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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 NTRS1999

An Efficient Objective Analysis System for Parallel Computers

A new objective analysis system designed for parallel computers will be described. The system can produce a global analysis (on a 2 x 2.5 lat-lon grid with 20 levels of heights and winds and 10 levels of moisture) using 120,000 observations in less than 3 minutes on 32 CPUs (SGI Origin 2000). No special parallel code is needed (e.g. MPI or multitasking) and the 32 CPUs do not have to be on the same platform. The system Ls totally portable and can run on -several different architectures at once. In addition, the system can easily scale up to 100 or more CPUS. This will allow for much higher resolution and significant increases in input data. The system scales linearly as the number of observations and the number of grid points. The cost overhead in going from I to 32 CPus is 18%. in addition, the analysis results are identical regardless of the number of processors used. T'his system has all the characteristics of optimal interpolation, combining detailed instrument and first guess error statistics to produce the best estimate of the atmospheric state. It also includes a new quality control (buddy check) system. Static tests with the system showed it's analysis increments are comparable to the latest NASA operational system including maintenance of mass-wind balance. Results from a 2-month cycling test in the Goddard EOS Data Assimilation System (GEOS DAS) show this new analysis retains the same level of agreement between the first guess and observations (0-F statistics) throughout the entire two months.

Stobie, James G.↗
NASA NTRS1990

MARBLE: A system for executing expert systems in parallel

This paper details the MARBLE 2.0 system which provides a parallel environment for cooperating expert systems. The work has been done in conjunction with the development of an intelligent computer-aided design system, ICADS, by the CAD Research Unit of the Design Institute at California Polytechnic State University. MARBLE (Multiple Accessed Rete Blackboard Linked Experts) is a system of C Language Production Systems (CLIPS) expert system tool. A copied blackboard is used for communication between the shells to establish an architecture which supports cooperating expert systems that execute in parallel. The design of MARBLE is simple, but it provides support for a rich variety of configurations, while making it relatively easy to demonstrate the correctness of its parallel execution features. In its most elementary configuration, individual CLIPS expert systems execute on their own processors and communicate with each other through a modified blackboard. Control of the system as a whole, and specifically of writing to the blackboard is provided by one of the CLIPS expert systems, an expert control system.

Myers, Leonard↗
NASA NTRS1974

Unpowered to powered failure rate ratio - A key reliability parameter

It is shown that the initial assumption of the ratio of unpowered to powered failure rates can have a strong influence on the design of a modular system intended for space missions. The analysis is performed for parallel systems and for triple modular redundant systems. Parallel systems are shown to be much more sensitive to the unpowered to powered failure rate ratio than the TMR/Spares systems, however, regardless of which standby redundancy technique is considered, the dependence of the system reliability on this ratio increases as the number of standby spares increases.

Taylor, D. S.↗
NASA NTRS1999

An Efficient Objective Analysis System for Parallel Computers

A new atmospheric objective analysis system designed for parallel computers will be described. The system can produce a global analysis (on a 1 X 1 lat-lon grid with 18 levels of heights and winds and 10 levels of moisture) using 120,000 observations in 17 minutes on 32 CPUs (SGI Origin 2000). No special parallel code is needed (e.g. MPI or multitasking) and the 32 CPUs do not have to be on the same platform. The system is totally portable and can run on several different architectures at once. In addition, the system can easily scale up to 100 or more CPUS. This will allow for much higher resolution and significant increases in input data. The system scales linearly as the number of observations and the number of grid points. The cost overhead in going from 1 to 32 CPUs is 18%. In addition, the analysis results are identical regardless of the number of processors used. This system has all the characteristics of optimal interpolation, combining detailed instrument and first guess error statistics to produce the best estimate of the atmospheric state. Static tests with a 2 X 2.5 resolution version of this system showed it's analysis increments are comparable to the latest NASA operational system including maintenance of mass-wind balance. Results from several months of cycling test in the Goddard EOS Data Assimilation System (GEOS DAS) show this new analysis retains the same level of agreement between the first guess and observations (O-F statistics) as the current operational system.

Stobie, J.↗
NASA NTRS1996

High Performance Input/Output for Parallel Computer Systems

The goal of our project is to study the I/O characteristics of parallel applications used in Earth Science data processing systems such as Regional Data Centers (RDCs) or EOSDIS. Our approach is to study the runtime behavior of typical programs and the effect of key parameters of the I/O subsystem both under simulation and with direct experimentation on parallel systems. Our three year activity has focused on two items: developing a test bed that facilitates experimentation with parallel I/O, and studying representative programs from the Earth science data processing application domain. The Parallel Virtual File System (PVFS) has been developed for use on a number of platforms including the Tiger Parallel Architecture Workbench (TPAW) simulator, The Intel Paragon, a cluster of DEC Alpha workstations, and the Beowulf system (at CESDIS). PVFS provides considerable flexibility in configuring I/O in a UNIX- like environment. Access to key performance parameters facilitates experimentation. We have studied several key applications fiom levels 1,2 and 3 of the typical RDC processing scenario including instrument calibration and navigation, image classification, and numerical modeling codes. We have also considered large-scale scientific database codes used to organize image data.

