The OSC (Ohio Supercomputer Center) workshop on Performance Tuning for Microprocessor-based Systems held on January 17, 2002 attracted 127 participants at 12 Access Grid sites across the country.
The workshop, presented by Troy Baer, OSC Systems Developer and Engineer, demonstrated techniques for improving single-processor performance applications on clusters of IA32- and IA64-based systems, such as those in service at OSC, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), and Albuquerque High Performance Computing Center (AHPCC). These techniques take advantage of features common to most modern microprocessors, such as multi-level caches and multiple pipelined functional units.
"One thing I enjoyed about this workshop was the amount of interaction between the audiences at the various sites," said Baer. On more than one occasion an attendee at one site would ask a question that I couldn't answer and an attendee from another site would come up with the answer."
Said Dr. Charlotte Elster, of Ohio University's Physics Department, "One of the many things that impressed me about the HPC workshop over the Access Grid was the wealth of knowledge provided not only by the instructor, but by the audience. We benefited from being exposed to a larger number of individuals with similar interests than one would normally find at national conferences," she said. "The Access Grid allows participation in such workshops without traveling long distances."
The workshop was sponsored by Alliance Partners for Advanced Computational Services (PACS). The Access Grid locations include OSC, AHPCC, Boston University, NCSA, University of Kentucky and the University of Manchester.
About the Access Grid
The Alliance Access Grid project is an experimental suite of hardware, software, and tools to facilitate group collaborative experiences over the Internet.
About PACS
PACS supports the technologies developed by Alliance teams. It coordinates Alliance resources and services to users, aides in Grid deployment, and provides outreach to the research community.
About OSC
OSC is Ohio's flagship center for high performance computing, networking, educational outreach and information technology. OSC empowers its academic, industrial and government partners to make Ohio the education and technology State of the future.
