D7.1.3: Report on Applications Enabling for Capability Science in the MIC Architecture

The PRACE-1IP project was extended by eight month to complete the evaluation of advance prototypes following a recommendation from the external reviewers. This opened the opportunity to assess if the new Intel MIC architecture can improve the performance of applications in use by European scientists. During the PRACE-1IP extension period (M34-M42), Task T7.1 “Applications Enabling for Capability Science” in Work Package 7 (WP7) focused on the application enabling support for the capability science projects on the Xeon Phi accelerators. 17 PRACE partners from 14 countries were involved in the T7.1 technical work and a total of 27 enabling projects on Xeon Phi were supported during this period. This deliverable reports on the work done and outcomes delivered by T7.1 during the PRACE-1IP
extension period.
The main Xeon Phi prototype used for the enabling projects was EURORA at CINECA. Additional resources were provided on the Xeon Phi rack of the MareNostrum system at BSC. 29 proposals were received for the Xeon Phi enabling work via the PRACE Preparatory Access Type C call and an additional WP7 internal call, and 27 of the received proposals were accepted. The enabling support for all the accepted projects will complete by the end of PRACE-1IP extension period, i.e. 31 December 2013.
T7.1 provided the technical reviews for all the received proposals for Xeon Phi enabling projects, including the home site reviews and the type C reviews. Each accepted Xeon Phi enabling project was assigned to a PRACE expert who was responsible for the contact and technical support for the project. The progress of enabling projects was monitored and discussed at the monthly telcons and the WP7 Face-to-Face meetings.
In order to provide assistance for users to use EURORA, a summer school on enabling applications on Xeon Phi was organised by CINECA on 8-11 July 2013 and 34 applicants participated in this training event.
Besides this deliverable, further outcomes delivered by T7.1 in the PRACE-1IP extension period include a series of white papers which will describe more technical details of the enabling work done on the Xeon Phi accelerators. The white papers will be available for publication on the PRACE-RI web site in January 2014.