BlueGene/L applications: Parallelism On a Massive Scale

Bronis R de Supinski; Martin Schulz; Vasily V Bulatov; William Cabot; Bor Chan; Andrew W Cook; Erik W Draeger; James N Glosli; Jeffrey A Greenough; Keith Henderson; Alison Kubota; Steve Louis; Brian J Miller; Mehul V Patel; Thomas E Spelce; Frederick H Streitz; Peter L Williams; Robert K Yates; Andy Yoo; George Almasi; Gyan Bhanot; Alan Gara; John A Gunnels; Manish Gupta; Jose Moreira; James Sexton; Bob Walkup; Charles Archer; Francois Gygi; Timothy C Germann; Kai Kadau; Peter S Lomdahl; Charles Rendleman; Michael L Welcome; William McLendon; Bruce Hendrickson; Franz Franchetti; Stefan Kral; Jürgen Lorenz; Christoph W Überhuber; Edmond Chow; Ümit Çatalyürek

doi:10.1177/1094342007085025

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BlueGene/L applications: Parallelism On a Massive Scale

Journal article

Peer reviewed

BlueGene/L applications: Parallelism On a Massive Scale

Bronis R de Supinski, Martin Schulz, Vasily V Bulatov, William Cabot, Bor Chan, Andrew W Cook, Erik W Draeger, James N Glosli, Jeffrey A Greenough, Keith Henderson, …

The international journal of high performance computing applications, Vol.22(1), pp.33-51

02/2008

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1094342007085025

Abstract

BlueGene/L (BG/L), developed through a partnership between IBM and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), is currently the world's largest system both in terms of scale, with 131,072 processors, and absolute performance, with a peak rate of 367 Tflop/s. BG/L has led the last four Top500 lists with a Linpack rate of 280.6 Tflop/s for the full machine installed at LLNL and is expected to remain the fastest computer in the next few editions. However, the real value of a machine such as BG/L derives from the scientific breakthroughs that real applications can produce by successfully using its unprecedented scale and computational power. In this paper, we describe our experiences with eight large scale applications on BG/ L from several application domains, ranging from molecular dynamics to dislocation dynamics and turbulence simulations to searches in semantic graphs. We also discuss the challenges we faced when scaling these codes and present several successful optimization techniques. All applications show excellent scaling behavior, even at very large processor counts, with one code even achieving a sustained performance of more than 100 Tflop/s, clearly demonstrating the real success of the BG/L design.

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Title: BlueGene/L applications: Parallelism On a Massive Scale
Creators: Bronis R de Supinski - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Martin Schulz - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Vasily V Bulatov - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
William Cabot - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Bor Chan - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Andrew W Cook - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Erik W Draeger - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
James N Glosli - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Jeffrey A Greenough - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Keith Henderson - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Alison Kubota - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Steve Louis - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Brian J Miller - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Mehul V Patel - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Thomas E Spelce - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Frederick H Streitz - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Peter L Williams - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Robert K Yates - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
Andy Yoo - LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY, LIVERMORE, CA 94551, USA
George Almasi - IBM THOMAS J. WATSON RESEARCH CENTER
Gyan Bhanot - IBM THOMAS J. WATSON RESEARCH CENTER
Alan Gara - IBM THOMAS J. WATSON RESEARCH CENTER
John A Gunnels - IBM THOMAS J. WATSON RESEARCH CENTER
Manish Gupta - IBM THOMAS J. WATSON RESEARCH CENTER
Jose Moreira - IBM THOMAS J. WATSON RESEARCH CENTER
James Sexton - IBM THOMAS J. WATSON RESEARCH CENTER
Bob Walkup - IBM THOMAS J. WATSON RESEARCH CENTER
Charles Archer - IBM SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY GROUP
Francois Gygi - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
Timothy C Germann - LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Kai Kadau - LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Peter S Lomdahl - LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Charles Rendleman - LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY
Michael L Welcome - LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY
William McLendon - SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
Bruce Hendrickson - SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
Franz Franchetti - CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
Stefan Kral - VIENNA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Jürgen Lorenz - VIENNA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Christoph W Überhuber - VIENNA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Edmond Chow - D. E. SHAW RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Ümit Çatalyürek - OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
Publication Details: The international journal of high performance computing applications, Vol.22(1), pp.33-51
Date published: 02/2008
Academic Unit: Chemistry and Chemical Biology (SAS); Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (SAS)
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article
Identifiers: 991031665475504646