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Results for “Massively parallel computation”

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 19 records

Massively parallel, computationally guided design of a proenzyme

Proteins have shown promise as therapeutics and diagnostics, but their effectiveness is limited by our inability to spatially target their activity. To overcome this limitation, we developed a computationally guided method to design inactive proenzymes or zymogens, which are activated through cleavage by a protease. Since proteases are differentially expressed in various tissues and disease states, including cancer, these proenzymes could be targeted to the desired microenvironment. We tested our method on the therapeutically relevant protein carboxypeptidase G2 (CPG2). We designed Pro-CPG2s that are inhibited by 80 to 98% and are partially to fully reactivatable following protease treatment. The developed methodology, with further refinements, could pave the way for routinely designing protease-activated protein-based therapeutics and diagnostics that act in a spatially controlled manner. Confining the activity of a designed protein to a specific microenvironment would have broad-ranging applications, such as enabling cell type-specific therapeutic action by enzymes while avoiding off-target effects. While many natural enzymes are synthesized as inactive zymogens that can be activated by proteolysis, it has been challenging to redesign any chosen enzyme to be similarly stimulus responsive. Here, we develop a massively parallel computational design, screening, and next-generation sequencing-based approach for proenzyme design. For a model system, we employ carboxypeptidase G2 (CPG2), a clinically approved enzyme that has applications in both the treatment of cancer and controlling drug toxicity. Detailed kinetic characterization of the most effectively designed variants shows that they are inhibited by ∼80% compared to the unmodified protein, and their activity is fully restored following incubation with site-specific proteases. Introducing disulfide bonds between the pro- and catalytic domains based on the design models increases the degree of inhibition to 98% but decreases the degree of restoration of activity by proteolysis. A selected disulfide-containing proenzyme exhibits significantly lower activity relative to the fully activated enzyme when evaluated in cell culture. Structural and thermodynamic characterization provides detailed insights into the prodomain binding and inhibition mechanisms. The described methodology is general and could enable the design of a variety of proproteins with precise spatial regulation.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Developing Multiphysics, Integrated, High-Fidelity, Massively Parallel Computational Capabilities for Fusion Applications Using MOOSE

As the need for fusion as a clean, sustainable, and abundant energy source grows internationally, so does the need for multiphysics, computational tools to model, study, and predict the complex interactions between plasma, materials, and engineering processes. These tools have a crucial role to play in solving scientific and engineering challenges and accelerating fusion energy deployment. To address these needs, modeling capabilities should enable massively parallel, multiphysics, fully integrated high-fidelity simulations of fusion systems. Additional attributes, such as being open source and modular while maintaining high software quality assurance standards will maximize impact by ensuring accessibility for all and wide acceptance, rapid expansion and development, as well as reliability, efficiency, and robustness. In this paper, we describe how the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework, which has a track record of success in the fission space thanks to the attributes listed above, can be leveraged in the fusion energy field. We highlight key successes of the MOOSE application in the fission space and describe how MOOSE has been and is being applied to fusion applications in the United States---e.g., Tritium Migration Analysis Program, version 8 (TMAP8), MOOSE Fusion Module, Fusion ENergy Integrated multiphys-X (FENIX)---and the United Kingdom---e.g., AURORA, Achlys, Apollo. These efforts aim to establish a suite of tools that can be further extended to accelerate fusion energy deployment.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Hierarchical power distribution in large scale computing systems

Techniques for managing power distribution amongst processors in a massively parallel computer architecture are disclosed. The techniques utilize a hierarchy that organizes the various processors of the massively parallel computer architecture. The hierarchy groups numbers of the processors at the lowest level. When processors complete tasks, the power assigned to those processors is distributed to other processors in the same group so that the performance of those processors can be increased. Hierarchical organization simplifies the calculations required for determining how and when to distribute power, because when tasks are complete and power is available for distribution, a relatively small number of processors are available for consideration to receive that power. The number of processors that are grouped together can be adjusted in real time based on performance factors to improve the trade-off between calculation speed and power distribution efficacy.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Systems and methods for rapid processing and storage of data

Systems and methods of building massively parallel computing systems using low power computing complexes in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. A massively parallel computing system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention includes at least one Solid State Blade configured to communicate via a high performance network fabric. In addition, each Solid State Blade includes a processor configured to communicate with a plurality of low power computing complexes interconnected by a router, and each low power computing complex includes at least one general processing core, an accelerator, an I/O interface, and cache memory and is configured to communicate with non-volatile solid state memory.

