Evaluating parallel programming tools to support code development for accelerators

Abstract

As the Pawsey Centre project continues, in 2013 iVEC was tasked with deciding which accelerator technology to use in the petascale supercomputer to be delivered in mid 2014. While accelerators provide impressive performance and efficiency, an important factor in this decision is the usability of the technologies. To assist in the assessment of technologies, iVEC conducted a code sprint where iVEC staff and advanced users were paired to make use of a range of tools to port their codes to two architectures. Results of the sprint indicate that certain subtasks could benefit from using the tools in the code-acceleration process; however, there will be many hurdles users will face in migrating to either of the platforms explored. © The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.