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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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1991

Studies of electron collisions with polyatomic molecules using distributed-memory parallel computers

Elastic electron scattering cross sections from 5-30 eV are reported for the molecules C2H4, C2H6, C3H8, Si2H6, and GeH4, obtained using an implementation of the Schwinger multichannel method for distributed-memory parallel computer architectures. These results, obtained within the static-exchange approximation, are in generally good agreement with the available experimental data. These calculations demonstrate the potential of highly parallel computation in the study of collisions between low-energy electrons and polyatomic gases. The computational methodology discussed is also directly applicable to the calculation of elastic cross sections at higher levels of approximation (target polarization) and of electronic excitation cross sections.

Winstead, C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Model-driven mapping onto distributed memory parallel computers

The author addresses the problem of exploiting the parallelism available in a program to efficiently employ the resources of the target machine in the context of building a mapping compiler for a distributed memory parallel machine. He demonstrates the effectiveness of using execution models to select the best mapping technique from among those available for a given program segment on a particular machine. Through analysis of the execution models for several mapping techniques for one class of programs on a linear processor array, it is shown that selecting the best technique for a particular program instance can make a significant difference in performance. On the other hand, the results of benchmarks from a mapping compiler for the Warp systolic array machine show that the execution models considered are accurate enough to select the best mapping technique for a given program.

Sussman, Alan↗
NASA NTRS1990

Ray tracing on distributed memory parallel systems

Among the many techniques in computer graphics, ray tracing is prized because it can render realistic images, albeit at great computational expense. In this note, the performance of several approaches to ray tracing on a distributed memory parallel system is evaluated. A set of performance instrumentation tools and their associated visualization software are used to identify the underlying causes of performance differences.

Jensen, David W.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Execution models for mapping programs onto distributed memory parallel computers

The problem of exploiting the parallelism available in a program to efficiently employ the resources of the target machine is addressed. The problem is discussed in the context of building a mapping compiler for a distributed memory parallel machine. The paper describes using execution models to drive the process of mapping a program in the most efficient way onto a particular machine. Through analysis of the execution models for several mapping techniques for one class of programs, we show that the selection of the best technique for a particular program instance can make a significant difference in performance. On the other hand, the results of benchmarks from an implementation of a mapping compiler show that our execution models are accurate enough to select the best mapping technique for a given program.

Sussman, Alan↗
NASA NTRS1994

Improved load distribution in parallel sparse Cholesky factorization

Compared to the customary column-oriented approaches, block-oriented, distributed-memory sparse Cholesky factorization benefits from an asymptotic reduction in interprocessor communication volume and an asymptotic increase in the amount of concurrency that is exposed in the problem. Unfortunately, block-oriented approaches (specifically, the block fan-out method) have suffered from poor balance of the computational load. As a result, achieved performance can be quite low. This paper investigates the reasons for this load imbalance and proposes simple block mapping heuristics that dramatically improve it. The result is a roughly 20% increase in realized parallel factorization performance, as demonstrated by performance results from an Intel Paragon system. We have achieved performance of nearly 3.2 billion floating point operations per second with this technique on a 196-node Paragon system.

Rothberg, Edward↗
DOE OSTI2022

International ACM Symposium on High Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing Conference for 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020

The 28th ACM HPDC Conference was held in Phoenix, Arizona, June 24 and 28, 2019 (hpdc.org/2019), that was colocated with ACM FCRC 2019 (fcrc.acm.org). During the conference, Prof. Geoffrey Fox, Indiana University, was given the HPDC Achievement Award for 2019. Prof gave a keynote speech entitled “Perspectives on High-Performance Computing in a Big Data World. In addition, to the keynote speakers from HPDC and FCRC conferences, the conference organized successfully five workshops and one Ph.D. forum. The ACM FCRC had a total of 2700 attendees, and HPDC had a total of 120 attendees that included 32 students. We have used the DOE sponsorship to support the conference proceedings that acknowledge the DoE support and partially supported the travel to the HPDC PC meeting, Keynote speaker accommodation, best papers, presentation and poster award.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1993

