associates and Visiting Scientists also contribute to the physics program at the Center. RBRC has an active workshop program on strong interaction physics with each workshop focused on a specific physics problem. In most cases all the talks are made available on the RBRC website. In addition, highlights to each speaker’s presentation are collected to form proceedings which can therefore be made available within a short time after the workshop. To date there are over one hundred proceeding volumes available. A 10 teraflops RBRC QCDOC computer funded by RIKEN, Japan, was unveiled at a dedication ceremony at BNL on May 26, 2005. This supercomputer was designed and built by individuals from Columbia University, IBM, BNL, RBRC, and the University of Edinburgh, with the U.S. D.O.E. Office of Science providing infrastructure support at BNL. Physics results were reported at the RBRC QCDOC Symposium following the dedication. QCDSP, a 0.6 teraflops parallel processor, dedicated to lattice QCD, was begun at the Center on February 19, 1998, was completed on August 28, 1998, and was decommissioned in 2006. It was awarded the Gordon Bell Prize for price performance in 1998. QCDOC was decommissioned in May 2012. The next generation computer in this sequence, QCDCQ (600 Teraflops), is currently operational and is expected to produce many more interesting discoveries in the future.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Modeling Large-Scale Slim Fly Networks Using Parallel Discrete-Event Simulation

As supercomputers approach exascale performance, the increased number of processors translates to an increased demand on the underlying network interconnect. We present that the slim fly network topology, a new low-diameter, low-latency, and low-cost interconnection network, is gaining interest as one possible solution for next-generation supercomputing interconnect systems. In this article, we present a high-fidelity slim fly packet-level model leveraging the Rensselaer Optimistic Simulation System (ROSS) and Co-Design of Exascale Storage (CODES) frameworks. We validate the model with published work before scaling the network size up to an unprecedented 1 million compute nodes and confirming that the slim fly observes peak network throughput at extreme scale. In addition to synthetic workloads, we evaluate large-scale slim fly models with real communication workloads from applications in the Design Forward program with over 110,000 MPI processes. We show strong scaling of the slim fly model on an Intel cluster achieving a peak network packet transfer rate of 2.3 million packets per second and processing over 7 billion discrete events using 128 MPI tasks. Enabled by the strong performance capabilities of the model, we perform a detailed application trace and routing protocol performance study. Lastly, through analysis of metrics such as packet latency, hop count, and congestion, we find that the slim fly network is able to leverage simple minimal routing and achieve the same performance as more complex adaptive routing for tested DOE benchmark applications.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Feedback-directed page placement for ccNUMA via hardware-generated memory traces

Non-uniform memory architectures with cache coherence (ccNUMA) are becoming increasingly common, not just for large-scale high performance platforms but also in the context of multi-core architectures. Under ccNUMA, data placement may influence overall application performance significantly as references resolved locally to a processor/core impose lower latencies than remote ones. This work develops a novel hardware-assisted page placement paradigm based on automated tracing of the memory references made by application threads. Two placement schemes, modeling both singlelevel and multi-level latencies, allocate pages near processors that most frequently access that memory page. These schemes leverage performance monitoring capabilities of contemporary microprocessors to efficiently extract an approximate trace of memory accesses. This information is used to decide page affinity, i.e., the node to which the page is bound. The method operates entirely in user space, is widely automated, and handles not only static but also dynamic memory allocation. Experiments show that this method, although based on lossy tracing, can efficiently and effectively improve page placement, leading to an average wall-clock execution time saving of over 20% for the tested benchmarks on the SGI Altix with a 2x remote access penalty and 12% on AMD Opterons with a 1.3–2.0x access penalty. This is accompanied by a one-time tracing overhead of 2.7% over the overall original program wallclock time.

Computer Science↗