Abstract
Despite their dominance of high-end computing (HEC) through the 1980’s, vector systems have been gradually replaced by microprocessor-based systems. However, while peak performance of microprocessors has grown exponentially, the gradual slide in sustained performance delivered to scientific applications has become a growing concern among HEC users. Recently, the Earth Simulator and Cray X1/X1E parallel vector processor systems have spawned renewed interest in vector technology for scientific applications. In this work, we compare the performance of two Lattice-Boltzmann applications and the Cactus astrophysics package on vector based systems including the Cray X1/X1E, Earth Simulator, and NEC SX-8, with commodity-based processor clusters including the IBM SP Power3, IBM Power5, Intel Itanium2, and AMD Opteron processors. We examine these important scientific applications to quantify the effective performance and investigate if efficiency benefits are applicable to a broader array of numerical methods.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Russell, R.: The CRAY-1 Computer System. Comm. ACM 21(1), 1 (1978)
Oliker, L., et al.: Scientific computations on modern parallel vector systems. In: Proc. SC2004: High Performance Computing, Networking, and Storage Conference (2004)
Oliker, L., et al.: Evaluation of cache-based superscalar and cacheless vector architectures for scientific computations. In: Proc. SC2003: High Performance Computing, Networking, and Storage Conference (2003)
Dongarra, J., Luszczek, P.: HPC Challenge Benchmarks - Stream EP (2006), http://icl.cs.utk.edu/hpcc/index.html
Carter, J., et al.: Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence simulations on the Earth Simulator using the lattice Boltzmann method. In: Proc. SC2005: High performance computing, networking, and storage conference (2005)
Vahala, G., et al.: 3D entropic lattice Boltzmann simulations of 3D Navier-Stokes turbulence. In: Proc. of 47th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics (2005)
Font, J.A., et al.: Three dimensional numerical general relativistic hydrodynamics: Formulations, methods, and code tests. Phys. Rev. D 61 (2000)
Alcubierre, M., et al.: Towards an understanding of the stability properties of the 3+1 evolution equations in general relativity. Phys. Rev. D (gr-qc/9908079) (2000)
Succi, S.: The lattice Boltzmann equation for fluids and beyond. Oxford Science Publ., Oxford (2001)
Dellar, P.: Lattice kinetic schemes for magnetohydrodynamics. J. Comput. Phys. 79 (2002)
Macnab, A., et al.: Lattice Boltzmann model for dissipative incompressible MHD. In: Proc. 28th EPS Conference on Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics, vol. 25A (2001)
Macnab, A., et al.: Lattice Boltzmann model for dissipative MHD. In: Proc. 29th EPS Conference on Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics, vol. 26B, Montreux, Switzerland, June 17-21 (2002)
Ansumali, S., Karlin, I.V.: Stabilization of the lattice Boltzmann method by the H theorem: A numerical test. Phys. Rev. E62, 7999–8003 (2000)
Ansumali, S., Karlin, I.V., Öttinger, H.C.: Minimal entropic kinetic models for hydrodynamics. Europhys. Lett. 63(6) (2003)
Keating, B., et al.: Entropic lattice boltzmann simulations of turbulence. In: Proceeding of 48th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics (2006)
Wellein, G., et al.: On the single processor performance of simple lattice bolzmann kernels. Computers and Fluids 35, 910 (2006)
Worley, P.: Private communication (2005)
Carter, J., Oliker, L.: Performance evaluation of lattice-Boltzmann magnetohyddrodynamics simulations on modern parallel vector systems. In: High Performance Computing on Vector Systems, pp. 41–50 (2006)
Schnetter, E., et al.: Cactus Code Server (2006), http://www.cactuscode.org
TGS Inc.: Amira - Advanced 3D Visualization and Volume Modeling (2006), http://www.amiravis.com
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Carter, J., Oliker, L., Shalf, J. (2007). Performance Evaluation of Scientific Applications on Modern Parallel Vector Systems. In: Daydé, M., Palma, J.M.L.M., Coutinho, Á.L.G.A., Pacitti, E., Lopes, J.C. (eds) High Performance Computing for Computational Science - VECPAR 2006. VECPAR 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4395. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71351-7_38
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71351-7_38
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-71350-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-71351-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)