It’s the run time system that we’re planning to use within the linear algebra library,” he said. That underlying structure that connects the math (linear algebra equations in this case) with the hardware is another project Dongarra is spearheading.
Linpack benchmark application software#
The software libraries need to be enhanced to effectively deal with that underlying structure that we have, and compilers, operating systems, communication-all that needs to be enhanced,” Dongarra said. What we’re planning with ECP is to take the algorithms and the problems that are tackled with LAPACK and rearrange, rework, and reimplement the algorithms so they run efficiently across exascale-based systems,” he said.Īs with the move from LINPACK to LAPACK, Dongarra said software must be upgraded about every 10 to 15 years to complement a new class of supercomputers.Īlthough the development of SLATE may be part of a natural progression, it is no less challenging. Now, with ECP funding, Dongarra’s team is preparing a new generation of linear algebra software known as SLATE for exascale systems. really is thought of as the gold standard for numerical software,” Dongarra said. One of the algorithms used in LINPACK remains the instrument for the Top500 ranking. Widely used, LAPACK is often incorporated into commercial software. Because these fundamental equations for calculating spatial relationships are so important to computer simulations, they were also an effective way to evaluate performance.Īs supercomputers adopted increasingly parallel architectures, Dongarra’s team developed LAPACK to serve as a linear algebra library for highly parallel systems. These and other software development projects are enabling ECP to create a comprehensive software stack for exascale systems, including programming models and run time libraries, mathematical libraries and frameworks, tools, lower-level system software, data management and I/O, and in situ visualization and data analysis.įirst used to rate supercomputing performance in 1993, the LINPACK benchmark had incidentally resulted from the development of a package of linear algebra equations for HPC (hence “lin” and “pack”).
In this special guest post, Professor Jack Dongarra sits down with Mike Bernhardt from ECP to discuss the role of Dongarra’s team as they tackle several ECP-funded software development projects.