DOE Greenbook - Needs and Directions in High-Performance Computing for the Office of Science
The NERSC Users Group (NUG) encompasses all investigators utilizing the NERSC computational and storage resources of the Department of Energy Office of Science facility. At the February 2001 meeting held at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) facility, the NUG executive committee (NUGEX) began the process to assess the role of computational science and determine the computational needs in future Office of Science (OS) programs. The continuing rapid development of the computational science fields and computer technology (both hardware and software) suggest frequent periodic review of user requirements and the role that computational science should play in meeting OS program commitments. Over the last decade, NERSC (and many other supercomputer centers) have transitioned from a center based on vector supercomputers to one almost entirely dedicated to massively parallel platforms (MPPs). Users have had to learn and transform their application codes to make use of these parallel computers. NERSC computer time requests suggest that a vast majority of NERSC users have accomplished this transition and are ready for production parallel computing. Tools for debugging, mathematical toolsets, and robust communication software have enabled this transition. The large memory and CPU power of these parallel machines are allowing simulations at resolutions, timescales, and levels of realism in physics that were never before possible. Difficulties and performance issues in using MPP systems remain linked to the access of non-uniform memory: cache, local, and remote memory. This issue includes both the speed of access and the methods of access to the memory architecture. Optimized mathematical tools to perform standard functions on parallel machines are available. Users should be encouraged to make heavy use of those tools to enhance productivity and system performance. There are at least four underlying components to the computational resources used by OS researchers. (1) High-Performance Computing Technology; (2) Advanced Software Technology and Algorithms; (3) Energy Sciences Network; and (4) Basic Research and Human Resources. In addition to the availability from the vendor community, these components determine the implementation and direction of the development of the supercomputing resources for the OS community. In this document we will identify scientific and computational needs from across the five Office of Science organizations: High Energy and Nuclear Physics, Basic Energy Sciences, Fusion Energy Science, Biological and Environmental Research, and Advanced Scientific Computing Research. We will also delineate the current suite of NERSC computational and human resources. Finally, we will provide a set of recommendations that will guide the utilization of current and future computational resources at the DOE NERSC.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15002341
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-LR-147890; TRN: US200410%%77
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Apr 2002
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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