Sandia National Laboratories Signs Minimal Metrics
Sandia National Laboratories has just signed Minimal Metrics to help in their performance analysis of their next-generation high-performance computing platforms. In particular, the Application Performance Modeling and Analysis team is interested in studying the effects of stall cycles on application performance. More specifically, parallel scientific simulation kernels running on Intel’s Sandy Bridge systems. Stall cycles, or periods of time where the processor is not producing any results, are notoriously difficult to account for. While the hardware architects have added some hardware instrumentation to help accomplish this, using that instrumentation requires extensive background and understand of the specific microprocessor’s architecture. Sandia, while possessing leading expertise in application performance, is looking to leverage Minimal Metrics’ unparalleled experience in the field in an attempt to further their research. Minimal Metrics will be working closely with Sandia’s application developers and systems teams to ensure that their code and systems are working as optimally as…