Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Data Movement”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 307 records · Page 17

UPC++ v1.0 Programmer’s Guide, Revision 2022.9.0

UPC++ is a C++ library that supports Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) programming. It is designed for writing efficient, scalable parallel programs on distributed-memory parallel computers. The key communication facilities in UPC++ are one-sided Remote Memory Access (RMA) and Remote Procedure Call (RPC). The UPC++ control model is single program, multiple-data (SPMD), with each separate constituent process having access to local memory as it would in C++. The PGAS memory model additionally provides one-sided RMA communication to a global address space, which is allocated in shared segments that are distributed over the processes. UPC++ also features Remote Procedure Call (RPC) communication, making it easy to move computation to operate on data that resides on remote processes. UPC++ was designed to support exascale high-performance computing, and the library interfaces and implementation are focused on maximizing scalability. In UPC++, all communication operations are syntactically explicit, which encourages programmers to consider the costs associated with communication and data movement. Moreover, all communication operations are asynchronous by default, encouraging programmers to seek opportunities for overlapping communication latencies with other useful work. UPC++ provides expressive and composable abstractions designed for efficiently managing aggressive use of asynchrony in programs. Together, these design principles are intended to enable programmers to write applications using UPC++ that perform well even on hundreds of thousands of cores.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Asynchronous communication in spectral-element and discontinuous Galerkin methods for atmospheric dynamics – a case study using the High-Order Methods Modeling Environment (HOMME-homme_dg_branch)

The scalability of computational applications on current and next-generation supercomputers is increasingly limited by the cost of inter-process communication. We implement non-blocking asynchronous communication in the High-Order Methods Modeling Environment for the time integration of the hydrostatic fluid equations using both the spectral-element and discontinuous Galerkin methods. This allows the overlap of computation with communication, effectively hiding some of the costs of communication. A novel detail about our approach is that it provides some data movement to be performed during the asynchronous communication even in the absence of other computations. This method produces significant performance and scalability gains in large-scale simulations.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

A stochastic model for eye movements during fixation on a stationary target.

A stochastic model describing small eye movements occurring during steady fixation on a stationary target is presented. Based on eye movement data for steady gaze, the model has a hierarchical structure; the principal level represents the random motion of the image point within a local area of fixation, while the higher level mimics the jump processes involved in transitions from one local area to another. Target image motion within a local area is described by a Langevin-like stochastic differential equation taking into consideration the microsaccadic jumps pictured as being due to point processes and the high frequency muscle tremor, represented as a white noise. The transform of the probability density function for local area motion is obtained, leading to explicit expressions for their means and moments. Evaluation of these moments based on the model is comparable with experimental results.

Vasudevan, R.↗

The application of space technology to practical problems such as those currently facing the mountain sections of the State of Colorado

Rapid growth in small Colorado mountain communities and dangers posed by development in areas that are potentially dangerous to life and property due to natural processes are studied. Special attention was given to snow avalanche, mudflow, rockfall, landslide and flood, as well as the slow continuous and frequently imperceptible form of soil creep and associated mass movement. Data are also given on the relative reliability of ERTS and Skylab imagery and conventional photography in identifying avalanche paths and run out zones.

Ives, J. D.↗

Lineaments in basement terrane of the Peninsular Ranges, Southern California

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS and Skylab images reveal a number of prominent lineaments in the basement terrane of the Peninsular Ranges, Southern California. The major, well-known, active, northwest trending, right-slip faults are well displayed; northeast and west to west-northwest trending lineaments are also present. Study of large-scale airphotos followed by field investigations have shown that several of these lineaments represent previously unmapped faults. Pitches of striations on shear surfaces of the northeast and west trending faults indicate oblique slip movement; data are insufficient to determine the net-slip. These faults are restricted to the pre-tertiary basement terrane and are truncated by the major northwest trending faults. They may have been formed in response to an earlier stress system. All lineaments observed in the space photography are not due to faulting, and additional detailed geologic investigations are required to determine the nature of the unstudied lineaments, and the history and net-slip of fault-controlled lineaments.

Merifield, P. M.↗

Fault tectonics and earthquake hazards in the Peninsular Ranges, Southern California

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS and Skylab images reveal a number of prominent lineaments in the basement terrane of the Peninsular Ranges, Southern California. The major, well-known, active, northwest trending, right-slip faults are well displayed, but northeast and west to west-northwest trending lineaments are also present. Study of large-scale airphotos followed by field investigations have shown that several of these lineaments represent previously unmapped faults. Pitches of striations on shear surfaces of the northeast and west trending faults indicate oblique-slip movement; data are insufficient to determine the net-slip. These faults are restricted to the pre-Tertiary basement terrane and are truncated by the major northwest trending faults; therefore, they may have formed in response to an earlier stress system. Future work should be directed toward determining whether the northeast and west trending faults are related to the presently active stress system or to an older inactive system, because this question relates to the earthquake risk in the vicinity of these faults.

