ECP/NERSC UPC++ Tutorial

This event was a repeat of the tutorial delivered on November 1, but with the restoration of the hands-on component which was omitted due to uncertainty surrounding the power outage at NERSC.

UPC++ is a C++11 library providing classes and functions that support Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) programming. UPC++ provides mechanisms for low-overhead one-sided communication, moving computation to data through remote-procedure calls, and expressing dependencies between asynchronous computations and data movement. It is particularly well-suited for implementing elaborate distributed data structures where communication is irregular or fine-grained. The UPC++ interfaces are designed to be composable and similar to those used in conventional C++. The UPC++ programmer can expect communication to run at close to hardware speeds.

In this tutorial we introduced basic concepts and advanced optimization techniques of UPC++. We discussed the UPC++ memory and execution models and walked through implementing basic algorithms in UPC++. We also discussed irregular applications and how to take advantage of UPC++ features to optimize their performance. The tutorial included hands-on exercises with basic UPC++ constructs. Registrants were given access to run their UPC++ exercises on NERSC’s Cori (currently the #14 fastest computer in the world).