Past Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Loci: An autoparallelizing framework for irregular computations

Edward Luke, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Mississippi State University

Abstract

Loci is a set of tools that provide a new programming paradigm for developing applications that can be automatically mapped onto large scale parallel computing architectures. The programming paradigm makes use of a programming model that combines relational algebra to describe irregular access patterns with a simple logic programming model that facilitates composition of applications from simple kernels. The resulting programming model contains no explicit parallel directives, yet has demonstrated scalability to thousands of processors. Several applications have been developed using the Loci framework. The most mature of these is the Loci/CHEM CFD solver that is used extensively by engineers at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to design the ARES Iand other next generation space transportation systems. As of 2006 the Loci/CHEM code was in the top 40 codes in CPU hours consumed on the DOD Major Shared Resource Center supercomputers. The Loci framework is free software provided under the GNU LGPL license. This talk will give a brief overview of the Loci framework as well as some example applications that have been solved using Loci/CHEM. Bio: Edward (Ed) Luke is an associate professor of computer science and engineering at Mississippi State University. He received his multidisciplinary Ph.D. in computational engineering from Mississippi State University in 1999. He has research interests that range from the development of numerical algorithms for multi-physics simulations to the development of software tools for automating parallelization of numerical models. He is the lead developer of the Loci/CHEM code, a multi-physics code that is widely used by NASA and industry in the simulation of rocket propulsion and launch vehicles.