Stalzer, Mark A.↗

Toward a high-fidelity tritium transport modeling for retention and permeation experiments

We report Tritium Migration Analysis Program version 8 (TMAP8), the latest version of TMAP, was developed within the framework of the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE). Created at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), MOOSE is an open-source, dimension-agnostic, fully coupled, and fully implicit multiphysics platform featuring massively parallel computation capabilities. Using TMAP8, tritium transport in a divertor monoblock was analyzed to elucidate the effects of pulsed operation (up to fifty 1,600 s plasma discharge and cool-down cycles) on the tritium in-vessel inventory source term and ex-vessel release term (i.e., tritium retention and permeation) for safety analysis. With its built-in Message Passing Interface capability, TMAP8 can, in under 2 h, simulate tritium transport in three different layered materials (i.e., tungsten, copper, and copper-chromium-zirconium alloy) in 2D geometry, using a single device/computer with 10 cores. The MOOSE-based TMAP8 code can leverage other MOOSE tools developed under the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program to perform tritium and thermal transport in complex geometries and multiphysics environments. And via its massively parallel computation, MOOSE will enable the fusion pilot plant designers to conduct high-fidelity multiphysics modeling for the design of the divertor and blanket systems as well as for the safety analysis.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

A parallel evolutionary multiple-try metropolis Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm for sampling spatial partitions

We develop an Evolutionary Markov Chain Monte Carlo (EMCMC) algorithm for sampling spatial partitions that lie within a large, complex, and constrained spatial state space. Our algorithm combines the advantages of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) as optimization heuristics for state space traversal and the theoretical convergence properties of Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms for sampling from unknown distributions. Local optimality information that is identified via a directed search by our optimization heuristic is used to adaptively update a Markov chain in a promising direction within the framework of a Multiple-Try Metropolis Markov Chain model that incorporates a generalized Metropolis-Hastings ratio. We further expand the reach of our EMCMC algorithm by harnessing the computational power afforded by massively parallel computing architecture through the integration of a parallel EA framework that guides Markov chains running in parallel.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Subspace recursive Fermi-operator expansion strategies for large-scale DFT eigenvalue problems on HPC architectures

Quantum mechanical calculations for material modeling using Kohn–Sham density functional theory (DFT) involve the solution of a nonlinear eigenvalue problem for N smallest eigenvector-eigenvalue pairs, with N proportional to the number of electrons in the material system. Here, these calculations are computationally demanding and have asymptotic cubic scaling complexity with the number of electrons. Large-scale matrix eigenvalue problems arising from the discretization of the Kohn–Sham DFT equations employing a systematically convergent basis traditionally rely on iterative orthogonal projection methods, which are shown to be computationally efficient and scalable on massively parallel computing architectures. However, as the size of the material system increases, these methods are known to incur dominant computational costs through the Rayleigh–Ritz projection step of the discretized Kohn–Sham Hamiltonian matrix and the subsequent subspace diagonalization of the projected matrix. This work explores the potential of polynomial expansion approaches based on recursive Fermi-operator expansion as an alternative to the subspace diagonalization of the projected Hamiltonian matrix to reduce the computational cost. Subsequently, we perform a detailed comparison of various recursive polynomial expansion approaches to the traditional approach of explicit diagonalization on both multi-node central processing unit and graphics processing unit architectures and assess their relative performance in terms of accuracy, computational efficiency, scaling behavior, and energy efficiency.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Programming approaches for scalability, performance, and portability of combustion physics codes

Here, this paper presents the process, strategy, and results associated with porting a typical combustion physics flow solver to current state-of-the-art and future massively-parallel computer architectures. Major focus is placed on the distinct algorithmic structure of these types of codes and how it can be integrated with modern programming paradigms for heterogeneous platforms (i.e., distributed many-core systems with accelerators). An end-to-end case study is presented that exemplifies the process in a generic manner, which then serves as a clear guide with respect to the strategy and best practices leading to a robust and adaptable framework that performs well, is durable over time, is portable, and requires minimal human-effort. This end is accomplished beginning with the use of a mature, validated, structured, multiblock code framework optimized for application of both Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS). This code has been ported to a variety of platforms over the past decade, including most recently the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s “Summit” Platform. The experience gained on these multiple platforms provides general insights and thus the results presented are not specific to any one code or platform other than the overarching trend toward distributed many-core systems with accelerators in order to move toward exascale performance. The resultant performance and scalability of the ported code is demonstrated on a real-world application; a state-of-the-art rotating detonation rocket engine simulation that matches the complex geometry and boundary conditions imposed as part of a companion experimental campaign.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

