The Programming Environment & Training (PET) component of the DoD HPC MSRCs is a bold and innovative university/industry/government effort to provide the essential user support and mode of capability enhancement that is necessary for the MSRCs to reach a level comparable to that in the foremost university, industry, and other Government agency HPC centers - and to address the wide variety of research and development demands arising from the science and technology programs supporting DoD's weapons development and warfighting support systems. The purpose of the PET component of the MSRCs is to enhance the entire programming environment for the MSRC users through training and support for software enhancement, addressing both near-term improvements and long-term expansions, thus enabling use of the MSRC computing resources to fullest capacity and extending the range of applicability to of HPC to DoD technical problems.
The PET effort is unprecedented in its concept and vision, in its management for long-term achievement, in its strong university commitment, in its approach through unique university/DoD collaboration, in its understanding and relationship between university researchers and MSRC users - and in its challenge to be faced in the interest of DoD by the universities and companies involved, the MSRC users, and the program management. The PET component of the MSRC program is thus a true intellectual enterprise which breaks new ground in collaborative effort between DoD and academia in order to establish a two-way conduit of information and expertise enhancing the capability of the MSRC user and bringing demands of DoD HPC to bear early-on in programming environment developments in progress in the universities.
The CEWES MSRC PET effort is administered by the integrator, Nichols Research Corporation (NRC), for the CEWES MSRC as a part of the contract from the HPCMO for the CEWES MSRC. The strategic plan of the CEWES MSRC PET effort has evolved over the first two years of operation, through close collaboration of the university team leadership with that of Nichols Research and the CEWES MSRC. The true deliverable of the CEWES MSRC PET effort is the raised level of CEWES MSRC user capability and programming environment in the CEWES MSRC - to a level not surpassed by academic, industry, or other government HPC centers. The approach to PET at the CEWES MSRC is to marshall an elite and readily accessible university team to constitute a virtual extension of the CEWES MSRC into top academic expertise, able both to respond and anticipate needs of the CEWES MSRC users for training and assistive collaboration in advancing the programming environment, utilizing a combination of strong on-site presence and dedicated support from the universities. Support for CEWES MSRC users is provided by the PET team in the five Computational Technology Areas (CTAs) for which the CEWES MSRC has responsibility:
CFD: Computational Fluid Dynamics CSM: Computational Structural Mechanics CWO: Climate/Weather/Ocean Modeling EQM: Environmental Quality Modeling FMS: Forces Modeling and Simulation/C4I
and also for three relevant technical infrastructure areas:
Scalable Parallel Programming Tools Scientific Visualization Collaboration/Communication
This is accomplished through on-site PET team members at the CEWES MSRC in close communication with PET team members at the supporting universities, who also make frequent visits to CEWES MSRC. The PET team members on-site at CEWES MSRC are full-time university personnel in most cases, supplemented by full-time NRC personnel. Some of the PET team members at the universities are full-time in the PET effort, spending regular time on-site at CEWES MSRC. The on-site PET team members at the CEWES MSRC are key to the CEWES MSRC PET operation, since these team members are the front line of contact with CEWES MSRC users.
The PET effort at CEWES MSRC consists of three fundamental elements: Core Support, Focused Efforts, and Training. Intertwined with these efforts are outreach to CEWES MSRC users and a program to enhance the involvement of HBCU/MIs in HPC. *Core Support* provides continual interaction and assistive collaboration with CEWES MSRC users in the technical areas supported at the CEWES MSRC to migrate and enhance important codes to scalable parallel platforms and to extend the applicability of such codes and systems. *Focused Efforts* address current specific projects to enhance the programming environment at the CEWES MSRC and the capabilities of CEWES MSRC users. *Training* provides instruction for MSRC users, both on-site at CEWES MSRC and remote, in the technical areas supported at the CEWES MSRC and consists of both in-person and web-based courses.
Since the great majority of users of the CEWES MSRC are off-site, the PET effort at the CEWES MSRC places emphasis on outreach to remote users through visits to major remote user sites, training courses at such remote sites, web-based remote training delivery, and remote communication via email and the CEWES MSRC PET website.
The principal purpose of the HBCU/MI component of the PET effort at the CEWES MSRC is to enhance the capability of the HBCU/MI members of the CEWES MSRC PET academic team to participate fully in the PET support effort of the CEWES MSRC.
Transfer of emerging technology from the academic community into the CEWES MSRC is a primary purpose of the CEWES MSRC PET effort. Of like importance is transfer in the other direction, providing input and feedback regarding emerging DoD needs to influence developments at universities.
It is imperative in the interest of efficiency of resource utilization that the PET support teams for the four MSRCs move to coordinate their efforts and cooperate as much as is feasible in view of the differing emphasis and user patterns, and in view of the fact of separate contracts.
