Enhancing Portability of HPC Applications across High-end Computing Platforms

Fast hardware turnover in supercomputing centers, stimulated by rapid technological progress, results in high heterogeneity among HPC platforms, and necessitates that applications are ported and adapted frequently. The cuttingedge nature of the hardware mandates customized performance tuning, which, coupled with continuously growing application complexity, makes the process inherently and increasingly challenging. In this paper, we analyze build procedures of a representative set of HPC applications, and attempt to identify commonalities that can be exploited to enhance cross-platform portability. We then propose a novel method for reducing non-portabilities while preserving high performance. The approach, based on profiles that capture and isolate non-portable features at various levels, requires only a moderate amount of changes to existing makefiles. It leverages the expertise of system designers and administrators, and reduces burdens placed on application scientists. As a proof...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: IPPS
• Authors: Magdalena Slawiñska, Jaroslaw Slawinski, Dawid Kurzyniec, Vaidy S. Sunderam
• Keywords: Distributed And Parallel Computing, Heterogeneous Hpc Platforms, HPC Platforms, IPPS 2007, Rapid Technological Progress