ClusterSs: A task-based programming model for clusters

Abstract

Programming for large-scale, multicore-based architectures requires adequate tools that offer ease of programming while not hindering application performance. StarSs is a family of parallel programming models based on automatic function level parallelism that targets productivity. StarSs deploys a data-flow model: it analyses dependencies between tasks and manages their execution, exploiting their concurrency as much as possible. We introduce Cluster Superscalar (ClusterSs), a new StarSs member designed to execute on clusters of SMPs. ClusterSs tasks are asynchronously created and assigned to the available resources with the support of the IBM APGAS runtime, which provides an efficient and portable communication layer based on one-sided communication. This short paper gives an overview of the ClusterSs design on top of APGAS, as well as the conclusions of a productivity study; in this study, ClusterSs was compared to the IBM X10 language, both in terms of programmability and performance. A technical report is available with the details. © 2011 Authors.