1. Cornell Theory Center Aug 15 2000 CCTK The Cactus Computational Toolkit Werner Benger Max-PIanck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institute at Golm/Potsdam – AEI) and Konrad-Zuse-Center for Information Technology Berlin (ZIB) Werner.Benger@aei-potsdam.mpg.de

2. Introduction = Cactus: Original Motivation " Numerical Relativity " Ongoing Research = What is the Cactus Computational Toolkit? " Cactus Design - Flesh and Thorns " What does Cactus provide? = The Cactus Framework " How to use Cactus " Interfacing Cactus = Future Developments " Metacomputing for Numerical Relativity " Plans...

3. Cactus - Original Motivation: Numerical Relativity Kepler: stable ellipses Einstein: no stable orbits because of gravitational radiation (GR required for extreme gravity) Astronomy with gravitational wave detectors (taken into operation by this year 2000!) The Two-Body problem in General Relativity is still unsolved.

4. Axial symmetric Collisions of Black Holes (NCSA 1993-96) Pre-Cactus (H-Code, G-Code), Cactus 1.0, 2.x, Cactus 3.x US - NSF Grand Challenge Projects Requirement for Collaborative Code A distorted single black hole Two Black Holes

5. Focus of 3D Numerical Evolutions during the last couple years = Black Holes (prime source for GW) – from Misner BH collisions to grazing BH collisions with initial spin and momentum (Brandt- Bruegmann initial data) = Gravitational Waves (Evolution of Brill Waves, collapse of pure GW, investigation of critical amplitude, i.e. when do black holes form) = Neutron Stars (NASA Neutron Star Grand Challenge, GR hydrodynamics, neutron stars colliding to black holes,...)

6. Visualization of 3D data with ZIB's Amira Efforts for Remote Visualization, Remote Monitoring, Remote Steering German Gigabit Project (TIKSL), KDI Portal

7. German Gigabit Project: TIKSL = Remote Visualization = Remote Steering = Online Monitoring = Globus Services = HDF5 Interface = Data Grid Access (DPSS)

8. What is the Cactus Computational Toolkit? = Portable Application Framework = "Flesh" provides registration and scheduling facilities = Memory management ("gridarrays","gridfunctions") = "Thorns" are exchangeable code segments = Runtime activation/deactivation of thorns = I/O layers (parallel I/O) = Parameter handling = Exchangeable Parallelization layers (MPI, Globus-MPI, Shared Memory,...)

9. Data Types (Portability) = Cactus data types to provide portability across platforms = CCTK_REAL " CCTK_REAL4, CCTK_REAL8, CCTK_REAL16 = CCTK_INT " CCTK_INT2, CCTK_INT4, CCTK_INT8 = CCTK_CHAR = CCTK_COMPLEX " CCTK_COMPLEX8, CCTK_COMPLEX16, CCTK_COMPLEX32

10. Cactus Flesh = Make System " Organizes builds as configurations which hold everything needed to build with a particular set of options on a particular architecture. = API " Functions which must be there for thorns to operate. = Scheduler " Sophisticated scheduler which calls thorn-provided functions as and when needed. = CCL " Configuration language which tells the flesh all it needs to know about the thorns.

11. Data Structures (Memory Management) = Grid Arrays " A multidimensional and arbitrarily sized array distributed among processors = Grid Functions " A field distributed on the multidimensional computational grid (a Grid Array sized to the grid) – Every point in a grid may hold a different value “f(x,y,z)” = Grid Scalars " Values common to all the grid points = Parameters " Values/Keywords that affect the behavior of the code (initialization, evolution, output, etc..) – parameter checking, steerable parameters

12. Cactus Thorns = Flesh (core) written in C = Thorns (modules) grouped in packages written in F77, F90, C, C++ = Thorn-Flesh interface fixed in 3 files written in CCL (Cactus Configuration Language): " interface.ccl: Grid Functions, Arrays, Scalars (integer, real, logical, complex) " param.ccl: Parameters and their allowed values " schedule.ccl: Entry point of routines, dynamic memory and communication allocations = Object oriented features for thorns (public, private, protected variables, implementations, inheritance) for clearer interfaces = Compilation: " PERL parses the CCL files and creates the flesh-thorn interface code at compile time " Particularly important for the FORTRAN-C interface. FORTRAN arg. lists must be known at compile time, but depend on the thorn list

13. Interface = The concept: contract with the rest of the code " Now it is only for the data structures: variables and parameters " adding routines and arguments = Private " The variables that you want the flesh to allocate/communicate but no other thorn to see. = Public " The variables that you want everybody to see (that means that everybody can modify them too!) " Inheritance = Protected " Variables that you want only your friends to see!

14. Implementation = Why " Two or more thorns that provide the same functionality but different internal implementation – Interchangeable pieces that allow easy comparison and evolution in the development process – They are compiled together and only one is activated at runtime = How " If all the other thorns need to see the same contract, then thorns implementing a certain functionality must – Have the same public and protected variables – The same concept applies to parameters and scheduling = Example " Wildly different evolution approaches for the same equations, so all the analysis and initial data thorns remain the same.

