Runtime analysis tools for parallel scientific applications

Oleg Korobkin, Louisiana State University
Gabrielle Allen, Louisiana State University
Steven R. Brandt, Louisiana State University
Eloisa Bentivegna, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
Peter Diener, Louisiana State University
Jinghua Ge, Louisiana State University
Frank Löffler, Louisiana State University
Erik Schnetter, Louisiana State University
Jian Tao, Louisiana State University

Abstract

This paper describes the Alpaca runtime tools. These tools leverage the component infrastructure of the Cactus Framework in a novel way to enable runtime steering, monitoring, and interactive control of a simulation. Simulation data can be observed graphically, or by inspecting values of variables. When GPUs are available, images can be generated using volume ray casting on the live data. In response to observed error conditions or automatic triggers, users can pause the simulation to modify or repair data, or change runtime parameters. In this paper we describe the design of our implementation of these features and illustrate their value with three use cases. © 2011 ACM.