Ligon, W. B.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Parallel Plate System for Collecting Data Used to Determine Viscosity

A parallel-plate system collects data used to determine viscosity. A first plate is coupled to a translator so that the first plate can be moved along a first direction. A second plate has a pendulum device coupled thereto such that the second plate is suspended above and parallel to the first plate. The pendulum device constrains movement of the second plate to a second direction that is aligned with the first direction and is substantially parallel thereto. A force measuring device is coupled to the second plate for measuring force along the second direction caused by movement of the second plate.

Kaukler, William↗
NASA NTRS1990

Research summary, January 1989 - June 1990

The Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science (RIACS) was established at NASA ARC in June of 1983. RIACS is privately operated by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), a consortium of 62 universities with graduate programs in the aerospace sciences, under a Cooperative Agreement with NASA. RIACS serves as the representative of the USRA universities at ARC. This document reports our activities and accomplishments for the period 1 Jan. 1989 - 30 Jun. 1990. The following topics are covered: learning systems, networked systems, and parallel systems.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2006

Helicopter force-feel and stability augmentation system with parallel servo-actuator

A force-feel system is implemented by mechanically coupling a servo-actuator to and in parallel with a flight control system. The servo-actuator consists of an electric motor, a gearing device, and a clutch. A commanded cockpit-flight-controller position is achieved by pilot actuation of a trim-switch. The position of the cockpit-flight-controller is compared with the commanded position to form a first error which is processed by a shaping function to correlate the first error with a commanded force at the cockpit-flight-controller. The commanded force on the cockpit-flight-controller provides centering forces and improved control feel for the pilot. In an embodiment, the force-feel system is used as the basic element of stability augmentation system (SAS). The SAS provides a stabilization signal that is compared with the commanded position to form a second error signal. The first error is summed with the second error for processing by the shaping function.

Hoh, Roger H.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Formal Definitions and Performance Comparison of Consistency Models for Parallel File Systems

The semantics of HPC storage systems are defined by the consistency models to which they abide. Storage consistency models have been less studied than their counterparts in memory systems, with the exception of the POSIX standard and its strict consistency model. The use of POSIX consistency imposes a performance penalty that becomes more significant as the scale of parallel file systems increases and the access time to storage devices, such as node-local solid storage devices, decreases. While some efforts have been made to adopt relaxed storage consistency models, these models are often defined informally and ambiguously as by-products of a particular implementation. Here in this work, we establish a connection between memory consistency models and storage consistency models and revisit the key design choices of storage consistency models from a high-level perspective. Further, we propose a formal and unified framework for defining storage consistency models and a layered implementation that can be used to easily evaluate their relative performance for different I/O workloads. Finally, we conduct a comprehensive performance comparison of two relaxed consistency models on a range of commonly seen parallel I/O workloads, such as checkpoint/restart of scientific applications and random reads of deep learning applications. We demonstrate that for certain I/O scenarios, a weaker consistency model can significantly improve the I/O performance. For instance, in small random reads that are typically found in deep learning applications, session consistency achieved a 5x improvement in I/O bandwidth compared to commit consistency, even at small scales.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2004

[PVFS 2000: An operational parallel file system for Beowulf]

The approach has been to develop Parallel Virtual File System version 2 (PVFS2) , retaining the basic philosophy of the original file system but completely rewriting the code. It shows the architecture of the server and client components. BMI - BMI is the network abstraction layer. It is designed with a common driver and modules for each protocol supported. The interface is non-blocking, and provides mechanisms for optimizations including pinning user buffers. Currently TCP/IP and GM(Myrinet) modules have been implemented. Trove -Trove is the storage abstraction layer. It provides for storing both data spaces and name/value pairs. Trove can also be implemented using different underlying storage mechanisms including native files, raw disk partitions, SQL and other databases. The current implementation uses native files for data spaces and Berkeley db for name/value pairs.

Ligon, Walt↗
NASA NTRS1996

The Galley Parallel File System

Most current multiprocessor file systems are designed to use multiple disks in parallel, using the high aggregate bandwidth to meet the growing I/0 requirements of parallel scientific applications. Many multiprocessor file systems provide applications with a conventional Unix-like interface, allowing the application to access multiple disks transparently. This interface conceals the parallelism within the file system, increasing the ease of programmability, but making it difficult or impossible for sophisticated programmers and libraries to use knowledge about their I/O needs to exploit that parallelism. In addition to providing an insufficient interface, most current multiprocessor file systems are optimized for a different workload than they are being asked to support. We introduce Galley, a new parallel file system that is intended to efficiently support realistic scientific multiprocessor workloads. We discuss Galley's file structure and application interface, as well as the performance advantages offered by that interface.

Nieuwejaar, Nils↗
NASA NTRS1985

Reliability and mass analysis of dynamic power conversion systems with parallel of standby redundancy

A combinatorial reliability approach is used to identify potential dynamic power conversion systems for space mission applications. A reliability and mass analysis is also performed, specifically for a 100 kWe nuclear Brayton power conversion system with parallel redundancy. Although this study is done for a reactor outlet temperature of 1100K, preliminary system mass estimates are also included for reactor outlet temperatures ranging up to 1500 K.

