GPU Hackathons, 2016
Background
General-purpose Graphics Processing Units (GPGPUs) potentially offer exceptionally high memory bandwidth and performance for a wide range of applications. The challenge in utilizing such accelerators has been the difficulty in programming them. The OpenACC Directives for Accelerators offers straightforward pragma extensions to C++ and Fortran to address this programming hurdle, but other GPU programming paradigms are also welcome.
Hackthon goal
The goal of each hackathon is for current or prospective user groups of large hybrid CPU-GPU systems to send teams of at least 3 developers along with either (1) a (potentially) scalable application that needs to be ported to GPU accelerators, or (2) an application running on accelerators which needs optimization. There will be intensive mentoring during this 5-day hands-on workshop, with the goal that the teams leave with applications running on GPUs, or at least with a clear roadmap of how to get there. Our mentors come from national laboratories, universities and vendors, and besides having extensive experience in programming with OpenACC/CUDA, many of them develop the GPU-capable compilers and help define the OpenACC standard.
Participation Costs
Participation in the training event is free of charge. The meeting room and lunches, as well as access to the supercomputers throughout the event are offered by participating sites. Mentors and learning materials introduced by the instructors are sponsored by participating sites the following partner organizations: Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility(OLCF), National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), Tokyo Institute of Technology, Technische Universität Dresden, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Delaware, Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Cray, NVIDIA, PGI, and IBM.
Who can I contact for more information or questions?
Please contact Fernanda Foertter foertterfs@ornl.gov for questions.
Where are these Hackathons being held?
This year we are partnering with multiple centers to bring hackathons to more locations. Three have already been scheduled with more in the works. Please see tabs below for details.
