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Delivering Insight: the History of the Accelerated Strategic Computing

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Delivering Insight: the History of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Computation Directorate Dona L. Crawford Computation Associate Director Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 7000 East Avenue, L-559 Livermore, CA 94550 September 14, 2009 Dear Colleague: Several years ago, I commissioned Alex R. Larzelere II to research and write a history of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) and its evolution into the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Program. The goal was to document the first 10 years of ASCI: how this integrated and sustained collaborative effort reached its goals, became a base program, and changed the face of high-performance computing in a way that independent, individually funded R&D projects for applications, facilities, infrastructure, and software development never could have achieved. Mr. Larzelere has combined the documented record with first-hand recollections of prominent leaders into a highly readable, 200-page account of the history of ASCI. The manuscript is a testament to thousands of hours of research and writing and the contributions of dozens of people. It represents, most fittingly, a collaborative effort many years in the making. I’m pleased to announce that Delivering Insight: The History of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) has been approved for unlimited distribution and is available online at https://asc.llnl.gov/asc_history/. Sincerely, Dona L. Crawford Computation Associate Director Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory An Equal Opportunity Employer • University of California • P.O. Box 808 Livermore, California94550 • Telephone (925) 422-2449 • Fax (925) 423-1466 Delivering Insight The History of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) Prepared by: Alex R. Larzelere II For Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Under Sub-Contract B545072 This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in part under Contract W-7405-Eng-48 and in part under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, nor any of their employees makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. UCRL-TR-231286 ii Contents Contents……………. ....................................................................................................... ……..iii Figures…………….. ................................................................................................................. v Acknowledgements….. ........................................................................................................... vii Foreword by Dona Crawford….. ............................................................................................. ix Executive Summary . .................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One: New Tools for Scientific Insight .......................................................................... 7 Chapter Two: Building the Initiative ........................................................................................ 19 Chapter Three: Applications – At the Heart of Delivering Insight .......................................... 33 Performance and Safety Applications – The Direct Connection to the Weapons….. ................................................................................................................ 41 Materials Modeling –A t the Level of First Principles ........................................................ 49 Programming Models –Creating the Applications ............................................................. 55 Chapter Four: Platforms – Power-Plants for Simulations ........................................................65 ASCI Red – Breaking the TeraFLOP/s Barrier ................................................................... 71 ASCI Blue Pacific and Mountain – Keeping the Industry Viable........................................79 Linux Clusters – Providing Cost Effective TeraFLOP/s ...................................................... 87 BlueGene/L – Collaborative Innovation at its Best ............................................................. 95 ASC Purple – Fulfilling the Promise of Power .................................................................. 105 Chapter Five – Environments for Simulation Capabilities ..................................................... 111 iii Parallel Programming Tools – Enabling a New Approach to High-Performance Applications .....................................................................................117 Scalable Visualization – Insights from Data ......................................................................125 Chapter Six – Partnering to Deliver Insight ...........................................................................135 Academic Alliances – Harnessing the Power of Universities ............................................139 IBM and Lawrence Livermore – A Sense of Shared Mission ..............................................149 ASCI Organization – Synergy at the Edge of Chaos ..........................................................157 Chapter Seven – Impact and Lessons Learned .......................................................................165 Chapter Eight – Looking Toward the Future ..........................................................................171 Epilogue – A Future Envisioned by Visionaries ......................................................................177 Schlesinger Award Citation for Gil Weigand .................................................................…178 Text of Gil Weigand’sA cceptance Speech ....................................................................…179 Schlesinger Award Citation for Vic Ries .......................................................................…181 Text of Vic Ries’A cceptance Speech ............................................................................…182 Appendix A – Chronology of Events .......................................................................................187 Appendix B – ASCI Platform Configurations .........................................................................191 Appendix C – ASCI Leadership ..............................................................................................193 About the Author….. ..............................................................................................................195 Glossary …………… ..............................................................................................................197 Bibliography……….. ..............................................................................................................205 Index………………… .............................................................................................................213 iv Figures 1-1 Vic Reis .................................................................................................................... 11 1-2 ENIAC ...................................................................................................................... 11 1-3 Vignette Timeframes ................................................................................................ 17 2-1 Gil Weigand .............................................................................................................. 22 2-2 ASCI Organizational Plan ........................................................................................ 23 3-1 Galileo’s Gravity Experiment ................................................................................... 34 3-2 Example of a Finite Element Mesh .......................................................................... 37 3-3 Example of a Validation Experiment ....................................................................... 38 3-4 Comparison of Simulation and Experiment for Validation ...................................... 46 3-5 Example of 3D Simulation of Rayleigh Taylor Instability ...................................... 47 3-6 Physics Occurs at Many Scales ................................................................................ 51 3-7 A 160 Million Atom Simulation of Copper Undergoing a Shock ................................................................................................. 53 4-1 The ASCI Red System at Sandia ............................................................................. 76 4-2 ASC Red Storm at Sandia ........................................................................................ 77 4-3 The ASCI “Curve” as it Appeared in the 1996 ASCI Program Plan ....................... 80 4-4 ASCI
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