HPCS Application Analysis and Assessment

Abstract : The value of a HPC system to a user includes many factors, such as: execution time on a particular problem, software development time, and both direct and indirect costs. The DARPA High Productivity Computing Systems is focused on providing a new generation of economically viable high productivity computing systems for the national security and industrial user community in the 2007-2010 timeframe. The goal is to provide systems that double in productivity (or value) every 18 months. This program has initiated a fundamental reassessment of how we define and measure performance, programmability, portability, robustness and ultimately productivity in the HPC domain. This talk will describe the HPCS efforts to develop a productivity assessment framework (see Figure 1), characterize HPC user workflows, and define the scope of the target applications.