NSF High Performance Computing (HPC) Activities

1
NSF High Performance Computing (HPC) Activities

• Established a HPC SWOT Team as part of Cyber
  Planning Process (August 2005)
• Held Meeting to Request Information on HPC
  Acquisition Models (September 9, 2005)
• Held Meeting to Request Input on HPC Performance
  Requirements (October 18, 2005)
• Released Program Solicitation for 1 or 2 HPC
  machines (November 10, 2005)
• Scheduled Future Releases of HPC Acquisition
  Solicitations (November 2007, 2008 and 2009)

2
NSF High Performance Computing (HPC)
Background

• NSF planned to release one or more solicitations
  for the acquisition of high-performance computing
  (HPC) systems and support of subsequent HPC
  services. 
• Prior to the release of the solicitation(s), NSF
  invited input on
• 1. Processes for machine acquisition and service
  provision
• 2. Machine performance requirements of the SE
  research community

3
HPC System Acquisition and Service Provision
Meeting

• Goal Receive feedback from machine vendors and
  resource providers on pros/cons of 3 possible
  acquisition models
• Solicitation for a RP(s) who then selects machine
• Solicitation for RP-Vendor Team(s)
• Separate solicitations for machine(s) and RP(s)

4
Other Topics for Discussion

• Metrics that could be used to define machine
  performance and reliability requirements
• Selection criteria that might be used as a basis
  for proposal evaluation
• Pros/Cons of acquiring an HPC system that meets a
  specified performance curve as a one time
  purchase or in phases
• Strengths and weaknesses of alternatives such as
  leasing HPC systems.

5
Participants

• Universities
• Case Western Reserve U.
• Cornell Univ.
• Georgia Inst. Of Technology
• Indiana University
• Louisiana State Univ.
• NCSA
• Ohio Supercomputer Center
• Purdue
• PSC
• SDSC
• TACC
• Univ. of NC
• Univ. of Utah
• USC

• Vendors
• Cray
• DELL
• Hewlett Packard
• IBM
• Intel
• Linux Networx
• Rackable Systems
• SGI
• Sun Microsystems
• Other
• Argonne National Lab
• CASC
• DOD HPCMP
• Hayes Consulting
• NCAR
• ORNL
• Raytheon

6
HPC System Acquisition and Service Provision
Meeting

• Outcome
• Vendors said any of the models would work for
  them but RP/Vendor Team least favored
• RP said all three will work but favored Model 1 -
  Solicitation for RP(s)
• Acquisition Solicitation used Model 1

7
HPC System Performance Requirements Meeting

• Goal Obtain input from the SE research
  community on
• Performance metrics appropriate for use in HPC
  system acquisition
• Potential benchmark codes representative of
  classes of SE applications

8
BIO Participants

• David Badder - Georgia Institute of Technology
• James Beach - University of Kansas
• James Clark - Duke University
• William Hargrove - Oak Ridge National Lab
• Gwen Jacobs - University of Montana
• Phil LoCascio - Oak Ridge National Lab
• B.S. Manjunath - UC Santa Barbara
• Neo Martinez - Rocky Mountain Biological Lab
• Dan Reed - University of North Carolina
• Bruce Shapiro JPL-NASA-Cal Tech
• Mark Schildhauer USSB - NCEAS

9
HPC System Performance Meeting

• SE Community Comments
• Many SE codes are boutique not good for
  benchmarking
• Machines that can run coupled codes are needed
• Speed not the problem, latency is
• Usability, staying up and running, a priority
• HPC needs not uniform, e.g. faster, more
• Flexibility/COTS cost of clusters/desktop systems
  make them systems of choice
• Software a big bottleneck
• Benchmarks should include 20-30 factors
• systems more flexible, have replace specially
  Vendors said any of the models would work for
  them but RP/Vendor Team least favored
• RP said all three will work but favored Model 1 -
  Solicitation for RP(s)
• Acquisition Solicitation used Model 1

10
HPC System Performance Meeting

• Outcome
• More community workshops needed
• Current solicitation uses a mixture of tried and
  true benchmarking codes