Merifield, P. M.↗

On the impact of communication complexity in the design of parallel numerical algorithms

This paper describes two models of the cost of data movement in parallel numerical algorithms. One model is a generalization of an approach due to Hockney, and is suitable for shared memory multiprocessors where each processor has vector capabilities. The other model is applicable to highly parallel nonshared memory MIMD systems. In the second model, algorithm performance is characterized in terms of the communication network design. Techniques used in VLSI complexity theory are also brought in, and algorithm independent upper bounds on system performance are derived for several problems that are important to scientific computation.

Gannon, D.↗

On the impact of communication complexity on the design of parallel numerical algorithms

This paper describes two models of the cost of data movement in parallel numerical alorithms. One model is a generalization of an approach due to Hockney, and is suitable for shared memory multiprocessors where each processor has vector capabilities. The other model is applicable to highly parallel nonshared memory MIMD systems. In this second model, algorithm performance is characterized in terms of the communication network design. Techniques used in VLSI complexity theory are also brought in, and algorithm-independent upper bounds on system performance are derived for several problems that are important to scientific computation.

Gannon, D. B.↗

Statistical dependency in visual scanning

A method to identify statistical dependencies in the positions of eye fixations is developed and applied to eye movement data from subjects who viewed dynamic displays of air traffic and judged future relative position of aircraft. Analysis of approximately 23,000 fixations on points of interest on the display identified statistical dependencies in scanning that were independent of the physical placement of the points of interest. Identification of these dependencies is inconsistent with random-sampling-based theories used to model visual search and information seeking.

Ellis, Stephen R.↗

Compiling global name-space programs for distributed execution

Distributed memory machines do not provide hardware support for a global address space. Thus programmers are forced to partition the data across the memories of the architecture and use explicit message passing to communicate data between processors. The compiler support required to allow programmers to express their algorithms using a global name-space is examined. A general method is presented for analysis of a high level source program and along with its translation to a set of independently executing tasks communicating via messages. If the compiler has enough information, this translation can be carried out at compile-time. Otherwise run-time code is generated to implement the required data movement. The analysis required in both situations is described and the performance of the generated code on the Intel iPSC/2 is presented.

Koelbel, Charles↗

The NAS parallel benchmarks

A new set of benchmarks has been developed for the performance evaluation of highly parallel supercomputers in the framework of the NASA Ames Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Program. These consist of five 'parallel kernel' benchmarks and three 'simulated application' benchmarks. Together they mimic the computation and data movement characteristics of large-scale computational fluid dynamics applications. The principal distinguishing feature of these benchmarks is their 'pencil and paper' specification-all details of these benchmarks are specified only algorithmically. In this way many of the difficulties associated with conventional benchmarking approaches on highly parallel systems are avoided.

Bailey, D. H.↗

Compiling global name-space parallel loops for distributed execution

Distributed memory machines do not provide hardware support for a global address space. Thus programmers are forced to partition the data across the memories of the architecture and use explicit message passing to communicate data between processors. The compiler support required to allow programmers to express their algorithms using a global name-space is examined. A general method is presented for analysis of a high level source program and its translation into a set of independently executing tasks communicating via messages. If the compiler has enough information, this translation can be carried out at compile time. Otherwise, run-time code is generated to implement the required data movement. The analysis required in both situations is described and the performance of the generated code on the Intel iPSC/2 is presented.

Koelbel, Charles↗

Scalable parallel communications

Coarse-grain parallelism in networking (that is, the use of multiple protocol processors running replicated software sending over several physical channels) can be used to provide gigabit communications for a single application. Since parallel network performance is highly dependent on real issues such as hardware properties (e.g., memory speeds and cache hit rates), operating system overhead (e.g., interrupt handling), and protocol performance (e.g., effect of timeouts), we have performed detailed simulations studies of both a bus-based multiprocessor workstation node (based on the Sun Galaxy MP multiprocessor) and a distributed-memory parallel computer node (based on the Touchstone DELTA) to evaluate the behavior of coarse-grain parallelism. Our results indicate: (1) coarse-grain parallelism can deliver multiple 100 Mbps with currently available hardware platforms and existing networking protocols (such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and parallel Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) rings); (2) scale-up is near linear in n, the number of protocol processors, and channels (for small n and up to a few hundred Mbps); and (3) since these results are based on existing hardware without specialized devices (except perhaps for some simple modifications of the FDDI boards), this is a low cost solution to providing multiple 100 Mbps on current machines. In addition, from both the performance analysis and the properties of these architectures, we conclude: (1) multiple processors providing identical services and the use of space division multiplexing for the physical channels can provide better reliability than monolithic approaches (it also provides graceful degradation and low-cost load balancing); (2) coarse-grain parallelism supports running several transport protocols in parallel to provide different types of service (for example, one TCP handles small messages for many users, other TCP's running in parallel provide high bandwidth service to a single application); and (3) coarse grain parallelism will be able to incorporate many future improvements from related work (e.g., reduced data movement, fast TCP, fine-grain parallelism) also with near linear speed-ups.