Juhasz, A. J.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Reliability and mass analysis of dynamic power conversion systems with parallel or standby redundancy

A combinatorial reliability approach was used to identify potential dynamic power conversion systems for space mission applications. A reliability and mass analysis was also performed, specifically for a 100-kWe nuclear Brayton power conversion system with parallel redundancy. Although this study was done for a reactor outlet temperature of 1100 K, preliminary system mass estimates are also included for reactor outlet temperatures ranging up to 1500 K.

Juhasz, Albert J.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Second Evaluation of Job Queuing/Scheduling Software

The recent proliferation of high performance workstations and the increased reliability of parallel systems have illustrated the need for robust job management systems to support parallel applications. To address this issue, NAS compiled a requirements checklist for job queuing/scheduling software. Next, NAS evaluated the leading job management system (JMS) software packages against the checklist. A year has now elapsed since the first comparison was published, and NAS has repeated the evaluation. This report describes this second evaluation, and presents the results of Phase 1: Capabilities versus Requirements. We show that JMS support for running parallel applications on clusters of workstations and parallel systems is still lacking, however, definite progress has been made by the vendors to correct the deficiencies. This report is supplemented by a WWW interface to the data collected, to aid other sites in extracting the evaluation information on specific requirements of interest.

Jones, James Patton↗
NASA NTRS1996

Evaluation of Job Queuing/Scheduling Software: Phase I Report

The recent proliferation of high performance work stations and the increased reliability of parallel systems have illustrated the need for robust job management systems to support parallel applications. To address this issue, the national Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) supercomputer facility compiled a requirements checklist for job queuing/scheduling software. Next, NAS began an evaluation of the leading job management system (JMS) software packages against the checklist. This report describes the three-phase evaluation process, and presents the results of Phase 1: Capabilities versus Requirements. We show that JMS support for running parallel applications on clusters of workstations and parallel systems is still insufficient, even in the leading JMS's. However, by ranking each JMS evaluated against the requirements, we provide data that will be useful to other sites in selecting a JMS.

Jones, James Patton↗
NASA NTRS1989

Parallel asynchronous systems and image processing algorithms

A new hardware approach to implementation of image processing algorithms is described. The approach is based on silicon devices which would permit an independent analog processing channel to be dedicated to evey pixel. A laminar architecture consisting of a stack of planar arrays of the device would form a two-dimensional array processor with a 2-D array of inputs located directly behind a focal plane detector array. A 2-D image data stream would propagate in neuronlike asynchronous pulse coded form through the laminar processor. Such systems would integrate image acquisition and image processing. Acquisition and processing would be performed concurrently as in natural vision systems. The research is aimed at implementation of algorithms, such as the intensity dependent summation algorithm and pyramid processing structures, which are motivated by the operation of natural vision systems. Implementation of natural vision algorithms would benefit from the use of neuronlike information coding and the laminar, 2-D parallel, vision system type architecture. Besides providing a neural network framework for implementation of natural vision algorithms, a 2-D parallel approach could eliminate the serial bottleneck of conventional processing systems. Conversion to serial format would occur only after raw intensity data has been substantially processed. An interesting challenge arises from the fact that the mathematical formulation of natural vision algorithms does not specify the means of implementation, so that hardware implementation poses intriguing questions involving vision science.

Coon, D. D.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Modelling parallel programs and multiprocessor architectures with AXE

AXE, An Experimental Environment for Parallel Systems, was designed to model and simulate for parallel systems at the process level. It provides an integrated environment for specifying computation models, multiprocessor architectures, data collection, and performance visualization. AXE is being used at NASA-Ames for developing resource management strategies, parallel problem formulation, multiprocessor architectures, and operating system issues related to the High Performance Computing and Communications Program. AXE's simple, structured user-interface enables the user to model parallel programs and machines precisely and efficiently. Its quick turn-around time keeps the user interested and productive. AXE models multicomputers. The user may easily modify various architectural parameters including the number of sites, connection topologies, and overhead for operating system activities. Parallel computations in AXE are represented as collections of autonomous computing objects known as players. Their use and behavior is described. Performance data of the multiprocessor model can be observed on a color screen. These include CPU and message routing bottlenecks, and the dynamic status of the software.

Yan, Jerry C.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Evaluation of existing and proposed computer architectures for future ground-based systems

Parallel processing architectures and techniques used in current supercomputers are described and projections are made of future advances. Presently, the von Neumann sequential processing pattern has been accelerated by having separate I/O processors, interleaved memories, wide memories, independent functional units and pipelining. Recent supercomputers have featured single-input, multiple data stream architectures, which have different processors for performing various operations (vector or pipeline processors). Multiple input, multiple data stream machines have also been developed. Data flow techniques, wherein program instructions are activated only when data are available, are expected to play a large role in future supercomputers, along with increased parallel processor arrays. The enhanced operational speeds are essential for adequately treating data from future spacecraft remote sensing instruments such as the Thematic Mapper.

Schulbach, C.↗