Collaborative Research: Software Institute for Abstractions and Methodologies for HPC Simulation Codes on Future Architectures

运行在高性能计算(HPC)平台上的大型、复杂、多尺度、多物理模拟代码对于推进格子场理论、天体物理和宇宙学、计算流体力学/流体结构相互作用和高能量密度物理等学科的科学和工程研究至关重要。计算科学的进步，加上采用高级框架和模块化开发，产生了针对个别社区的广泛使用的社区模拟软件。这些最先进的代码已经开发和优化了几年，目前在千万亿级平台上以前所未有的保真度模拟多尺度、多物理现象。目前，这些代码中的每一个都具有不同的性能特征，但由于硬件体系结构的变化，它们都面临着挑战。正在进行的应对这些挑战的努力在很大程度上是零散的。虽然在不同领域使用的科学代码彼此之间确实有很大差异，但许多解决方案在概念上可能是相似的，即使它们在细节上不同。拟议的概念化项目--代码方法和抽象软件研究所(SIMAC)的目标是通过参与者之间的合作、协调和跨学科互动，找到适用于广泛应用程序的共同抽象和框架。参与的核心代码组包括Flash(天体物理学、宇宙学、CFD、HEDP)、仙人掌(CFD、数值相对论和量子相对论)、晶格QCD社区使用的代码套件和EZO(宇宙学)。拟议的合作研究将产生四个模拟代码和合作机构以外的好处，方法是探索：适用于广泛的科学和工程应用领域的通用软件基础设施；计算机科学研究和应用开发之间的参与模式；多学科沉浸式计划，用于研究、教育和培训学生、博士后研究员和未来平台架构的访问者。

Large, complex, multi-scale, multi-physics simulation codes, running on high performance computing (HPC) platforms, are essential to advancing science and engineering research in disciplines such as lattice field theory, astrophysics and cosmology, computational fluid dynamics/fluid structure interaction,and high energy density physics. Progress in computational science together with the adoption of high-level frameworks and modular development have produced widely used community simulation software specific to individual communities. These state-of-the-art codes have been under development and optimization for several years and currently simulate multi-scale, multi-physics phenomena with unprecedented fidelity on petascale platforms. Currently each of these codes have solvers with varied performance characteristics, but all face challenges because of changing hardware architecture. Efforts underway to cope with these challenges, are largely fragmented. While it is true that the scientific codes used in various domains differ significantly from one another, many solutions are likely to be conceptually similar, even if they differ in details. The goal of the proposed conceptualization project, Software Institute for Methodologies and Abstractions for Codes (SIMAC) is to find common abstractions and frameworks applicable across a broad range of applications through cooperation, coordination and interdisciplinary interactions among the participants. The core group of participating codes includes FLASH (astrophysics, cosmology, CFD, HEDP), Cactus (CFD, numerical relativity, and quantum relativity), the code suite used by the Lattice QCD community, and Enzo (cosmology). The proposed collaborative research will produce benefit beyond the four simulation codes and collaborating institutions by exploring: a common software infrastructure applicable to a broad range of science and engineering application domains; an engagement model between computer science research and application development; a multidisciplinary immersion program for research, education and training of students, postdoctoral fellows and visitors on future platform architectures.