ACADEMIA

EKOPath Enables DOE Researchers to Optimize a Highly Diverse Range of Applications Including Astrophysics, Life Sciences, Climate Research, Data Analysis, Accelerator Physics and Modeling -- The U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has deployed the PathScale EKOPath Compiler Suite for use by as many as 2,500 scientists throughout the nation and internationally. NERSC is the flagship scientific computing facility for the Office of Science in the U.S. Department of Energy. As one of the largest facilities in the world devoted to providing computational resources and expertise for basic scientific research, NERSC is a global leader in accelerating scientific discovery through computation, and is often viewed by other organizations as a trendsetter in the field of supercomputing. Earlier this year, the PathScale EKOPath compiler suite was voted the Supercomputing Product of the Year in an online readers poll conducted by SupercomputingOnline.com. "Before any new computing resource is accepted and put into full-time production at NERSC, we have our most demanding users run a number of diverse applications and perform stringent acceptance tests," said Bill Kramer, General Manager for NERSC. "The key challenge for any compiler used at NERSC is in being able to handle the very wide range of applications that our scientists use on a daily basis. We are happy with the performance we are experiencing with the PathScale EKOPath compilers, and pleased with the rapid response we have received from PathScale's support team on questions and issues that we have raised." The implementation of PathScale EKOPath compilers at NERSC is one of the largest in the world. Thousands of scientists and researchers are now benefiting from the superior performance and advanced feature set of the PathScale compilers. "It's important to note that NERSC is one of the most demanding users of complex, high performance Linux applications," said Scott Metcalf, CEO of PathScale. "Our close cooperation with NERSC and six other large DOE computing sites currently using the PathScale Compiler Suite has resulted in maximum applications performance for them, and has assisted PathScale in offering the most stable and highest performance Linux compilers to HPC users everywhere." PathScale's EKOPath C, C++, and Fortran 77/90/95 compilers were key components in the 722- node dual-core AMD Opteron processor-based cluster known at NERSC as the "Jacquard" system. Jacquard was recently delivered to NERSC by Linux Networx, a leading provider of high-end Linux-based computing systems designed for maximum sustained performance. "We provided the PathScale EKOPath Compiler Suite to NERSC because we know that maximizing application performance is critical to their researchers," said Joshua Harr, CTO of Linux Networx. "One of the key values we provide to our customers is an assurance that complex HPC applications deployed on sophisticated Linux clusters will continue running with optimal performance. The PathScale compiler suite has been an important tool in helping us achieve this for NERSC." The current shipping version of the PathScale EKOPath Compiler Suite is version 2.2, which includes complete OpenMP support and an advanced serial debugger. A free 30-day trial version of the PathScale EKOPath compilers is available at its Web site. PathScale is also the developer of InfiniPath HTX, the industry's highest performance, lowest latency cluster interconnect for InfiniBand. The PathScale compilers and InfiniPath interconnect are available from any Authorized PathScale FastPath Reseller, listed at its Web site.