Tools, frameworks and applications for high performance computing: Minisymposium abstract

Abstract

The development of high performance simulation codes is often a demanding process, due to the complexity of the phenomena to be simulated but also to the proliferation and evolution of computer architectures. The success of such efforts is dictated by the time required to achieve a functional prototype code of the application, and then an optimized production version of the code. Simultaneously, achieving an optimal usage of the available, and frequently scarce, computational resources is of major importance to developers and users of simulation codes. To achieve these goals, it is often necessary to develop or integrate algorithms, models, and computational techniques from a group of collaborators with diverse expertise. The purpose of this minisymposium is twofold. Firstly, it focuses on a set of cutting edge software tools and frameworks currently used to tackle scientific computing applications. The availability of advanced tools like the ones to be showcased has enabled more complex physical phenomena to be addressed and as a result contributed to the growth of the computational sciences community. This community includes scientists, designers and developers of high-end technology who require computerized modeling solutions, portable software libraries, but also convenient interfaces or friendly frameworks. Secondly, the minisymposium includes presentations on a set of challenge applications, ranging from the nano to the cosmic scale, that have important requirements for computing resources but that have also fostered the development of novel techniques and tools. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.