The multidimensional positive definite advection transport algorithm (MPDATA) belongs to the group of nonoscillatory forwardin-time algorithms and performs a sequence of stencil computations. MPDATA is one of the major parts of the dynamic core of the EULAG geophysical model. In this work, we outline an approach to adaptation of the 3D MPDATA algorithm to the Intel MIC architecture. In order to utilize available computing resources, we propose the (3 + 1)D decomposition of MPDATA heterogeneous stencil computations. This approach is based on combination of the loop tiling and fusion techniques. It allows us to ease memory/communication bounds and better exploit the theoretical floating point efficiency of target computing platforms. An important method of improving the efficiency of the (3 + 1)D decomposition is partitioning of available cores/threads into work teams. It permits for reducing inter-cache communication overheads. This method also increases opportunities for the efficient distribution of MPDATA computation onto available resources of the Intel MIC architecture, as well as Intel CPUs. We discuss preliminary performance results obtained on two hybrid platforms, containing two CPUs and Intel Xeon Phi. The top-of-the-line Intel Xeon Phi 7120P gives the best performance results, and executes MPDATA almost 2 times faster than two Intel Xeon E5-2697v2 CPUs.

Load balancing is a widely accepted technique for performance optimization of scientific applications on parallel architectures. Indeed, balanced applications do not waste processor cycles on waiting at points of synchronization and data exchange, maximizing this way the utilization of processors. In this paper, we challenge the universality of the load-balancing approach to optimization of the performance of parallel applications. First, we formulate conditions that should be satisfied by the performance profile of an application in order for the application to achieve its best performance via load balancing. Then we use a real-life scientific application, MPDATA, to demonstrate that its performance profile on a modern parallel architecture, Intel Xeon Phi, significantly deviates from these conditions. Based on this observation, we propose a method of performance optimization of scientific applications through load imbalancing. We also propose an algorithm that finds the optimal, possibly imbalanced, configuration of a data parallel application on a set of homogeneous processors. This algorithm uses functional performance models of the application to find the partitioning that minimizes its computation time but not necessarily balances the load of the processors. We show how to apply this algorithm to optimization of MPDATA on Intel Xeon Phi. Experimental results demonstrate that the performance of this carefully optimized load-balanced application can be further improved by 15% using the proposed load-imbalancing optimization.

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In this work, we take up the challenge of performance portable programming of heterogeneous stencil computations across a wide range of modern shared-memory systems. An important example of such computations is the Multidimensional Positive Definite Advection Transport Algorithm (MPDATA), the second major part of the dynamic core of the EULAG geophysical model. For this aim, we develop a set of parametric optimization techniques and four-step procedure for customization of the MPDATA code. Among these techniques are: islands-of-cores strategy, (3+1)D decomposition, exploiting data parallelism and simultaneous multithreading, data flow synchronization, and vectorization. The proposed adaptation methodology helps us to develop the automatic transformation of the MPDATA code to achieve high sustained scalable performance for all tested ccNUMA platforms with Intel processors of last generations. This means that for a given platform, the sustained performance of the new code is kept at a similar level, independently of the problem size. The highest performance utilization rate of about 41–46% of the theoretical peak, measured for all benchmarks, is provided for any of the two-socket servers based on Skylake-SP (SKL-SP), Broadwell, and Haswell CPU architectures. At the same time, the four-socket server with SKL-SP processors achieves the highest sustained performance of around 1.0–1.1 Tflop/s that corresponds to about 33% of the peak.

SUMMARYThe goal of this study is to adapt the multiscale fluid solver EULerian or LAGrangian framewrok (EULAG) to future graphics processing units (GPU) platforms. The EULAG model has the proven record of successful applications, and excellent efficiency and scalability on conventional supercomputer architectures. Currently, the model is being implemented as the new dynamical core of the COSMO weather prediction framework. Within this study, two main modules of EULAG, namely the multidimensional positive definite advection transport algorithm (MPDATA) and the variational generalized conjugate residual, elliptic pressure solver Generalized Conjugate Residual (GCR) are analyzed and optimized. In this paper, a method is proposed, which ensures a comprehensive analysis of the resource consumption including registers, shared, and global memories. This method allows us to identify bottlenecks of the algorithm, including data transfers between host and global memory, global and shared memories, as well as GPU occupancy. We put the emphasis on providing a fixed memory access pattern, padding as well as organizing computation in the MPDATA algorithm. The testing and validation of the new GPU implementation have been carried out based on modeling decaying turbulence of a homogeneous incompressible fluid in a triply-periodic cube. Simulations performed using the standard version of EULAG and its new GPU implementation give similar solutions. Preliminary results show a promising increase in terms of computational efficiency.

Modern heterogeneous computing platforms have become powerful HPC solutions, which could be applied to a wide range of real-life applications. In particular, the hybrid platforms equipped with Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors offer the advantages of massively parallel computing, while supporting practically the same parallel programming model as conventional homogeneous solutions. However, there is still an open issue as to how scientific applications can efficiently utilize hybrid platforms with Intel MIC coprocessors. In this article, we propose an approach for porting a real-life scientific application to such hybrid platforms, assuming no significant modifications of the application code. It allows us to take advantage of all the computing components, including two CPUs and two coprocessors, for the parallel execution of computational workloads. In this study, we focus on the parallel implementation of a numerical model of the dendritic solidification process in isothermal conditions. We develop a sequence of steps that are necessary for the porting and optimization of the solidification application to hybrid platforms with Intel coprocessors. The main challenges include not only overlapping data movements with computations, but also ensuring adequate utilization of cores/threads and vector units of processors, as well as coprocessors. To reach this aim, we propose an efficient and flexible method for the workload distribution between heterogeneous computing components. For implementing the potential benefits of the proposed approach, we choose a heterogeneous programming model based on a combination of the offload mode for Intel MIC and OpenMP programming standard. The developed approach allows us to execute the whole application up to 9.33 3 faster than the original parallel version that uses two CPUs. Furthermore, the CPU-MIC hybrid platforms enable achieving the speedup of about 1.9 3 that of the CPU platform with 24 cores based on the Ivy Bridge architecture, and about 1.5 3 that of the Haswell-based CPU platform with 36 cores.

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