Software Abstractions and Methodologies for HPC Simulation Codes on Future Architectures

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of developing common software abstractions, frameworks, and methodologies to ensure the continued effectiveness of complex HPC simulation codes on future architectures.

Contribution

It advocates for a community-driven approach to create shared abstractions and infrastructure for HPC simulation codes adapting to evolving hardware platforms.

Findings

Community collaboration is essential for sustainable HPC software development.

Shared abstractions can facilitate code portability across future architectures.

Developing common frameworks supports the longevity of simulation codes.

Abstract

Large, complex, multi-scale, multi-physics simulation codes, running on high performance com-puting (HPC) platforms, have become essential to advancing science and engineering. These codes simulate multi-scale, multi-physics phenomena with unprecedented fidelity on petascale platforms, and are used by large communities. Continued ability of these codes to run on future platforms is as crucial to their communities as continued improvements in instruments and facilities are to experimental scientists. However, the ability of code developers to do these things faces a serious challenge with the paradigm shift underway in platform architecture. The complexity and uncertainty of the future platforms makes it essential to approach this challenge cooperatively as a community. We need to develop common abstractions, frameworks, programming models and software development methodologies that can be applied across a broad range of complex simulation codes, and common software infrastructure to support them. In this position paper we express and discuss our belief that such an infrastructure is critical to the deployment of existing and new large, multi-scale, multi-physics codes on future HPC platforms.