Development of benchmark code for DiRAC-3 and GPU high performance computing resources

Gravitational wave simulations are challenging and require the most advanced HPC systems due to their high memory footprint, communication costs and run times. The GRChombo code developed by Prof Figueras, Dr Clough and the rest of the GRTL collaboration was used to benchmark, test and optimise the hardware procured in the 2021 upgrade of the National STFC High Performance Computing (HPC) system (DiRAC-3).

The codebase is now being upgraded and ported to run on GPUs, in collaboration with DiRAC Research Software Engineers (RSEs). Support was requested by Katy and granted via the DiRAC resource allocation committee. This new code, GRTeclyn, is again expected to be a flagship project for DiRAC, demonstrating the potential for their current and future GPU resources to be used in other high costs grid codes, such as those used for hydrodynamics, climate modelling or cosmology.

Data Intensive at Cambridge (DIaC), part of CSD3 and DiRAC. The GRChombo code developed by QMUL researchers and their collaborators was used as a benchmark for the design and testing of the CSD3 system.