John Barr asks what standard approach can the industry agree on to make next-generation HPC systems easier to program?
When the architecture of high-performance computing (HPC) systems changes, the tools and programming paradigms used to develop applications may also have to change. We have seen several such evolutions in recent decades, including the introduction of multiprocessors, the use of heterogeneous processors to accelerate applications, vector processors, and cluster computing.
These changes, while providing the potential for delivering higher performance at lower price points, give the HPC industry a big headache. That headache is brought on by the need for application portability, which in turn leverages standard development tools that support a range of platforms. Without software standards supporting emerging platforms, independent software vendors (ISVs) are slow to target these new systems, and without a broad base of software the industry pauses while the software catches up.
