NSF: SHF: PAW: Novel Functionality in Programming Models to Productively Abstract Wavefront Parallel Pattern

PI: Sunita Chandrasekaran
Students: Fabian Mora

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation (NSF)

Duration: 10/01/2018 – 09/30/2023

Project Summary:
The aim of this research project is to design novel high-level programming abstractions for complex parallel patterns in scientific applications as these patterns often require for the programmer to restructure the code thus spending hours to create a new codebase which can be both time-consuming and error-prone. To achieve this, we address the performance and portability questions at the algorithmic-level, programming framework-level and at the software design level. The studies are also suggestive of shortcomings in current programming models paving the way to developing novel insights towards high-level software abstractions for multi-use in different/diverse projects simultaneously.

GitHub: The software is open source and available on GitHub: https://github.com/UD-CRPL/minisweep.

Publications:

• Eric Wright, Mauricio Ferrato, Alexander J. Bryer, Robert Searles, Juan R. Perilla, Sunita Chandrasekaran. Accelerating prediction of chemical shift of protein structures on GPUs: Using OpenACC. PLOS Computational Biology. May 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007877

• Robert Searles, Sunita Chandrasekaran, Wayne Joubert and Oscar Hernandez. MPI+OpenACC: Accelerating Radiation Transport Mini-application, Minisweep, on Heterogeneous Systems. Journal of Computer Physics Communications (CPC). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2018.10.007. Volume 236, pp. 176-187, 2019. (Corresponding Author)

• Robert Searles, Sunita Chandrasekaran, Wayne Joubert, Oscar Hernandez. 2018. Abstractions and Directives for Adapting Wavefront Algorithms to Future Architectures. In ACM proceedings of 5th Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC). DOI: 10.11453218176.3218228 Talk Recording: https://www.pasc-conference.org/pasc18-video-of-robert-searles-on-abstractions-and-directives-for-adapting-wavefront-algorithms-to-future-architectures/

Posters and Talks:

• Robert Searles, Sunita Chandrasekaran, “Abstractions and Directives for Adapting Wavefront Algorithms to Future Architectures”, GTC 2019

• Robert Searles. Creating Language Extensions For Complex Parallel Patterns, Talk given at National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), 2018, CO

PhD Thesis:

• Robert Searles. PhD Thesis. Creating a portable programming abstraction for wavefront patterns targeting HPC systems, May 2019. http://dspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/24738