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At least 37 records · Page 2

TOUGH3-FLAC3D: a modeling approach for parallel computing of fluid flow and geomechanics

The recent development of the TOUGH3 code allows for a faster and more reliable fluid flow simulator. At the same time, new versions of FLAC3D are released periodically, allowing for new features and faster execution. In this paper, we present the first implementation of the coupling between TOUGH3 and FLAC3Dv6/7, maintaining parallel computing capabilities for the coupled fluid flow and geomechanical codes. We compare the newly developed version with analytical solutions and with the previous approach, and provide some performance analysis on different meshes and varying the number of running processors. Finally, we present two case studies related to fault reactivation during CO 2 sequestration and nuclear waste disposal. The use of parallel computing allows for meshes with a larger number of elements, and hence more detailed understanding of thermo-hydro-mechanical processes occurring at depth.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Improving efficiency of a global barrier operation in a parallel computer

Performing a global barrier operation in a parallel computer that includes compute nodes coupled for data communications, where each compute node executes tasks, with one task on each compute node designated as a master task, including: for each task on each compute node until all master tasks have joined a global barrier: determining whether the task is a master task; if the task is not a master task, joining a single local barrier; if the task is a master task, joining the global barrier and the single local barrier only after all other tasks on the compute node have joined the single local barrier.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Parallel programming of an ionic floating-gate memory array for scalable neuromorphic computing

Neuromorphic computers could overcome efficiency bottlenecks inherent to conventional computing through parallel programming and readout of artificial neural network weights in a crossbar memory array. However, selective and linear weight updates and <10-nanoampere read currents are required for learning that surpasses conventional computing efficiency. We introduce an ionic floating-gate memory array based on a polymer redox transistor connected to a conductive-bridge memory (CBM). Selective and linear programming of a redox transistor array is executed in parallel by overcoming the bridging threshold voltage of the CBMs. Synaptic weight readout with currents <10 nanoamperes is achieved by diluting the conductive polymer with an insulator to decrease the conductance. The redox transistors endure >1 billion write-read operations and support >1-megahertz write-read frequencies.

bio-inspired, energy storage (including batteries ↗

A performance spectrum for parallel computational frameworks that solve PDEs

Summary Important computational physics problems are often large‐scale in nature, and it is highly desirable to have robust and high performing computational frameworks that can quickly address these problems. However, it is no trivial task to determine whether a computational framework is performing efficiently or is scalable. The aim of this paper is to present various strategies for better understanding the performance of any parallel computational frameworks for solving PDEs. Important performance issues that negatively impact time‐to‐solution are discussed, and we propose a performance spectrum analysis that can enhance one's understanding of critical aforementioned performance issues. As proof of concept, we examine commonly used finite element simulation packages and software and apply the performance spectrum to quickly analyze the performance and scalability across various hardware platforms, software implementations, and numerical discretizations. It is shown that the proposed performance spectrum is a versatile performance model that is not only extendable to more complex PDEs such as hydrostatic ice sheet flow equations but also useful for understanding hardware performance in a massively parallel computing environment. Potential applications and future extensions of this work are also discussed.

Chang, J.↗

Algorithms for Balanced Graph Colorings with Applications in Parallel Computing

Graph coloring is used to identify subsets of independent tasks in parallel scientific computing applications. Traditional coloring heuristics aim to reduce the number of colors used as that number also corresponds to the number of parallel steps in the application. However, if the color classes produced have a skew in their sizes, utilization of hardware resources becomes inefficient, especially for the smaller color classes. Equitable coloring is a theoretical formulation of coloring that guarantees a perfect balance among color classes, and its practical relaxation is referred to as balanced coloring. In this paper, we revisit the problem of balanced coloring in the context of parallel computing. The goal is to achieve a balanced coloring of an input graph without increasing the number of colors that an algorithm oblivious to balance would have used. We propose and study multiple heuristics that aim to achieve such a balanced coloring for two variants of coloring problem, distance-1 coloring and partial distance-2 coloring (defined on a bipartite graph). We present parallelization approaches for multi-core and manycore architectures, and cross-evaluate their effectiveness with respect to the quality of balance achieved and performance. Furthermore, we study the impact of the proposed balanced coloring heuristics on a concrete application - viz. parallel community detection, which is an example of an irregular application. In addition, we propose several extensions to our balancing schemes and evaluate their balancing efficacy and performance characteristics. The thorough treatment of balanced coloring presented in this paper from algorithms to application is expected to serve as a valuable resource to parallel application developers who seek to improve parallel performance of their applications using coloring.

graph coloring, multithreaded algorithms↗

Manycore Parallel Computing for a Hybridizable Discontinuous Galerkin Nested Multigrid Method