EQSIM—A multidisciplinary framework for fault-to-structure earthquake simulations on exascale computers part I: Computational models and workflow

Computational simulations have become central to the seismic analysis and design of major infrastructure over the past several decades. Most major structures are now “proof tested” virtually through representative simulations of earthquake-induced response. More recently, with the advancement of high-performance computing (HPC) platforms and the associated massively parallel computational ecosystems, simulation is beginning to play a role in increased understanding and prediction of ground motions for earthquake hazard assessments. However, the computational requirements for regional-scale geophysics-based ground motion simulations are extreme, which has restricted the frequency resolution of direct simulations and limited the ability to perform the large number of simulations required to numerically explore the problem parametric space. In this article, recent developments toward an integrated, multidisciplinary earth science-engineering computational framework for the regional-scale simulation of both ground motions and resulting structural response are described with a particular emphasis on advancing simulations to frequencies relevant to engineered systems. This multidisciplinary computational development is being carried out as part of the US Department of Energy (DOE) Exascale Computing Project with the goal of achieving a computational framework poised to exploit emerging DOE exaflop computer platforms scheduled for the 2022–2023 timeframe.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

SST-GPU: A Scalable SST GPU Component for Performance Modeling and Profiling

Programmable accelerators have become commonplace in modern computing systems. Advances in programming models and the availability of unprecedented amounts of data have created a space for massively parallel accelerators capable of maintaining context for thousands of concurrent threads resident on-chip. These threads are grouped and interleaved on a cycle-by-cycle basis among several massively parallel computing cores. One path for the design of future supercomputers relies on an ability to model the performance of these massively parallel cores at scale. The SST framework has been proven to scale up to run simulations containing tens of thousands of nodes. A previous report described the initial integration of the open-source, execution-driven GPU simulator, GPGPU-Sim, into the SST framework. This report discusses the results of the integration and how to use the new GPU component in SST. It also provides examples of what it can be used to analyze and a correlation study showing how closely the execution matches that of a Nvidia V100 GPU when running kernels and mini-apps.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

EBS Task Force: Task 9/FEBEX Modeling Final Report: Thermo-Hydrological Modeling with PFLOTRAN

This report outlines Sandia National Laboratories modeling studies applied to Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the Full-scale Engineered Barriers Experiment in Crystalline Host Rock (FEBEX) in situ test for the SKB EBS Task Force Task 9. The FEBEX test was a full-scale test conducted over ~18 years at the Grimsel, Switzerland Underground Research Laboratory (URL) managed by NAGRA. It involved emplacing simulated waste packages, in the form of welded cylindrical heaters, inside a tunnel in crystalline granitic rock and surrounded by a bentonite barrier and cement plug. Sensors emplaced within the bentonite monitored the wetting-up, heating, and drying out of the bentonite barrier, and the large resulting data set provides an excellent opportunity for validation of multiphysics Thermal-Hydrological (TH), Thermal-Hydrologic-Chemical (THC), and Thermal-Hydrological-Mechanical (THM) modeling approaches for underground nuclear waste storage and the performance of engineered bentonite barriers. The present status of the EBS Task Force is finalizing Task 9, which follows years of modeling studies of the FEBEX test, by many notable modeling teams (Gens et al., 2009; Sanchez et al. 2010; 2012; Samper et al., 2018). These modeling studies generally use two-dimensional axisymmetric meshes, ignoring threedimensional effects, gravity and asymmetric wetting and dry out of the bentonite engineered barrier. This study investigates these effects with use of the PFLOTRAN THC code with massively parallel computational methods in modeling FEBEX Stage 1 and Stage 2 results. The PFLOTRAN numerical code is an open source, state-of-the-art, massively parallel subsurface flow and reactive transport code operating in a high-performance computing environment (Hammond et al., 2014). Section 2 describes the applied partial differential equations describing mass, momentum and energy balance used in this study, considerations derived by assuming phase equilibrium between gas and liquid phases, constitutive equations for granite, cement plug, and bentonite domains, and specific approaches for use inthe PFLOTRAN code. Section 3 describes the geometry, meshing, and model set-up. Section 4 describes modeling results, Section 5 compares modeling results to field testing data, and Section 6 gives conclusions. The Appendix provides detailed information required by the EBSTask Force for final reporting.