A reevaluation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex: new ideas of its purpose, properties, neural substrate, and disorders

Conventional views of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) have emphasized testing with caloric stimuli and by passively rotating patients at low frequencies in a chair. The properties of the VOR tested under these conditions differ from the performance of this reflex during the natural function for which it evolved--locomotion. Only the VOR (and not visually mediated eye movements) can cope with the high-frequency angular and linear perturbations of the head that occur during locomotion; this is achieved by generating eye movements at short latency (< 16 msec). Interpretation of vestibular testing is enhanced by the realization that, although the di- and trisynaptic components of the VOR are essential for this short-latency response, the overall accuracy and plasticity of the VOR depend upon a distributed, parallel network of neurons involving the vestibular nuclei. Neurons in this network variously upon a distributed, parallel network of neurons involving the vestibular nuclei. Neurons in this network variously encode inputs from the labyrinthine semicircular canals and otoliths, as well as from the visual and somatosensory systems. The central vestibular pathways branch to contact vestibular cortex (for perception) and the spinal cord (for control of posture). Thus, the vestibular nuclei basically coordinate the stabilization of gaze and posture, and contribute to the perception of verticality and self-motion. Consequently, brainstem disorders that disrupt the VOR cause not just only nystagmus, but also instability of posture (eg, increased fore-aft sway in patients with downbeat nystagmus) and disturbance of spatial orientation (eg, tilt of the subjective visual vertical in Wallenberg's syndrome).

Review↗
NASA NTRS1998

HPCC Methodologies for Structural Design and Analysis on Parallel and Distributed Computing Platforms

In this grant, we have proposed a three-year research effort focused on developing High Performance Computation and Communication (HPCC) methodologies for structural analysis on parallel processors and clusters of workstations, with emphasis on reducing the structural design cycle time. Besides consolidating and further improving the FETI solver technology to address plate and shell structures, we have proposed to tackle the following design related issues: (a) parallel coupling and assembly of independently designed and analyzed three-dimensional substructures with non-matching interfaces, (b) fast and smart parallel re-analysis of a given structure after it has undergone design modifications, (c) parallel evaluation of sensitivity operators (derivatives) for design optimization, and (d) fast parallel analysis of mildly nonlinear structures. While our proposal was accepted, support was provided only for one year.

Farhat, Charbel↗
NASA NTRS1994

Performance Measurement, Visualization and Modeling of Parallel and Distributed Programs

This paper presents a methodology for debugging the performance of message-passing programs on both tightly coupled and loosely coupled distributed-memory machines. The AIMS (Automated Instrumentation and Monitoring System) toolkit, a suite of software tools for measurement and analysis of performance, is introduced and its application illustrated using several benchmark programs drawn from the field of computational fluid dynamics. AIMS includes (i) Xinstrument, a powerful source-code instrumentor, which supports both Fortran77 and C as well as a number of different message-passing libraries including Intel's NX Thinking Machines' CMMD, and PVM; (ii) Monitor, a library of timestamping and trace -collection routines that run on supercomputers (such as Intel's iPSC/860, Delta, and Paragon and Thinking Machines' CM5) as well as on networks of workstations (including Convex Cluster and SparcStations connected by a LAN); (iii) Visualization Kernel, a trace-animation facility that supports source-code clickback, simultaneous visualization of computation and communication patterns, as well as analysis of data movements; (iv) Statistics Kernel, an advanced profiling facility, that associates a variety of performance data with various syntactic components of a parallel program; (v) Index Kernel, a diagnostic tool that helps pinpoint performance bottlenecks through the use of abstract indices; (vi) Modeling Kernel, a facility for automated modeling of message-passing programs that supports both simulation -based and analytical approaches to performance prediction and scalability analysis; (vii) Intrusion Compensator, a utility for recovering true performance from observed performance by removing the overheads of monitoring and their effects on the communication pattern of the program; and (viii) Compatibility Tools, that convert AIMS-generated traces into formats used by other performance-visualization tools, such as ParaGraph, Pablo, and certain AVS/Explorer modules.

