[intrepid-notify] ALCF Weekly Updates - April 26

[ALCF User Services]

*** Available Now for Online Viewing: "Preparing for INCITE" Webinar *** 
If you missed the INCITE webinar held earlier this week, you can now view a recording of it online. The webinar presents an overview of the INCITE process and offers valuable tips for those planning to submit a proposal. The 2013 INCITE open call is April 11-June 27, 2012. To be eligible for an INCITE award, your project must demonstrate a high-impact science goal, plus computational readiness and the need for leadership-class supercomputing resources. To view the webinar recording, go to http://anl.adobeconnect.com/p8qgermnx97/ 

*** Access T&D Blue Gene/Q Rack at Leap to Petascale Workshop May 22-25 ***
Mark your calendars and plan to attend Leap to Petascale: Making the Move to Mira. This workshop is geared especially for current INCITE, ALCC, and discretionary projects that have already scaled to multiple racks of Intrepid. With the arrival of Mira, the ALCF's 10-petaflops Blue Gene/Q, this year's workshop will focus on issues of scaling to the next-gen system. The workshop also coincides with efforts of teams preparing to submit 2013 INCITE proposals. A significant portion of workshop time will be devoted to hands-on tuning of applications with one-on-one assistance from our performance engineers and computational scientists. Special system reservations will provide the opportunity for full-scale runs and participants will have access to our test and development rack of Blue Gene/Q. Visit https://www.alcf.anl.gov/workshops/l2p-workshop to register. 

*** Maximize Code Performance Using MPI Environment Variables ***
Learn how to maximize the performance of your code using MPI-related environment variables. Last week we talked about DCMF_EAGER to maximize communication speed. This week, we consider DCMF_ALLTOALL(V,W)_PREMALLOC to reduce memory usage. Visit http://www.alcf.anl.gov/resource-guides/tuning-mpi-bgp to read more.

*** Handy Cobalt Tip: Rename Your Job's Output ***
By default, your Cobalt job will send its output to files named with the prefix of the jobid. For example, job 12345 will create 12345.output and 12345.error. When you specify the -O option to change the output file prefix, it uses that string instead. E.g. "qsub -O myjob" results in myjob.output and myjob.error. But what happened to the jobid? You can still include by using "$jobid." For example, "qsub -O myjob.\$jobid" and a jobid of 12345 will create myjob.12345.output and myjob.12345.error. Note that the dollar sign must be escaped to protect it from shell variable expansion.

*** System Maintenance on Monday, April 30 ***
Intrepid, Challenger, Eureka, Surveyor and Gadzooks systems all will have regularly scheduled preventive maintenance this coming week. Maintenance starts at 14:00 UTC on Monday, April 30, and is expected to end at 02:00 UTC on Tuesday, May 1. During maintenance, there will be no access to the login nodes and no jobs will be run. We will notify users when the work has been completed and the machines are again available for general use. Please contact support at alcf.anl.gov with any questions. 

*** ScicomP 2012 Agenda Now Online ***
The ScicomP 2012 presentation agenda (May 15-18) is now posted on the meeting website (www.spscicomp.org/scicomp2012). The hotel
room block has expired, though rooms can still be booked as available.

*** Surveyor Default XL Compiler Update April 30 ***
The April 2012 updates of the IBM Blue Gene/P compilers are now available (XL C/C++ version 09.00.0000.0014 and XL Fortran 11.01.0000.0014). To select the new version, use the softenv key @ibm-compilers-apr2012. See http://www.alcf.anl.gov/faq-page/how-do-i-select-xl-compiler-versions for detailed instructions. Please compile your application code with the update and report any problems. This version will become the default on Surveyor beginning April 30, and on Intrepid and Challenger beginning May 21.

*** Important Dates ***
Apr. 27 - SC12 submission deadline for paper abstracts: http://sc12.supercomputing.org/content/important-dates
Apr. 27 - ACM Gordon Bell Award abstracts due: http://sc12.supercomputing.org/content/important-dates
May 4 - SC12 submission deadlines for tutorials, workshops, full papers: http://sc12.supercomputing.org/content/important-dates
May 4 - ACM Gordon Bell full submissions due: http://sc12.supercomputing.org/content/important-dates
May 14-18 - ScicomP 2012: http://spscicomp.org/scicomp2012 
May 22-25 - "Leap to Petascale: Making the Move to Mira" - Workshop: https://www.alcf.anl.gov/workshops/l2p-workshop