A parallel-object programming model for petaflops machines and blue gene/cyclops
Gengbin Zheng, A. Kumar, S. Joshua, M. Unger, Laxmikant V. Kalé · 2002
One approach for building the next generation of paral-lel computers is based on large aggregates of multiproces-sor chips with support for hardware multithreading. An ini-tial design for IBM’s Blue Gene/C project exemplifies this approach. Such a machine might consist of a million pro-cessors, and is characterized by a low memory-to-processor ratio. To study alternate programming models for such a machine before it is built, we have developed an emulator that allows million-processor programs to be run on con-ventional parallel machines with hundreds of processors. Here we present the implementation of a parallel object model based on Charm++ as a candidate programming model. Although the “ideal ” programming model for such machines is a matter of continuing research, we believe that parallel objects represent a good starting point. This paper reviews the target architecture, presents the programming model, and describes the emulator implementation. Case studies of simple applications written using the emulator are also discussed. 1.