CAPTools Project: Evaluation and Application of the Computer Aided Parallelisation Tools




			CAPTOOLS PROJECT: EVALUATION AND APPLICATION OF THE COMPUTER AIDED PARALLELISATION TOOLS David O'Neal, NCSA/UIUC R. Luczak, Rice University M. White, Ohio Aerospace Institute This file is available for download in *.pdf* format. Click here Following a brief overview of the project, the focus of the paper turns to various problems we encountered during our experiments with the CAPTools product and the techniques we applied in resolving them. Conclusions and a summary of tasks in progress are presented in closing. Introduction: The number of Fortran legacy codes maintained by the DoD research community is unknown, but it is generally accepted to be a significant one. Availability of a programming tool capable of accurately analyzing dependencies and generating portable parallel source codes would prompt the development teams maintaining legacy codes to test it on their own applications. Given sufficient time, the effect on utilization of HPC resources could be dramatic, as improvements in job turnaround would permit larger simulations to be considered. The CAPTools utility developed by the University of Greenwich (UG) has proved itself capable of demonstrating the aforementioned qualities for a given set of examples (see http://captools.gre.ac.uki). An evaluation of its ability to produce the same effect on a small set of research codes was initiated in October, 1998. UG and the Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) Major Shared Resource Center (MSRC) Programming Environment and Training group were the primary contributors. Objectives: The goal of this project is to evaluate the Computer Aided Parallelization Tools software product in order to determine its suitability for application to DoD HPC research codes. Methods/procedures/apparatus: A set of application codes was identified for testing various aspects of the CAPTools product. In most cases, special treatment was required to accommodate the input format supported by the CAPTools DoD-2.1Beta release. All experiments were performed on the Origin 2000 at ASC MSRC. Notes describing the application codes and a few timing tests are included in the article. Limitations of the current release and a couple of work-around procedures are also documented here. Results and Discussion: We confirmed that CAPTools is able to generate OpenMP and MPI source codes for that compile, run, and produce correct results on the SGI Origin 2000 (four cases completed). Additional material regarding performance and scalability is to be presented in a subsequent article. Six new parallel ports were generated, two of which are directly linked to ongoing DoD research projects. Conclusions and Recommendations: The CAPTools interface has improved and the system has become much more robust, but work still remains (examples are cited in the Applications section of the paper). Although we regard CAPTools as a research-level application, we can recommend deployment in a limited sense (restricted access for pioneer users). Scheduling for a comprehensive CAPTools training event should be considered. Direct support from UG will be necessary to assure a positive outcome. Evaluation and deployment of software tools that support the community at-large helps connect the NCSA CSM Group to a wide variety of people and projects (see Acknowledgements). Opportunities for collaboration present themselves naturally. References: Computer Aided Parallelization Tools User's Guide, Parallel Processing Research Group, University of Greenwich, London, UK, Version 2.0 Beta, October, 1998. MPI: A Message Passing Interface Standard, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, May 5, 1994. OpenMP Fortran Application Program Interface, Version 1.0, October, 1997. Related documents and images: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/EP/CSM/publications/1999/UCG99_CAPTools.pdf http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/EP/CSM/presentations/UGC99_CAPTools_PPT.pdf Acknowledgements: ASC PET, University of Greenwich (London), NASA Ames Research Center, AFRL Basic CFD Research Branch, AFRL/MLBM (Materials Directorate), Wright-State University, Ohio Aerospace Institute, Rice University, University of Illinois (NCSA)