Berryman, Harry | Engineering Papers

NASA NTRS1991

Performance effects of irregular communications patterns on massively parallel multiprocessors

A detailed study of the performance effects of irregular communications patterns on the CM-2 was conducted. The communications capabilities of the CM-2 were characterized under a variety of controlled conditions. In the process of carrying out the performance evaluation, extensive use was made of a parameterized synthetic mesh. In addition, timings with unstructured meshes generated for aerodynamic codes and a set of sparse matrices with banded patterns on non-zeroes were performed. This benchmarking suite stresses the communications capabilities of the CM-2 in a range of different ways. Benchmark results demonstrate that it is possible to make effective use of much of the massive concurrency available in the communications network.

Saltz, Joel↗

NASA NTRS1991

Performance of hashed cache data migration schemes on multicomputers

After conducting an examination of several data-migration mechanisms which permit an explicit and controlled mapping of data to memory, a set of schemes for storage and retrieval of off-processor array elements is experimentally evaluated and modeled. All schemes considered have their basis in the use of hash tables for efficient access of nonlocal data. The techniques in question are those of hashed cache, partial enumeration, and full enumeration; in these, nonlocal data are stored in hash tables, so that the operative difference lies in the amount of memory used by each scheme and in the retrieval mechanism used for nonlocal data.

Hiranandani, Seema↗

NASA NTRS1991

A manual for PARTI runtime primitives, revision 1

Primitives are presented that are designed to help users efficiently program irregular problems (e.g., unstructured mesh sweeps, sparse matrix codes, adaptive mesh partial differential equations solvers) on distributed memory machines. These primitives are also designed for use in compilers for distributed memory multiprocessors. Communications patterns are captured at runtime, and the appropriate send and receive messages are automatically generated.

Das, Raja↗

NASA NTRS1991

Distributed memory compiler design for sparse problems

A compiler and runtime support mechanism is described and demonstrated. The methods presented are capable of solving a wide range of sparse and unstructured problems in scientific computing. The compiler takes as input a FORTRAN 77 program enhanced with specifications for distributing data, and the compiler outputs a message passing program that runs on a distributed memory computer. The runtime support for this compiler is a library of primitives designed to efficiently support irregular patterns of distributed array accesses and irregular distributed array partitions. A variety of Intel iPSC/860 performance results obtained through the use of this compiler are presented.

Wu, Janet↗

NASA NTRS1991

Performance effects of irregular communications patterns on massively parallel multiprocessors

A detailed study of the performance effects of irregular communications patterns on the CM-2 was conducted. The communications capabilities of the CM-2 were characterized under a variety of controlled conditions. In the process of carrying out the performance evaluation, extensive use was made of a parameterized synthetic mesh. In addition, timings with unstructured meshes generated for aerodynamic codes and a set of sparse matrices with banded patterns on non-zeroes were performed. This benchmarking suite stresses the communications capabilities of the CM-2 in a range of different ways. Benchmark results demonstrate that it is possible to make effective use of much of the massive concurrency available in the communications network.

Saltz, Joel↗

NASA NTRS1990

A manual for PARTI runtime primitives

Primitives are presented that are designed to help users efficiently program irregular problems (e.g., unstructured mesh sweeps, sparse matrix codes, adaptive mesh partial differential equations solvers) on distributed memory machines. These primitives are also designed for use in compilers for distributed memory multiprocessors. Communications patterns are captured at runtime, and the appropriate send and receive messages are automatically generated.

Berryman, Harry↗

NASA NTRS1990

Multiprocessors and runtime compilation

Runtime preprocessing plays a major role in many efficient algorithms in computer science, as well as playing an important role in exploiting multiprocessor architectures. Examples are given that elucidate the importance of runtime preprocessing and show how these optimizations can be integrated into compilers. To support the arguments, transformations implemented in prototype multiprocessor compilers are described and benchmarks from the iPSC2/860, the CM-2, and the Encore Multimax/320 are presented.

Saltz, Joel↗

NASA NTRS1990

A scheme for supporting automatic data migration on multicomputers

A data migration mechanism is proposed that allows an explicit and controlled mapping of data to memory. While read or write copies of each data element can be assigned to any processor's memory, longer term storage of each data element is assigned to a specific location in the memory of a particular processor. Data is presented that suggests that the scheme may be a practical method for efficiently supporting data migration.

