JUWELS Booster Porting Workshop 2021 (online)

(Course no. 912021 in the training programme 2021 of Forschungszentrum Jülich)

NB: This workshop will take place as an online event. The link to the online platform will be provided to accepted registrants only.

The JUWELS supercomputer complex at JSC integrates a Booster module, featuring over 900 compute nodes comprising quad NVIDIA A100 ‘Ampere’ GPUs. Production starts in November 2020, and application porting will be necessary to get the most out of this powerful new research tool.

This workshop will cover porting HPC application codes which are already GPU-enabled to the brand-new hardware/software using multiple quad-GPU compute nodes, as well as getting code running that has not yet been adapted to use (multiple) GPUs. When registering, you can choose either or both parts. Additionally, the workshop will start with a one-day colloquium where participants of the Early Access programme present their results to date and experience using the new system.

It is highly recommended that project PIs with an allocation for JUWELS-Booster (those who did not participate in the Early Access programme) send at least one expert on their code to this workshop.

Prerequisites

Applicants should belong to an active compute project on JUWELS [Project-ID!] and should already have a user account with access to the system [User-ID!], which will be used during the workshop. Others who are preparing to port their code to JUWELS-Booster can request a test project for this purpose, and may be accepted if places are available. To gain maximum benefit from this hands-on practical workshop, participants should have an in-depth knowledge of their code, the libraries it uses, how to build it, and be able to run it via the batch system.

In addition, we ask participants to prepare at least one test case to validate the correct execution of their code as it is ported.

No familiarity with GPU programming is required for the first part, however, competent GPU programming is a requirement for the second part. Due to capacity restrictions, the maximum number of particpants is limited and early registration is therefore recommended.

Organisers

d.broemmel@fz-juelich.de (Dr. Dirk Brömmel),
a.herten@fz-juelich.de (Dr. Andreas Herten),
j.meinke@fz-juelich.de (Dr. Jan Meinke),
and / or
b.wylie@fz-juelich.de (Dr. Brian J.N. Wylie)

Please do not hesitate to send either of us an email with any questions concerning the workshop.

Agenda

The main focus of the workshop is working with your own code, with our team available to help with any and every aspect involved in porting codes to GPUs. We kick-start the workshop with our JUWELS Booster Early Access Colloquium to set the scene. This is followed by two parts targeting different experience levels of GPU programmers. But do not feel discouraged by that, neither part is restricted to a certain level. The hands-on sessions will remain as flexible as possible.

Part 0 - JUWELS Booster Early Access Colloquium

(optional, but highly recommended for workshop participants)

Wednesday, 20 January (Preliminary times and agenda)

Part 1 - GPU programming for neophytes

(for GPU beginners, the basic toolset)

Thursday, 21 January

Friday, 22 January

Part 2 - GPU programming for the experienced

(advanced topics, multi-GPU and site-specific details)

Monday, 25 January

Tuesday, 26 January

Venue

The workshop will be held online using a videoconferencing system with minimal requirements on your side. Please make sure your setup has suitable audiovisual capabilities with limited background noise and clear sound.

There will also be an online chat to contact tutors and chat with other participants. So ideally, we recommend to have multiple screens to follow video, chat and do exercises all at the same time.

More details and links to the various channels will be provided to the participants prior to the workshop.