Scientific Computations on Modern Parallel Vector Systems
Scientific Computations on Modern Parallel Vector Systems
复制标题
现代并行矢量系统的科学计算
DOI：
10.1109/sc.2004.54
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发表时间：
2004
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
S. Ethier
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
L. Oliker;A. Canning;J. Carter;J. Shalf;S. Ethier
计算科学家们已经看到了一个令人沮丧的趋势，即尽管高性能计算系统的峰值能力急剧增加，但应用程序性能却停滞不前。这一趋势被广泛归因于基于超标量的商品组件的使用，这些组件的架构设计提供了内存性能、网络能力和执行速率之间的平衡，但与大规模数值计算的要求不匹配。最近，两个创新的并行矢量架构已经开始运作：日本地球模拟器（ES）和克雷X1。为了量化这些现代矢量功能对依赖建模和仿真的科学家的影响，在要求苛刻的计算算法的背景下评估这种架构范式至关重要。我们的评估研究考察了四个不同的科学应用，有可能在超尺度上运行，从等离子体物理学，材料科学，天体物理学和磁聚变领域。我们比较基于矢量的ES和X1之间的性能，领先的基于超标量的平台：IBM Power 3/4和SGI Altix。我们的研究小组是第一个在地球模拟器中心进行性能评估研究的国际小组;远程ES访问不可用。结果表明，向量系统实现了我们的应用程序套件的性能优异-最高的任何架构测试的日期。然而，矢量化的粒子在细胞的代码突出了潜在的困难，表达不规则结构的算法作为数据并行程序。
Computational scientists have seen a frustrating trend of stagnating application performance despite dramatic increases in the claimed peak capability of high performance computing systems. This trend has been widely attributed to the use of superscalar-based commodity components who’s architectural designs offer a balance between memory performance, network capability, and execution rate that is poorly matched to the requirements of large-scale numerical computations. Recently, two innovative parallel-vector architectures have become operational: the Japanese Earth Simulator (ES) and the Cray X1. In order to quantify what these modern vector capabilities entail for the scientists that rely on modeling and simulation, it is critical to evaluate this architectural paradigm in the context of demanding computational algorithms. Our evaluation study examines four diverse scientific applications with the potential to run at ultrascale, from the areas of plasma physics, material science, astrophysics, and magnetic fusion. We compare performance between the vector-based ES and X1, with leading superscalar-based platforms: the IBM Power3/4 and the SGI Altix. Our research team was the first international group to conduct a performance evaluation study at the Earth Simulator Center; remote ES access in not available. Results demonstrate that the vector systems achieve excellent performance on our application suite - the highest of any architecture tested to date. However, vectorization of a particle-in-cell code highlights the potential difficulty of expressing irregularly structured algorithms as data-parallel programs.