In this work, we present a parallel computing strategy for a hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) nested geometric multigrid (GMG) solver. Parallel GMG solvers require a combination of coarse-grain and fine-grain parallelism to improve time-to-solution performance. In this work we focus on fine-grain parallelism. We use Intel's second generation Xeon Phi (Knights Landing) manycore processor. The GMG method achieves ideal convergence rates of 0.2 or less, for high polynomial orders. A matrix free (assembly free) technique is exploited to save considerable memory usage and increase arithmetic intensity. HDG enables static condensation, and due to the discontinuous nature of the discretization, we developed a matrix vector multiply routine that does not require any costly synchronizations or barriers. Our algorithm is able to attain 80% of peak bandwidth performance for higher order polynomials. This is possible due to the data locality inherent in the HDG method. Very high performance is realized for high order schemes, due to good arithmetic intensity, which declines as the order is reduced.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

ComDMFT: A massively parallel computer package for the electronic structure of correlated-electron systems

ComDMFT is a massively parallel computational package to study the electronic structure of correlated-electron systems (CES). Our approach is a parameter-free method based on ab initio linearized quasiparticle self-consistent GW (LQSGW) and dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). The non-local part of the electronic self-energy is treated within ab initio LQSGW and the local strong correlation is treated within DMFT. In addition to ab initio LQSGW+DMFT, charge self-consistent LDA+DMFT methodology is also implemented, enabling multiple methods in one open-source platform for the electronic structure of CES. Here, this package can be extended for future developments to implement other methodologies to treat CES.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Exploiting Geometric Partitioning in Task Mapping for Parallel Computes

We present a new method for mapping applications' MPI tasks to cores of a parallel computer such that applications' communication time is reduced. We address the case of sparse node allocation, where the nodes assigned to a job are not necessarily located in a contiguous block nor within close proximity to each other in the network, although our methods generalize to contiguous allocations as well. The goal is to assign tasks to cores so that interdependent tasks are performed by "nearby' cores, thus lowering the distance messages must travel, the amount of congestion in the network, and the overall cost of communication. Our new method applies a geometric partitioning algorithm to both the tasks and the processors, and assigns task parts to the corresponding processor parts. We also present a number of algorithmic optimizations that exploit specific features of the network or application. We show that, for the structured finite difference mini-application MiniGhost, our mapping methods reduced communication time up to 75% relative to MiniGhost's default mapping on 128K cores of a Cray XK7 with sparse allocation. For the atmospheric modeling code E3SM/HOMME, our methods reduced communication time up to 31% on 32K cores of an IBM BlueGene/Q with contiguous allocation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The MAVRIC-Shift Sequence in SCALE for Radiation Transport and Shielding Calculations with Automated Variance Reduction and Parallel Computing

A new MAVRIC-Shift sequence has been implemented and tested within the SCALE Code System to provide parallel computing capabilities for radiation transport and shielding analysis with automated variance reduction. This new sequence provides the most widely used capabilities of the MAVRIC sequence and also features the highly scalable Shift Monte Carlo solver, thus enabling faster time-to-solution when run on multiple cores. This report provides a summary of the theory of variance reduction approaches in MAVRIC and the integration of Shift into the MAVRIC sequence of SCALE. Similarities and differences in methodologies between the traditional MAVRIC sequence and the new MAVRIC-Shift sequence are discussed. Validation cases are presented with models of radiation shielding experiments and verification is provided with a series of practical application cases of interest to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the sponsors of this work, including spent nuclear fuel transportation and storage systems.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Verification of Electromagnetic Physics Models for Parallel Computing Architectures in the GeantV Project

An intensive R&D and programming effort is required to accomplish new challenges posed by future experimental high-energy particle physics (HEP) programs. The GeantV project aims to narrow the gap between the performance of the existing HEP detector simulation software and the ideal performance achievable, exploiting latest advances in computing technology. The project has developed a particle detector simulation prototype capable of transporting in parallel particles in complex geometries exploiting instruction level microparallelism (SIMD and SIMT), task-level parallelism (multithreading) and high-level parallelism (MPI), leveraging both the multi-core and the many-core opportunities. We present preliminary verification results concerning the electromagnetic (EM) physics models developed for parallel computing architectures within the GeantV project. In order to exploit the potential of vectorization and accelerators and to make the physics model effectively parallelizable, advanced sampling techniques have been implemented and tested. In this paper we introduce a set of automated statistical tests in order to verify the vectorized models by checking their consistency with the corresponding Geant4 models and to validate them against experimental data.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Algorithm for solving the linear Cauchy problem for large systems of ordinary differential equations with the use of parallel computations

