Received: from oldnova.npac.syr.edu by spica.npac.syr.edu (4.1/I-1.98K) id AA06933; Wed, 24 May 95 20:33:12 EDT Message-Id: <9505250033.AA24018@oldnova.npac.syr.edu> Received: from localhost.npac.syr.edu by oldnova.npac.syr.edu (4.1/N-0.12) id AA24018; Wed, 24 May 95 20:33:11 EDT To: gcf From: Marek Podgorny Cc: marek, gcheng Subject: APT - 2nd draft Date: Wed, 24 May 95 20:33:10 -0400 Sender: marek Research and Technology Development for the Applied Parallel Technologies Component-Based Software Program Marek Podgorny, Gang Cheng, Geoffrey C. Fox Northeast Parallel Architectures Center, Syracuse University Northeast Parallel Architectures Center at Syracuse University proposes to act as a subcontractor to the Applied Parallel Technologies to perform research and technology development for the Applied Parallel Technologies Component-Based Software Program. NPAC will provide both human resources and infrastructure access to the project. NPAC researchers working for the project will closely interact with the APT management and staff. Due to the dynamic nature of the project it appears difficult at present time to precisely define the scope of the research and technology development. The basic model of the proposed collaboration is for NPAC to serve as a reservoir of expertise to the APT project. The tasks that NPAC will perform will be defined in an ongoing fashion by current demands of the APT software development effort. However, a relatively constant level of funding is expected, so that NPAC is able to make stable, long-term allocation of human resources to the project. APT will be responsible to provide NPAC with requests and basic definition of the research and development efforts. It is assumed that the actual scope of each task can be dynamically modified as suggested by the rate of progress and research results. Such modifications will in each case require APT's approval and are expected to result from the agreement between APT and NPAC, based on the understanding of technical matters by both sides. NPAC will be responsible for a timely delivery of the research and development result to APT. It is postulated that a schedule is agreed upon for each task. If APT assigns additional resources to pursue the task delegated to NPAC on its own, this will not impact the NPAC task schedule. NPAC expects that the task definitions provided by APT will be within the scope of the NPAC expertise. In context of the Orchestrate project, this expertise can be broadly defined as: parallel and distributed computing and parallel relational database systems. The tasks will fall into three categories: performance evaluation of various aspects of the high-performance computing systems technology development for selected modules of the Orchestrate system active testing of the software development tools implemented by APT by using them for application development in NPAC. Assuming the funding level of approximately $100,000 a year, NPAC will provide the following human resources for the project: 75% time of a staff researcher (Gang Cheng)$4,896 100% time of a graduate research assistant (to be named)$2,002 5% time of a senior management person (Marek Podgorny) $531 10% time of a system administrator (Colleen Harry) $539 Access to NPAC facilities for both APT researchers and for NPAC staff working on the project, as requested by project demandsno charge Administrative supportno charge Total: $7,968 The numbers quoted above are calculated on monthly basis, include all indirect costs and assume the IDC rate of 44%. This rate is lower than the standard SU rate (56.5%) charged on federal contracts. To negotiate a lower rate NPAC needs a letter form APT stating that the federal rate exceeds financial ability of the company. NPAC will attempt to negotiate a lower rate with SU administration. The total monthly amount scales with the IDC rate: at 56.5% IDC, the monthly cost would be $8,907. We propose to assign a staff researcher to the project at the level of 75% of his time. The APT project will be recognized as the researcher highest priority task that, within 75% of his time, cannot be preempted by any other activities. This meets APT requirements for a full-time person assigned to the project. Since our staffers inevitably spend some time on interaction with other NPAC projects as requested by internal expertise exchange demands, we do not feel it is appropriate to pass this necessary internal interaction costs to APT. In addition to the staff researcher, NPAC will assign a graduate student to the project for whom the project will be his only focus. The student will be supervised by the staff member responsible for the APT project. As the project evolves, NPAC may chose to replace one GRA with another with skills matching more closely the actual set of tasks. Remaining personnel (senior management person and a system administrator) are necessary to cover NPAC workload in actual upkeep of the facility for the purpose of the project. NPAC will not charge APT for administrative costs and for computing infrastructure access and utilization, though. Please, note, that the average working time in NPAC exceeds 60 hours a week. However, for the billing purpose, a documented hour of work of the personnel listed above will cost: $40.80 for staff researcher, $12.50 for a GRA, $66.40 for a senior management person, and $33.70 for the system administrator. This rates will increase in proportion to the average salary increases at Syracuse University (~3%) in the 2nd year of the project. We would like to consider May 1st, 1995, as a starting day of the project, and we assume project length of 24 months. The primary point of contact for the APT project will be the staff researcher assigned to it. Currently, the designated project leader for the APT effort is Gang Cheng. He can be reached at (315) 443--2083 and his e-mail address is gcheng@npac.syr.edu. To ensure timely delivery of results and the requested level of interaction between NPAC and APT staff, NPAC will deliver monthly progress reports in writing. The reports will be accompanied by a billing statement specifying actual level of effort during the reporting period. NPAC expects reimbursement of its expenses on a monthly basis, no later than within 30 days following the reporting period. In addition to the monthly reports, APT may request more frequent information exchange and status updates via either phone or e-mail. These will be provided as requested; it is understood however that the time needed to prepare such information exchange is to be considered billable to APT. Further, APT may request that NPAC staffers involved in the project travel to Cambridge for personal meetings and presentations. As the budget quoted above does not contain any travel expenses. the travel expenses incurred as above will be billed to APT in addition to the labor expenses. The results of the work paid by APT are APT's property. NPAC will have no right to disclose this results to a 3rd party unless such a disclosure or publication is approved by APT in writing. The initial task assigned to NPAC is the performance analysis of the continuous data streaming on the SP2. The task calls for implementation of a system-wide data communication benchmark, as described in detail in the Attachment 2 to the letter date 05/20/95 from Ed Zyszkowski to Geoffrey Fox. NPAC will implement the benchmark and carry out the actual benchmarking procedure for the four types of the communication channels: TCP/IP sockets over HSS, UDP/IP datagrams over HSS, MPL/MPI over IP using HSS, and PVMe using user-space HSS access. The work on this task has already started. NPAC expects to be able to deliver the performance analysis of the socket-based TCP/IP layer within two weeks. The time frame for other mechanisms is of the order of few weeks for each communication layer. The reliability layer atop UDP must be further discussed as the extent of this effort can significantly impact the requested workload. The user-space PVMe measurements my be delayed by commonly known reliability problems of the IBM POE software. As the work on communication benchmarking progresses, APT and NPAC will work on definition of subsequent tasks.