Maly, K.↗

The NAS parallel benchmarks

A new set of benchmarks was developed for the performance evaluation of highly parallel supercomputers. These benchmarks consist of a set of kernels, the 'Parallel Kernels,' and a simulated application benchmark. Together they mimic the computation and data movement characteristics of large scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications. The principal distinguishing feature of these benchmarks is their 'pencil and paper' specification - all details of these benchmarks are specified only algorithmically. In this way many of the difficulties associated with conventional benchmarking approaches on highly parallel systems are avoided.

Bailey, David↗

Impact of Load Balancing on Unstructured Adaptive Grid Computations for Distributed-Memory Multiprocessors

The computational requirements for an adaptive solution of unsteady problems change as the simulation progresses. This causes workload imbalance among processors on a parallel machine which, in turn, requires significant data movement at runtime. We present a new dynamic load-balancing framework, called JOVE, that balances the workload across all processors with a global view. Whenever the computational mesh is adapted, JOVE is activated to eliminate the load imbalance. JOVE has been implemented on an IBM SP2 distributed-memory machine in MPI for portability. Experimental results for two model meshes demonstrate that mesh adaption with load balancing gives more than a sixfold improvement over one without load balancing. We also show that JOVE gives a 24-fold speedup on 64 processors compared to sequential execution.

Biswas, Rupak↗

Impact of Load Balancing on Unstructured Adaptive Grid Computations for Distributed-Memory Multiprocessors

The computational requirements for an adaptive solution of unsteady problems change as the simulation progresses. This causes workload imbalance among processors on a parallel machine which, in turn, requires significant data movement at runtime. We present a new dynamic load-balancing framework, called JOVE, that balances the workload across all processors with a global view. Whenever the computational mesh is adapted, JOVE is activated to eliminate the load imbalance. JOVE has been implemented on an IBM SP2 distributed-memory machine in MPI for portability. Experimental results for two model meshes demonstrate that mesh adaption with load balancing gives more than a sixfold improvement over one without load balancing. We also show that JOVE gives a 24-fold speedup on 64 processors compared to sequential execution.

Sohn, Andrew↗

Testing New Programming Paradigms with NAS Parallel Benchmarks

Over the past decade, high performance computing has evolved rapidly, not only in hardware architectures but also with increasing complexity of real applications. Technologies have been developing to aim at scaling up to thousands of processors on both distributed and shared memory systems. Development of parallel programs on these computers is always a challenging task. Today, writing parallel programs with message passing (e.g. MPI) is the most popular way of achieving scalability and high performance. However, writing message passing programs is difficult and error prone. Recent years new effort has been made in defining new parallel programming paradigms. The best examples are: HPF (based on data parallelism) and OpenMP (based on shared memory parallelism). Both provide simple and clear extensions to sequential programs, thus greatly simplify the tedious tasks encountered in writing message passing programs. HPF is independent of memory hierarchy, however, due to the immaturity of compiler technology its performance is still questionable. Although use of parallel compiler directives is not new, OpenMP offers a portable solution in the shared-memory domain. Another important development involves the tremendous progress in the internet and its associated technology. Although still in its infancy, Java promisses portability in a heterogeneous environment and offers possibility to "compile once and run anywhere." In light of testing these new technologies, we implemented new parallel versions of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPBs) with HPF and OpenMP directives, and extended the work with Java and Java-threads. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of alternative programming paradigms. NPBs consist of five kernels and three simulated applications that mimic the computation and data movement of large scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications. We started with the serial version included in NPB2.3. Optimization of memory and cache usage was applied to several benchmarks, noticeably BT and SP, resulting in better sequential performance. In order to overcome the lack of an HPF performance model and guide the development of the HPF codes, we employed an empirical performance model for several primitives found in the benchmarks. We encountered a few limitations of HPF, such as lack of supporting the "REDISTRIBUTION" directive and no easy way to handle irregular computation. The parallelization with OpenMP directives was done at the outer-most loop level to achieve the largest granularity. The performance of six HPF and OpenMP benchmarks is compared with their MPI counterparts for the Class-A problem size in the figure in next page. These results were obtained on an SGI Origin2000 (195MHz) with MIPSpro-f77 compiler 7.2.1 for OpenMP and MPI codes and PGI pghpf-2.4.3 compiler with MPI interface for HPF programs.

Jin, H.↗