42 ENGINEERING↗

From NWChem to NWChemEx: Evolving with the Computational Chemistry Landscape

Since the advent of the first computers, chemists have been at the forefront of using computers to understand and solve complex chemical problems. As the hardware and software have evolved, so have the theoretical and computational chemistry methods and algorithms. Parallel computers clearly changed the common computing paradigm in the late 1970s and 80s, and the field has again seen a paradigm shift with the advent of graphical processing units. This review explores the challenges and some of the solutions in transforming software from the terascale to the petascale and now to the upcoming exascale computers. While discussing the field in general, NWChem and its redesign, NWChemEx, will be highlighted as one of the early codesign projects to take advantage of massively parallel computers and emerging software standards to enable large scientific challenges to be tackled.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The Kokkos Ecosystem [Brief]

In 2016/2017, the field of High-Performance Computing (HPC) entered a new era driven by fundamental physics challenges to produce ever more energy and cost-efficient processors. Since the convergence on the Message-Passing Interface (MPI) standard in the mid-1990s, application developers enjoyed a seemingly static view of the underlying machine — that of a distributed collection of homogeneous nodes executing in collaboration. However, after almost two decades of dominance, the sole use of MPI to derive parallelism acted as a limiter to improved future performance. While MPI is widely expected to continue to function as the basic mechanism for communication between compute nodes for the immediate future, additional parallelism is required on the computing node itself if high performance and efficiency goals are to be realized. When reviewing the architectures of the top HPC systems today, the change in paradigm is clear: the compute nodes of the leading machines in the world are either powered by many-core chips with a few dozen cores each, or use heterogeneous designs, where traditional CPUs marshal work to massively parallel compute accelerators which has as many as 200,000 processing threads in flight simultaneously. Complicating matters further for application developers, each processor vendor has its own preferred way of writing code for their architecture.The Kokkos EcoSystem was released by Sandia in 2017 to address this new era in HPC system design by providing a vendor independent performance portable programming system for scientific, engineering, and mathematical software applications written in the C++ programming language. Using Kokkos, application developers can be more productive because they will not have to create and maintain separate versions of their software for each architecture, nor will they have to be experts in each architecture's peculiar requirements. Instead, they will have a single method of programming for the diverse set of modern HPC architectures. While Kokkos started in 2011 as a programming model only, it soon became clear that complex applications needed more. It is also critical to have a portable mathematical functions and developers need tools to debug their applications, gain insight into the performance characteristics of their codes and tune algorithm performance parameters through automated processes. The Kokkos EcoSystem addresses those needs through its three main components: the Kokkos Core programming model, the Kokkos Kernels math library, and the Kokkos Tools project.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Phoenix: A Scalable Streaming Hypergraph Analysis Framework

We present Phoenix, a scalable hypergraph analytics framework for data analytics and knowledge discovery that was implemented on the leadership class computing platforms at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Our software framework comprises a distributed implementation of a streaming server architecture which acts as a gateway for various hypergraph generators/external sources to connect. Phoenix has the capability to utilize diverse hypergraph generators, including HyGen, a very large-scale hypergraph generator developed by ORNL. Phoenix incorporates specific algorithms for efficient data representation by exploiting hidden structures of the hypergraphs. Our experimental results demonstrate Phoenix’s scalable and stable performance on massively parallel computing platforms. Phoenix’s superior performance is due to the merging of high-performance computing with data analytic.

Kurte, Kuldeep↗

Protein Molecular Dynamics Simulations with Approximate QM: What Can We Learn?

Classical force fields are essential for computer simulations of proteins and are typically parameterized to reproduce secondary and tertiary structure of isolated proteins. However, while protein-protein interactions are ubiquitous in nature, they are not considered in parameterization efforts and are far less understood than isolated proteins. A better characterization of intermolecular interactions is widely recognized as a key to revolutionizing drug and therapeutic developments with high-throughput computational screening. Urgently needed is a critical assessment of the performance of modern protein force fields against first-principles electronic structure methods and experiments. In a daring step toward this goal, we here describe a comparison of peptide folding dynamics as predicted by a molecular mechanics force field on the one hand and by an approximate electronic structure quantum mechanical (QM) method based on density-functional tight-binding (DFTB) on the other. We further compare the dynamics from straightforward DFTB simulations with a near-linear scaling version of DFTB for massively parallel computation based on the fragment molecular orbital (FMO-DFTB) method. We illustrate differences between the phenomenology of the folding dynamics from these three methods for a small model peptide, as well as charge polarization and dynamic fluctuations, point out possible correlations and implications for force field developers, and discuss the lessons learned that might become applicable to future predictive high-throughput computer screening for personalized neoantigen cancer therapy.

Irle, Stephan↗