During the second year of effort, the PET program in support of the CEWES MSRC has had the following accomplishments in the several technical support areas:
CFD: Computational Fluid Dynamics CTA
Demonstration of Computational Design Technology: HIVEL2D MPI Parallelization of CH3D Assistance with CHSSI Codes: OVERFLOW and FAST3D Evaluation of Parallel Programming Models
CSM: Computational Structural Mechanics CTA
CTH and Dyna3D On-Site Support for Damaged Structures Challenge Project Dyna3D-to-EPIC Translator EPIC Optimization on Origin2000 Monitoring CTH Simulations with CUMULVS
CWO: Climate/Weather/Ocean Modeling CTA
Deployment of CH3D, WAM and CH3D-SED Coupling of CH3D, WAM and CH3D-SED Performance Improvement of WAM Optimization of the NLOM model
EQM: Environmental Quality Modeling CTA
Parallization of CE-QUAL-ICM Web-based Launching of ParSSim Parallelization of ADCIRC
FMS: Forces Modeling and Simulation/C4 CTA
Battle Simulations: SF Express Demos Object Web Run-Time Infrastructure (RTI) Prototype
SPPT: Scalable Parallel Programming Tools
Working with Users: Code Migration, Pthreads, HPF Supplying Essential Software: Parallel Debuggers, Performance Analysis Training: Parallel Programming Techniques and Tools Tracking and Transferring Technology
SV: Scientific Visualization
Collaborative Visualization: VisGen Damaged Structures Challenge Project: Structures Visualization Visualization ToolKit: VTK Multiresolutional Representation: Terascale Visualization
C/C: Collaboration/Communication
Website and Collaborative Environment: NCSA (Illinois) Efforts Tango and Search Engines: NPAC (Syracuse) Efforts
In this effort, the following tools have been introduced into the CEWES MSRC:
Programming Tools
VAMPIR nupshot & MPE Logging Library AIMS SvPablo ParaDyn TotalView MPE Graphics Library ScaLAPACK PETSc Repository in a Box (RIB) Fortran Interface for Pthreads MPICH on T3E
Computational Tools
Unstructured Message-Passing Toolkit Unstructured Mesh Element Graph Finder Grid (Mesh) Generation Tools Dyna3D-to-EPIC Translator
Visualization Tools
VisGen Damaged Structures Visualization Tool Visual Collaboration NCSA vss Audio Library VTK (the Visualization ToolKit)
Collaboration/Information Tools
Tango & WebWisdom Grid Generation Search Engine CEWES MSRC Search Engine Web Site Management System
Training is the most visible part of the PET program for many of the CEWES MSRC users. During Year 2, the CEWES MSRC PET training program passed several milestones. Remote classes have become a routine part of our training schedule. Service to remote users was also improved when classes moved to the Training and Education Facility (TEF). The TEF is furnished with professional quality video production and recording equipment. This has enhanced the Mbone broadcasts and improved the quality of recorded classes in the tape library. The TEF is equipped with twelve SGI Indy R5000 student workstations and an SGI O2 for the instructor. Training material from any source (laptop, workstation, tranparencies, etc.) can be projected onto the classroom screen for instruction, broadcast over Mbone, and saved on video tape.
Training courses have been conducted by the CEWES MSRC PET team both on-site at the CEWES MSRC and at remote user sites:
Parallel Tools and Libraries Message Passing Interface (MPI) Performance Evaluation of Parallel Systems T3E Applications Programming Java and the World Wide Web IBM SP Programming Visualization Systems and Toolkits C++ Programming SGI ProDev Workshop Parallel Programming Workshop for Fortran Programmers CTH: A Software Family for Multidimensional Continuum Mechanics Analysis Techniques in Code Parallelization Workshop on Portable Parallel Performance Tools Code Optimization for MPPs
As the lead university at the CEWES MSRC, JSU is charged with developing and implementing strategies that allow a two-way exchange between the DoD and HBCU/MI communities. During Year 2, JSU made substantial upgrades to its computing and networking facilities through the CEWES MSRC PET program. In addition, JSU faculty members were able to collaborate with colleagues at major research universities, as well as with DoD scientists, researchers, and engineers. In collaboration with the Northeast Parallel Architectures Center (NPAC) at Syracuse University in the CEWES MSRC PET effort, JSU held Web-Based Distanced Education courses during the Fall 1997 and Spring 1998 semesters. JSU also participated in Scientific Visualization support at the CEWES MSRC during Year 2 in training and experimentation.
During Year 2, the CEWES MSRC PET team included _ people from 9 universities. The team was in direct contact with _ CEWES MSRC users, and had _ person-days on-site at CEWES MSRC. There were _ person-days of travel to conduct remote training for CEWES MSRC users, and _ person-days of travel to meetings and workshops directly related to the CEWES MSRC PET effort. And there were _ person-says of travel to national meetings for presentations related to the CEWES MSRC PET effort and to track technology developments in the interest of the CEWES MSRC PET effort. The CEWES MSTC PET team had direct impact on _ codes in use at CEWES MSRC, and introduced _ programming, computational, visualization, and collaboration tools into CEWES MSRC. A total of _ training courses covering _ days, were conducted on-site at CEWES MSRC, and _ courses covering _ days were conducted at remote user sites. These courses were attended by _ from CEWES MSRC and other user sites.