Mirchandaney, Seema↗

NASA NTRS1990

Execution time supports for adaptive scientific algorithms on distributed memory machines

Optimizations are considered that are required for efficient execution of code segments that consists of loops over distributed data structures. The PARTI (Parallel Automated Runtime Toolkit at ICASE) execution time primitives are designed to carry out these optimizations and can be used to implement a wide range of scientific algorithms on distributed memory machines. These primitives allow the user to control array mappings in a way that gives an appearance of shared memory. Computations can be based on a global index set. Primitives are used to carry out gather and scatter operations on distributed arrays. Communications patterns are derived at runtime, and the appropriate send and receive messages are automatically generated.

Berryman, Harry↗

NASA NTRS1990

Run-time scheduling and execution of loops on message passing machines

Sparse system solvers and general purpose codes for solving partial differential equations are examples of the many types of problems whose irregularity can result in poor performance on distributed memory machines. Often, the data structures used in these problems are very flexible. Crucial details concerning loop dependences are encoded in these structures rather than being explicitly represented in the program. Good methods for parallelizing and partitioning these types of problems require assignment of computations in rather arbitrary ways. Naive implementations of programs on distributed memory machines requiring general loop partitions can be extremely inefficient. Instead, the scheduling mechanism needs to capture the data reference patterns of the loops in order to partition the problem. First, the indices assigned to each processor must be locally numbered. Next, it is necessary to precompute what information is needed by each processor at various points in the computation. The precomputed information is then used to generate an execution template designed to carry out the computation, communication, and partitioning of data, in an optimized manner. The design is presented for a general preprocessor and schedule executer, the structures of which do not vary, even though the details of the computation and of the type of information are problem dependent.

Saltz, Joel↗

NASA NTRS1990

A scheme for supporting distributed data structures on multicomputers

A data migration mechanism is proposed that allows an explicit and controlled mapping of data to memory. While read or write copies of each data element can be assigned to any processor's memory, longer term storage of each data element is assigned to a specific location in the memory of a particular processor. The proposed integration of a data migration scheme with a compiler is able to eliminate the migration of unneeded data that can occur in multiprocessor paging or caching. The overhead of adjudicating multiple concurrent writes to the same page or cache line is also eliminated. Data is presented that suggests that the scheme may be a pratical method for efficiently supporting data migration.

Hiranandani, Seema↗

NASA NTRS1990

Execution time support for scientific programs on distributed memory machines

Optimizations are considered that are required for efficient execution of code segments that consists of loops over distributed data structures. The PARTI (Parallel Automated Runtime Toolkit at ICASE) execution time primitives are designed to carry out these optimizations and can be used to implement a wide range of scientific algorithms on distributed memory machines. These primitives allow the user to control array mappings in a way that gives an appearance of shared memory. Computations can be based on a global index set. Primitives are used to carry out gather and scatter operations on distributed arrays. Communications patterns are derived at runtime, and the appropriate send and receive messages are automatically generated.

Berryman, Harry↗

NASA NTRS1989

Krylov methods preconditioned with incompletely factored matrices on the CM-2

The performance is measured of the components of the key interative kernel of a preconditioned Krylov space interative linear system solver. In some sense, these numbers can be regarded as best case timings for these kernels. Sweeps were timed over meshes, sparse triangular solves, and inner products on a large 3-D model problem over a cube shaped domain discretized with a seven point template. The performance of the CM-2 is highly dependent on the use of very specialized programs. These programs mapped a regular problem domain onto the processor topology in a careful manner and used the optimized local NEWS communications network. The rather dramatic deterioration in performance was documented when these ideal conditions no longer apply. A synthetic workload generator was developed to produce and solve a parameterized family of increasingly irregular problems.

Berryman, Harry↗

NASA NTRS1989

Run-time scheduling and execution of loops on message passing machines

Sparse system solvers and general purpose codes for solving partial differential equations are examples of the many types of problems whose irregularity can result in poor performance on distributed memory machines. Often, the data structures used in these problems are very flexible. Crucial details concerning loop dependences are encoded in these structures rather than being explicitly represented in the program. Good methods for parallelizing and partitioning these types of problems require assignment of computations in rather arbitrary ways. Naive implementations of programs on distributed memory machines requiring general loop partitions can be extremely inefficient. Instead, the scheduling mechanism needs to capture the data reference patterns of the loops in order to partition the problem. First, the indices assigned to each processor must be locally numbered. Next, it is necessary to precompute what information is needed by each processor at various points in the computation. The precomputed information is then used to generate an execution template designed to carry out the computation, communication, and partitioning of data, in an optimized manner. The design is presented for a general preprocessor and schedule executer, the structures of which do not vary, even though the details of the computation and of the type of information are problem dependent.

Crowley, Kay↗