Workshop Aug 23-24¶

Title:
MODEST-10d: High-Level Languages for Hugely Parallel Astrophysics Simulations:
Dialogues between Computer Scientists and (Astro)physicists¶

Dates: August 23-24, 2011¶

Location: Kobe, Japan¶

Abstract:¶

A promising approach to multi-Petaflops simulations, using millions
of cores in parallel, is to develop DSLs (domain-specific languages).
A major problem has been that the design and compiler construction
for such a DSL has been largely the work of computer scientists, who
by definition lack the detailed knowledge for a specific domain.
Ideally, computer scientists will develop sufficiently high-level
languages that are flexible and user-friendly enough to allow
scientists in turn to write their own DSLs using such a language.
In that way, compiler writing can be left to computer scientists,
and DSL writing to scientists engaged in actual simulations.

The two-day workshop is bringing together computer scientists and
astrophysicists, in order to discuss the viability of such an
approach, centered around one specific type of simulations, namely
the long-term evolution of dense stellar systems, such as globular
star clusters and nuclei of galaxies, containing a million or so
stars in a small region, where collisions between stars occur
frequently.

Program:¶

The first day features four invited talks, each of one hour, and each
followed by half an hour of discussions. The second day will remain
fully open for discussions.

Speakers:¶

Jun Makino will start by posing the central QUESTION: why is it that
25 years of research on massively parallel computing has resulted in
so relatively little real progress, and even some backsliding?

Koichi Nakamura will offer a direction for a possible ANSWER: so far
most attempts have been too low-level, obscuring the domain-specific
knowledge that can be captured better in higher-level languages.

Takayuki Muranushi will describe an interesting EXAMPLE, Paraiso,
which is a domain-specific language for generating codes for solving
partial differential equations, such as used in hydrodynamics, MHD,
and general relativity, on parallel computers.

Douglas Heggie will then introduce the specific PROBLEM of how to map
simulations in dense stellar systems onto millions of processor cores,
by presenting an overview of established methods of stellar dynamics,
informing and inviting the computer scientists to engage in discussions
with the astrophysicists in order to search for novels solutions.

Program¶

August 23
9:30 - 9:45: Yoshiyuki Hayashi /CPS Vice Director
9:45 - 10:00: Piet Hut to introduce the workshop
10:00 - 10:45: Jun Makino
10:45 - 11:15: discussion
11:15 - 12:00: Koichi Nakamura
12:00 - 12:30: discussion
12:30 - 14:00: lunch
14:00 - 14:45: Takayuki Muranushi
14:45 - 15:15: discussion
15:15 - 16:00: Douglas Heggie
16:00 - 16:30: discussion
18:00: Banquet

August 24: free discussion, 10:00 to 17:00.

Contact: miyuki - at - cfca.jp

Archives¶

https://www.cps-jp.org/modules/mosir/MovieList.php?s=MODEST-10d