Yan, Jerry C.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Energy distribution in parallel plate plasma accelerators

A parallel plate accelerator operated in the quasi-steady regime of argon mass flow discharges permits, on account of its geometry, the appraisal of the initial ratio of energy disposition into the kinetic and thermal modes of the plasma while retaining the essential features of coaxial high power self-field MPD accelerators. The energy disposition ratio, calculated as the ratio of kinetic energy to enthalpy in the exhaust flow, shows reasonable agreement with the ratio of the induced emf in the accelerator to resistive voltage drop. Both these ratios indicate that the discharge imparts more energy to the flow by resistive heating than by direct body force acceleration. This is turn suggests that other acceleration mechanisms must be responsible for the high performance of conventional MPD arcs.

Dicapua, M. S.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Parallel and distributed computation for fault-tolerant object recognition

The distributed associative memory (DAM) model is suggested for distributed and fault-tolerant computation as it relates to object recognition tasks. The fault-tolerance is with respect to geometrical distortions (scale and rotation), noisy inputs, occulsion/overlap, and memory faults. An experimental system was developed for fault-tolerant structure recognition which shows the feasibility of such an approach. The approach is futher extended to the problem of multisensory data integration and applied successfully to the recognition of colored polyhedral objects.

Wechsler, Harry↗
NASA NTRS1995

Visualization and Tracking of Parallel CFD Simulations

We describe a system for interactive visualization and tracking of a 3-D unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation on a parallel computer. CM/AVS, a distributed, parallel implementation of a visualization environment (AVS) runs on the CM-5 parallel supercomputer. A CFD solver is run as a CM/AVS module on the CM-5. Data communication between the solver, other parallel visualization modules, and a graphics workstation, which is running AVS, are handled by CM/AVS. Partitioning of the visualization task, between CM-5 and the workstation, can be done interactively in the visual programming environment provided by AVS. Flow solver parameters can also be altered by programmable interactive widgets. This system partially removes the requirement of storing large solution files at frequent time steps, a characteristic of the traditional 'simulate (yields) store (yields) visualize' post-processing approach.

Vaziri, Arsi↗
NASA NTRS1998

Parallel and Distributed System Simulation

This exploratory study initiated our research into the software infrastructure necessary to support the modeling and simulation techniques that are most appropriate for the Information Power Grid. Such computational power grids will use high-performance networking to connect hardware, software, instruments, databases, and people into a seamless web that supports a new generation of computation-rich problem solving environments for scientists and engineers. In this context we looked at evaluating the NetSolve software environment for network computing that leverages the potential of such systems while addressing their complexities. NetSolve's main purpose is to enable the creation of complex applications that harness the immense power of the grid, yet are simple to use and easy to deploy. NetSolve uses a modular, client-agent-server architecture to create a system that is very easy to use. Moreover, it is designed to be highly composable in that it readily permits new resources to be added by anyone willing to do so. In these respects NetSolve is to the Grid what the World Wide Web is to the Internet. But like the Web, the design that makes these wonderful features possible can also impose significant limitations on the performance and robustness of a NetSolve system. This project explored the design innovations that push the performance and robustness of the NetSolve paradigm as far as possible without sacrificing the Web-like ease of use and composability that make it so powerful.

Dongarra, Jack↗
NASA NTRS2003

Task Assignment Heuristics for Parallel and Distributed CFD Applications

This paper proposes a task graph (TG) model to represent a single discrete step of multi-block overset grid computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications. The TG model is then used to not only balance the computational workload across the overset grids but also to reduce inter-grid communication costs. We have developed a set of task assignment heuristics based on the constraints inherent in this class of CFD problems. Two basic assignments, the smallest task first (STF) and the largest task first (LTF), are first presented. They are then systematically costs. To predict the performance of the proposed task assignment heuristics, extensive performance evaluations are conducted on a synthetic TG with tasks defined in terms of the number of grid points in predetermined overlapping grids. A TG derived from a realistic problem with eight million grid points is also used as a test case.

Lopez-Benitez, Noe↗