Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer
Open|SpeedShop Ease of Use Performance Analysis for Heterogenious Processor Systems
Project Description
We propose building upon the modular extensible architecture and existing capabilities of Open|SpeedShop to provide seamless, integrated, heterogeneous processor performance analysis. The NVIDIA GPU and Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) processors are increasingly important at high performance computing (HPC) laboratories within NASA for use on NASA's high-end computing (HEC) projects because of their ability to accelerate scientific application performance. In order to understand what impact these accelerators are having on performance, tools must succinctly present heterogeneous processor performance information. One of the key goals of this work is to develop innovative methods for presenting the performance information extracted from applications running on both traditional CPU and GPU/MIC processors. And, specifically, to provide command line interface (CLI) and graphical user interface (GUI) displays of the heterogeneous processor performance information that facilitates the user's understanding of how their application utilizes the accelerator. For this project, Phase I GPU-related research will include measuring the usefulness of a GPU kernel, including device utilization, data transfer rates, device efficiency metric, internal device tiling factors, device memory hierarchy usage, as well as additional factors outlined in the referenced material. When measuring the performance of an application that contains concurrent processing on both the CPU and GPU processors, attributing time spent to the proper processor can be difficult - a difficulty exacerbated by the potential presence and usage of multiple accelerators concurrently. Accurately measuring the interactions of multiple accelerator devices is necessary in order to accurately report the application's performance to the user, but is difficult with the current set of accelerator interfaces. Developing techniques for mitigating these limitations will be another area of our GPU research.
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Anticipated Benefits
Open|SpeedShop has been available at NASA Ames since 2007 and Open|SpeedShop personnel from The Krell Institute given Open|SpeedShop tutorials at NASA Ames and have worked with NASA researchers to help profile NASA applications. In particular, NASA researcher Sharadchandr Gavali profiled the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation application with Open|SpeedShop. While working with Dr. Gavali, the Open|SpeedShop team received valuable user interface feedback and this resulted in many of the proposed innovations listed in this proposal. However, Dr. Gavali is not directly involved with this proposal for Open|SpeedShop. We do not have a direct contact at NASA to sponsor this proposal. That is the reason we have proposed either information exchange webinars and/or face-to-face meetings, so that we may connect with users that the NASA sites that are directly interested in the performance analysis.
The proposed Open|SpeedShop innovations, including the heterogeneous processor support enhancements, put forth in this proposal would be highly beneficial in analyzing a wide array of HPC industry applications. The proposed enhanced heterogeneous processor support in Open|SpeedShop would allow Open|SpeedShop to better support a wider range of user applications due to the innovations. Benefits would be directly applicable to DOE and DOD in their HPC computing environments and with their application codes in many science and engineering fields. The science and engineering fields, such as oil and gas exploration and 3D medical imaging could use Open|SpeedShop to enhance their application performance. More »
The proposed Open|SpeedShop innovations, including the heterogeneous processor support enhancements, put forth in this proposal would be highly beneficial in analyzing a wide array of HPC industry applications. The proposed enhanced heterogeneous processor support in Open|SpeedShop would allow Open|SpeedShop to better support a wider range of user applications due to the innovations. Benefits would be directly applicable to DOE and DOD in their HPC computing environments and with their application codes in many science and engineering fields. The science and engineering fields, such as oil and gas exploration and 3D medical imaging could use Open|SpeedShop to enhance their application performance. More »
Project Library
Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argo Navis Technologies LLC | Lead Organization | Industry | Annapolis, Maryland |
Ames Research Center
(ARC)
|
Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Moffett Field, California |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
California
-
Maryland
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