Performance portability across diverse architectures

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Abstract

The range of computer architectures used in supercomputers today is growing in diversity. The Exascale machines due to be online by next year (2021) showcase the variety of architectures we need to think about: high-performance CPUs and GPUs from different hardware vendors. In n the UK, the Tier-2 systems showcase diversity. As HPC specialists, we need to write and maintain our codes to make sure they work efficiently on this wide and changing range of hardware. We want to write performance portable codes that run well everywhere. To do this we need robust ways to measure and evaluate performance portability, and we need to use write codes using programming models which are performant and portable. Encouraging diversity in hardware is crucial too, one of the goals of the Isambard project which explores building production-ready supercomputers using Arm processors and evaluating them on the . This talk will discuss the ongoing research into performance portability from the High Performance Computing Research Group at the University of Bristol, including the Isambard Tier-2 project.

About the speaker

Dr Tom Deakin is a Senior Research Associate in the High Performance Computing Research Group at the University of Bristol, led by Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith. Tom completed his PhD in Leveraging Many-Core Technology for Deterministic Neutral Particle Transport at Extreme Scale in 2018, and has since continued working on unstructured mesh transport and performance portability on HPC architectures. In 2012, Tom graduated top of his class from the University of Bristol with first class honours with a MSc in Mathematics and Computer Science, winning the prize for Best graduating student in Computer Science and Mathematics. Tom has been involved in teaching an Introduction to High Performance Computing at the University of Bristol and helped with tutorials on parallel programming models at international conferences and private courses on OpenCL and OpenMP. Training material on OpenMP for Computational Scientists and HandsOnOpenCL can be found online.

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