New Methods for Developing Peta-scalable Codes

A workshop on languages and frameworks to facilitate the development of codes that will efficiently utilize many thousands of processors

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, May 3 & 4, 2004

By the end of this decade, the cyber-infrastructure supporting progress in science and engineering in the United States will include computing systems capable of delivering at least 1 Petaflop/second in peak performance. All the system architectures currently envisaged to reach this goal are based on massive parallelism, bringing to bear many thousands of processors on each computation commensurate with the scale of the system.

These processors will be arranged in a complex multi-stage memory hierarchy, which must be efficiently exploited by any programming model to deliver acceptable ratios of application-sustained to system-peak performance. Most such computations will have stringent performance requirements for petascale input/output. The system solutions devised by architects to nominally meet these I/O requirements must also be efficiently and portably exploited by any programming model that hopes to be useful at the petascale.

Our experience with the current crop of systems capable of nominal terascale performance clearly shows that almost all leading edge scientific computing codes will have to be re-engineered to meet the above requirements. At this critical juncture, practitioners are likely to consider and test novel approaches proposed by computer scientists and numerical mathematicians, if they show promise of facilitating the task of developing efficient, indefinitely scalable application codes.

The goal of this workshop is to introduce a number of such new approaches to practitioners of computational science and engineering who are committed to using petascale computers as they become available. We have assembled a team of lecturers consisting of leading-edge developers and experts. We hope to establish a constructive, long-term feedback loop between developers and practitioners to ensure that the upcoming petascale systems are used productively.

There will be three consecutive, plenary sessions: Languages (Co-Array Fortran, UPC and Titanium); Runtime Systems (CHARM++/AMPI, SCALLOP/KeLP); and Tools and I/O (ACTS Collection, PSC TCSIO). Each session will include lectures by the developers and a discussion among all participants. To foster additional interactions among participants, breakfast and lunch will be provided on both days. There will be a banquet on the evening of May 3. The workshop will adjourn at 3 pm on May 4, enabling participants to catch early flights home.

SPONSORSHIPS: Sponsored by:

National Science Foundation Department of Energy Department of Defense Hewlett-Packard Corporation

LOCATION: The workshop will be held in the Mellon Institute building, in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

AGENDA: View the agenda or see details on the topics and lectures.

The agenda and discussion of the topics is also available for download [PDF].

REGISTRATION: The registration fee is $75 per participant. The number of participants is limited so register early.

Please complete and submit the online registration form. You may also apply for this workshop by sending the requested information via electronic mail to begandy@psc.edu or via fax to (412/268-8792).

Then, to confirm your reservation, print the completed form or a copy of the email and, along with a check for $75 payable to Carnegie Mellon University, mail it to:

Workshop Application Committee ATTN: Elvira Prologo Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center 4400 Fifth Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213

For additional information, please contact the workshop coordinator at begandy@psc.edu.

DEADLINES:

Conference registrations: March 31, 2004
Hotel reservations: April 2, 2004

HOUSING AND TRAVEL: Housing and travel expenses are the responsibility of the participant. However, we have reserved a block of rooms at a local hotel which are available to the participants at $87 per night. When making a reservation, reference the Petamethods workshop to receive the workshop rate. Please contact:

Wyndham Garden Hotel University Place 3454 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh PA 15213 412/ 683-2040 877/ 662-6242

Transportation between the Wyndham and Mellon Institute will be provided.

Valet parking is available at the hotel at the group rate of $10 per night per vehicle.

Reservations received after April 2, 2004 will be provided on a space available basis at the regular rate.

MEALS: Breakfast and lunch on both days and the Monday night banquet, to be held at PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, are all included in the registration fee.