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Diving into MareNostrum 5: CEEC at MNHACK24 – CEEC CoE
Participants at the MNHACK24 hackathon, held at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre in October 2024, are seated at long tables in a bright room with large windows. About ten individuals, both men and women, are focused on their laptops, with some engaged in discussions. The tables are equipped with power strips and personal items like water bottles. The scene conveys a collaborative and studious atmosphere typical of a hackathon event.

Diving into MareNostrum 5: CEEC at MNHACK24

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by

Sally K.
in

This fall, a group of researchers from across Europe gathered at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) for MNHACK ,  the sixth hackathon centered on the MareNostrum systems. This time, the focus was on MareNostrum 5, one of the most advanced supercomputers in the world and the fifth fastest in Europe as of November 2024.

Among the group were many CEEC-ers there to prepare our codes for optimal performance on this young machine while exploring its scalability, energy consumption, and efficiency.

For Neko, work focused on two subprojects in addition to the general hackathon activities:

  • Topology Optimization: We successfully ported part of the code to GPUs, a step toward better performance for this computationally intense lighthouse case.
  • Uncertainty Quantification: we worked on leveraging unused CPU resources during GPU-based simulations for uncertainty quantification in fluid analysis.

“While some issues remained unresolved by the end of the event, working side-by-side with experts helped clarify the path forward.” – Tim Felle Olsen

With waLBerla, work focused on compiling and running efficiently on MareNostrum 5, gaining critical insights into performance metrics and energy efficiency—data that will directly feed into CEEC objectives and lighthouse case four (Localized erosion of an offshore wind-turbine foundation).

For Alya, the focus was on porting the structural mechanics solver’s assembly to GPU. Additionally, we were able to discuss the evaluation of a benchmark test related to lighthouse case 1 (High Fidelity Aeroelastic Simulation of the SFB 401 Wing in Flight Conditions) with Marta Garcia.

A group of people are seated in a classroom setting at the MNHACK hackathon held at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre. They are working on laptops, with two rows of tables filled with participants. Most individuals are wearing blue lanyards with name badges, indicating their participation in the event. The atmosphere is lively and collaborative, with several people smiling and interacting with each other. The room has a modern design, featuring black walls and ceiling, and linear lighting fixtures.

One key highlight was being able to bring some critical challenges with the nvidia compilers directly to the experts. While some issues remained unresolved by the end of the event, “working side-by-side with experts helped clarify the path forward,” according to Tim.

Despite our ability to collaborate from remote locations, face to face events like this are still key. As summarized by Samuel, “it was very helpful to sit together in one room since we could share experience and talk to the BSC experts if we had questions about MareNostrum 5.” The hackathon environment fostered collaboration, not competition, not least because we could consult directly in real-time with BSC experts about how to make our codes run at their best on MareNostrum 5’s architecture.