MRI: Acquisition of STEMS: A Laboratory for End-to-End Development of Software and Tools for Emerging Multigrain Supercomputers

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This project, forming a test bed for the development of programming models and methodologies for multigrain parallel architectures, supports multidisciplinary research in areas that develop innovative software technology and services at the operating system, runtime system, and network layers supporting parallel mesh generation, visualization, and bioinformatics applications. The requested instrumentation is based on a processor that combines chip multiprocessing and simultaneous multithreading using two superscalar execution cores, each with advanced SMT capabilities on the same die. The IBM Power5 processor offers an opportunity for real development of algorithmic models, parallel programming systems, and low-level system software support for multilevel concurrency on multigrain architectures. The research is geared towards increasing programmer productivity on high-end systems. Moreover, the infrastructure supports an ITR project investigating the exploitation of multiple levels of concurrency from parallel mesh generation algorithms using clusters and SMP build around multithreaded processors and a CAREER awardee building generic parallel programming system for multigrain systems and investigating runtime adaptation of computation and layouts using continuous monitoring infrastructure. The acquisition will also enable advances in large-scale scientific visualization and parallel real-time visualization for large datasets. Furthermore, it will enable the deployment of transparent performance monitoring and virtualization services for end users who can utilize high-end clusters for computations distributed over geographically distant locations.Broader Impact: The work strengthens the impact of multiple collaborative and synergistic research hosting interdisciplinary studies with partners from medical schools (focusing on mesh generation for brain imaging) and computational biologists (focusing on transparent access to remote data sets for life science analysis pipelines). The facility also enriches the teaching environment in this mainly undergraduate serving institution. New offerings in scientific visualization and medical image computing will be enabled.