Application Requirements Survey

1
Application Requirements Survey

• The goal
• To learn ways that SDSC might enhance the
  programming environment
• The audience
• Sent to 2000 users in the NPACI database
• Self-selected as scientific application
  developers who have experience with parallel
  computing environments
• Responses from 151 developers, covering the
  spectrum of NPACI developers

2
An Abundance of Numerical Methods

• More than 20 of all projects use
• Finite difference methods (40)
• Fast Fourier transforms (38)
• Particle methods (25)
• ODE solvers (24)
• Iterative dense linear algebra solvers (23)
• Eigen solvers (21)
• Many users require multiple methods
• 69 use at least two methods
• 45 use three

3
Overall Developer Satisfaction

• Developers seem satisfied...
• 87 felt they had access to appropriate software
  tools and numerical libraries
• Until we probe further...
• Only 17 had no complaints about parallel
  programming
• 25 want tools modified

4
How PTE Meets Developers Needs
5
New Directions, Old Codes

• Many projects are very new
• 23 less than 1 year old
• 55 less than 2 years old
• Most include code from previous projects
• 78 inherit code
• The summary
• Developers should consider taking advantage of
  software tools when starting new projects
• Tools need to be compatible with each other and
  with older code bases