15. Scheduling = Thorns schedule when their routines should be executed = Basic evolution skeleton idea " standard scheduling points INITIAL, EVOL, ANALYSIS " fine control: run this routine BEFORE/AFTER that routine = Extend/customize with scheduling groups " Add my routine to this group of routines " Run the group WHILE some condition is met = Future redesign " The scheduler is really a runtime selector of the computation flow. " Much more power can be added to this concept

16. Parallelizing an Application Thorn = CCTK_SyncGroup – synchronize ghostzones for a group of grid variables – just add Synchronization to Scheduler configuration file as well = CCTK_Reduce – call any registered reduction operator, e.g. maximum value over the grid = CCTK_Interpolate – call any registered interpolation operator = CCTK_MyProc – unique processor number within the computation = CCTK_nProcs – total number of processors = CCTK_Barrier – waits for all processors to reach this point

17. PUGH = The standard parallel driver supplied with Cactus is supplied by thorn PUGH = Driver thorn: Sets up grid variables, handles processor decomposition, deals with processor communications = 1,2,3D Grid Arrays and Grid Functions (beta6) = Uses MPI = Custom processor decomposition = Otherwise decomposes in z, then y, then x directions

18. How to use Cactus = [Optional: Develop thorns, according to some rules " e.g. specify variables through interface.ccl " Specify calling sequence of the thorn subroutines for given problem and algorithm (schedule.ccl) ] = Specify which thorns are desired for simulation (e.g. Einstein equations + special method 1 +HRSC hydro+wave finder + AMR + live visualization module + remote steering tool…) = Specified code is then created, with only those modules, those variables, those I/O routines, this MPI layer, that AMR system,…, needed (minimal binary) = Subroutine calling lists generated automatically = Automatically created for desired computer architecture = Run it…(local, remote, on the Grid using Globus environment)

19. How does Cactus help ? = Collaborative working " Different people are experts on different parts of the physical problem " Each person can write a thorn which solves their part, e.g. the metric evolution, hydrodynamics, apparent horizon finding,... " Thorns are encapsulated, and different thorns with the same functionality are interchangeable = Parallelism " Cactus provides a parallel layer " Layer is independent of underlying machine architecture " Researchers don't need to think deeply about parallelism " Choice of parallel library layers (Native MPI, MPICH, MPICH-G(2), LAM, WMPI, PACX, HPVM, MPIPro)

20. ... = IO " Cactus provides optimized IO layers for the various machines " Possible to output very large datasets in a short time " Parallel I/O (Parallel HDF5, Panda, John Shalf's FlexIO - various interfaces to MPI-I/O) = Checkpointing " A lot of runs take more time than queing systems allow " Cactus provides mechanisms to dump out the entire state of the simulation and then to read it in again either on the same machine or another = Platform independence " Cactus provides a platform independent environment " Various "strange compilation" issues on different machines are already handled by the CCTK environment

21. CACTUS on NT The NT Supercluster was used in three demos and two of the HPC challenges at SC ’98, held in Orlando, Florida, November 9-13, 1998.SC ’98 http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/CC/ntcluster/sc98/

22. Who Uses Cactus = Numerical Relativity " AEI " WashU " NCSA " Penn State " UIB " Southampton " PRL "... = Computer Science " Panda IO Project (UIUC) " Globus (Argonne) " Cluster evaluation – Roadrunner (UNM) – NT cluster (NCSA) –... " Autopilot (UIUC) " Gigabit Project (DFN)

23. Horizons (A Metacomputing Application) = Singularity at center hidden by event horizon " Surface through which nothing in the interior can escape = Event horizon only really detectable if we have the whole spacetime " Not possible while running the simulation = Apparent horizon always within event horizon " Many methods to detect this = If a horizon is found " Definitely have a black hole " Can compute Gaussian Curvature to inspect oscillations and correlation to emitted gravitational waves

24. Distributed Computation of AH SpaceTime Evolution Apparent Horizon Computation AH(t=9.0) AH(t=11.0) AH(t=16.0) RZG CRAY T3E, 512 Nodes (Garching/Munich) ZIB T3E, 16 Nodes AEI Origin 2000, 16 Nodes Cornell NT Cluster, 16 Nodes Globus Services All the required technique (TIKSL NetHDF5, Globus MDS Queries,...) is already there!

25. = Cactus communication layer ; Parallel driver thorn (e.g. PUGH) currently provides both variable management and communication … ; abstract send and receives etc = Abstract communication from driver thorn ; easily implement different parallel paradigms ; shared memory, threads, Corba, OpenMP, PVM,... = Compact groups (different layout in memory for improved Cache performance) = Unstructured Meshes/Finite Elements/Spectral Methods = Unstructured Multigrid Solver = Convergence/Multiple Coordinate Patches = Capability browsing mechanism = Command line interface … connect directly to Cactus, scheduling = GUIs, Documentation, GUIs, Documentation …. Coming up (Cactus 4.2)

26. What physical systems are there now ? = Initial Data " Schwarzschild " Misner " Brandt-Bruegmann puncture data " Brill waves " Teukolsky waves " Distorted Brill wave and black hole " TOV " Colliding neutron stars " Orbiting neutron stars " Boson star " Dust

27. ... = Analysis " Apparent horizon finders fast flow minimisation " Wave extraction " Riemann Invariants " Newman-Penrose quantities " Constraint evaluation " Geodesic tracking

28. Overview = Introduction = Cactus - Original Motivation: Numerical Relativity = Axial symmetric Collisions of Black Holes (NCSA 1993-96) = Focus of 3D Numerical Evolutions during the last couple years = Visualization of 3D data with ZIB's Amira = German Gigabit Project: TIKSL

29. Overview, II = What is the Cactus Computational Toolkit? = Data Types (Portability) = Cactus Flesh = Data Structures (Memory Management) = Cactus Thorns = Interface = Implementation = Scheduling = Parallelizing an Application Thorn = PUGH = How to use Cactus = How does Cactus help ? = CACTUS on NT = Who Uses Cactus = Horizons (A Metacomputing Application) = Distributed Computation of AH