Simplifying Parallelization of Scientific Codes by a Function-Centric Approach in Python

TL;DR

This paper presents a function-centric approach to parallelizing scientific codes in Python, enabling easy reuse of existing serial codes with minimal effort and clear, compact parallel scripts.

Contribution

It introduces a flexible, template-based method for parallelizing scientific software using Python as a thin communication layer, simplifying the process significantly.

Findings

Applicable to various scientific applications in natural and social sciences

Reduces programming effort for parallelization

Produces clean, compact parallel scripts

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show how existing scientific software can be parallelized using a separate thin layer of Python code where all parallel communication is implemented. We provide specific examples on such layers of code, and these examples may act as templates for parallelizing a wide set of serial scientific codes. The use of Python for parallelization is motivated by the fact that the language is well suited for reusing existing serial codes programmed in other languages. The extreme flexibility of Python with regard to handling functions makes it very easy to wrap up decomposed computational tasks of a serial scientific application as Python functions. Many parallelization-specific components can be implemented as generic Python functions, which may take as input those functions that perform concrete computational tasks. The overall programming effort needed by this parallelization approach is rather limited, and the resulting parallel Python scripts have a compact and clean structure. The usefulness of the parallelization approach is exemplified by three different classes of applications in natural and social sciences.