An algorithm for solving the linear Cauchy problem for large systems of ordinary differential equations is presented. The algorithm for systems of first-order differential equations is implemented in the EDELWEISS code with the possibility of parallel computations on supercomputers employing the MPI (Message Passing Interface) standard for the data exchange between parallel processes. The solution is represented by a series of orthogonal polynomials on the interval [0, 1]. The algorithm is characterized by simplicity and the possibility to solve nonlinear problems with a correction of the operator in accordance with the solution obtained in the previous iterative process.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

ARENA: Asynchronous Reconfigurable Accelerator Ring to Enable Data-Centric Parallel Computing

The next generation HPC and data centers are likely to be reconfigurable and data-centric due to the trend of hardware specialization and the emergence of data-driven applications. In this work, we propose ARENA – an asynchronous reconfigurable accelerator ring architecture as a potential scenario on how the future HPC and data centers will be like. Despite using the coarse-grained reconfigurable arrays (CGRAs) as the substrate platform, our key contribution is not only the CGRA-cluster design itself, but also the ensemble of a new architecture and programming model that enables asynchronous tasking across a cluster of reconfigurable nodes, so as to bring specialized computation to the data rather than the reverse. We presume distributed data storage without asserting any prior knowledge on the data distribution. Hardware specialization occurs at runtime when a task finds the majority of data it requires are available at the present node. In other words, we dynamically generate specialized CGRA accelerators where the data reside. The asynchronous tasking for bringing computation to data is achieved by circulating the task token, which describes the dataflow graphs to be executed for a task, among the CGRA cluster connected by a fast ring network. Evaluations on a set of HPC and data-driven applications across different domains show that ARENA can provide better parallel scalability with reduced data movement (53.9 percent). Compared with contemporary compute-centric parallel models, ARENA can bring on average 4.37× speedup. The synthesized CGRAs and their task-dispatchers only occupy 2.93mm 2 chip area under 45nm process technology and can run at 800MHz with on average 759.8mW power consumption. ARENA also supports the concurrent execution of multi-applications, offering ideal architectural support for future high-performance parallel computing and data analytics systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

SERGHEI (SERGHEI-SWE) v1.0: a performance-portable high-performance parallel-computing shallow-water solver for hydrology and environmental hydraulics

The Simulation EnviRonment for Geomorphology, Hydrodynamics, and Ecohydrology in Integrated form (SERGHEI) is a multi-dimensional, multi-domain, and multi-physics model framework for environmental and landscape simulation, designed with an outlook towards Earth system modelling. At the core of SERGHEI's innovation is its performance-portable high-performance parallel-computing (HPC) implementation, built from scratch on the Kokkos portability layer, allowing SERGHEI to be deployed, in a performance-portable fashion, in graphics processing unit (GPU)-based heterogeneous systems. In this work, we explore combinations of MPI and Kokkos using OpenMP and CUDA backends. In this contribution, we introduce the SERGHEI model framework and present with detail its first operational module for solving shallow-water equations (SERGHEI-SWE) and its HPC implementation. This module is designed to be applicable to hydrological and environmental problems including flooding and runoff generation, with an outlook towards Earth system modelling. Its applicability is demonstrated by testing several well-known benchmarks and large-scale problems, for which SERGHEI-SWE achieves excellent results for the different types of shallow-water problems. Finally, SERGHEI-SWE scalability and performance portability is demonstrated and evaluated on several TOP500 HPC systems, with very good scaling in the range of over 20 000 CPUs and up to 256 state-of-the art GPUs.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Electromagnetic physics models for parallel computing architectures

The recent emergence of hardware architectures characterized by many-core or accelerated processors has opened new opportunities for concurrent programming models taking advantage of both SIMD and SIMT architectures. GeantV, a next generation detector simulation, has been designed to exploit both the vector capability of mainstream CPUs and multi-threading capabilities of coprocessors including NVidia GPUs and Intel Xeon Phi. The characteristics of these architectures are very different in terms of the vectorization depth and type of parallelization needed to achieve optimal performance. In this paper we describe implementation of electromagnetic physics models developed for parallel computing architectures as a part of the GeantV project. Finally, the results of preliminary performance evaluation and physics validation are presented as well.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

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↗

Generation of feasible integer solutions on a massively parallel computer using the feasibility pump

Here, we present an approach to parallelize generation of feasible mixed integer solutions of mixed integerlinear programs in distributed memory high performance computing environments. This approachcombines a parallel framework with feasibility pump (FP) as the rounding heuristic. It runs multiple FPinstances with different starting solutions concurrently, while allowing them to share information. Ourcomputational results suggest that the improvement resulting from parallelization using our approach is statistically significant.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