The MIG Framework: Enabling Transparent Process Migration in Open MPI

This paper introduces the mig framework: an Open MPI extension to transparently support the migration of application processes, over different nodes of a distributed High-Performance Computing (HPC) system. The framework provides mechanism on top of which suitable resource managers can implement policies to react to hardware faults, address performance variability, improve resource utilization, perform a fine-grained load balancing and power thermal management. Compared to other state-of-the-art approaches, the mig framework does not require changes in the application code. Moreover, it is highly maintainable, since it is mainly a self-contained solution that has required a very few changes in other already existing Open MPI frameworks. Experimental results have shown that the proposed extension does not introduce significant overhead in the application execution, while the penalty due to performing a migration can be properly taken into account by a resource manager

Precision-Aware application execution for Energy-optimization in HPC node system

Power consumption is a critical consideration in high performance computing systems and it is becoming the limiting factor to build and operate Petascale and Exascale systems. When studying the power consumption of existing systems running HPC workloads, we find that power, energy and performance are closely related which leads to the possibility to optimize energy consumption without sacrificing (much or at all) the performance. In this paper, we propose a HPC system running with a GNU/Linux OS and a Real Time Resource Manager (RTRM) that is aware and monitors the healthy of the platform. On the system, an application for disaster management runs. The application can run with different QoS depending on the situation. We defined two main situations. Normal execution, when there is no risk of a disaster, even though we still have to run the system to look ahead in the near future if the situation changes suddenly. In the second scenario, the possibilities for a disaster are very high. Then the allocation of more resources for improving the precision and the human decision has to be taken into account. The paper shows that at design time, it is possible to describe different optimal points that are going to be used at runtime by the RTOS with the application. This environment helps to the system that must run 24/7 in saving energy with the trade-off of losing precision. The paper shows a model execution which can improve the precision of results by 65% in average by increasing the number of iterations from 1e3 to 1e4. This also produces one order of magnitude longer execution time which leads to the need to use a multi-node solution. The optimal trade-off between precision vs. execution time is computed by the RTOS with the time overhead less than 10% against a native execution

Exploring manycore architectures for next-generation HPC systems through the MANGO approach

[EN] The Horizon 2020 MANGO project aims at exploring deeply heterogeneous accelerators for use in High-Performance Computing systems running multiple applications with different Quality of Service (QoS) levels. The main goal of the project is to exploit customization to adapt computing resources to reach the desired QoS. For this purpose, it explores different but interrelated mechanisms across the architecture and system software. In particular, in this paper we focus on the runtime resource management, the thermal management, and support provided for parallel programming, as well as introducing three applications on which the project foreground will be validated.This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 671668.Flich Cardo, J.; Agosta, G.; Ampletzer, P.; Atienza-Alonso, D.; Brandolese, C.; Cappe, E.; Cilardo, A.... (2018). Exploring manycore architectures for next-generation HPC systems through the MANGO approach. Microprocessors and Microsystems. 61:154-170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micpro.2018.05.011S1541706

Combination Strategies for Targeted Delivery of Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy

Pharmaceuticals, and more recently biopharmaceuticals, have become the mainstay for antineoplastic treatments in combination with surgical interventions and radiation therapy. In recent years, advances have been made in the development of nano-technological interventions for the treatment of cancer alone or in combination with existing therapeutic modalities. Nanotechnology used for therapeutic drug delivery and sensitization of photodynamic, sonodynamic and radiotherapy are now being tested in preclinical and clinical trials for the treatment of cancer. This article will review the current state of the art for nanotechnology therapies with an emphasis on targeted drug delivery and the observed and likely benefits when used in combination with existing therapeutic approaches

Co-scheduling tasks on multi-core heterogeneous systems: An energy-aware perspective

Single-ISA heterogeneous multi-core processors trade-off power with performance; however, threads that co- run on shared resources suffer from resource contention, which induces performance degradation and energy inefficiency. The authors introduce a novel approach to optimise the co-scheduling of multi-threaded applications on heterogeneous processors. The approach is based on the concept of stakes function, which represents the trade-off between isolation and sharing of resources. The authors also develop a co-scheduling algorithm that use stakes functions to optimise resource usage while mitigating resource contention, thus improving performance and energy efficiency. They validated the approach using applications from the Princeton Application Repository for Shared- Memory Computers (PARSEC) benchmark suite, obtaining up to 12.88% performance speed-up, 13.65% energy speed- up and 28.29% energy delay speed-up with respect to the standard Linux heterogeneous multi-processing scheduler

Groundwater Quality Risk due to Conventional Irrigated Agriculture in the “Apulian Tavoliere”

High-value and intensively managed crops usually take advantage of large amounts of irrigation water and nitrogen fertilisers, therefore greatly contributing to the risk of groundwater contamination due to drainage water and nitrate leaching. An real accounting of this risk is a priority knowledge at the field as well as at the land scale, in order to start up effective agro-environmental measures to control or mitigate those impacts. The problem is much more difficult to manage in case of brackish irrigation water, due to saline groundwater and sea-water intrusion in coastal areas. The leaching technique is the only way to avoid soil salification but, at the same time, it produces impacting drainage with water of very critical quality. The overall conventional farming management is consequently pressed for an answer, in line with the fundamental criteria of (environmental and economical) sustainability. This study was carried out in order to assess the main composition and quality of the drainage water resulting from the current cultivation practice (irrigation and fertilization) performed by an ordinary farmer with respect to an area of the Apulian Tavoliere, close to the coast of the Manfredonia gulf (Adriatic sea). Particularly, salt load and nitrate were considered, periodically measuring the electrical conductivity (EC), the sodium adsorption ratio (S.A.R.) and the N-nitrate concentration of the drainage water intercepted from the cultivated field. A permanent experimental field-unit was established in autumn 2006; three plots of 100 m2 each (6.4 x 15.6 m) were delimited; at the center of each plot an artificial draining basin was arranged digging the soil out of a trench, 3.2 m wide, along the entire plot length; the bottom of each trench was covered with a plastic sheet in order to prevent water percolation; a set of drains (two groups per trench, three drains per group) were displaced over the plastic cover to collect the percolating water and conveying it into thanks placed at the edge of each plot (two thanks per plot). The trenches were then filled with the same soil obtained by the excavating procedure, trying to correctly reproduce the original soil stratification. Two subsequent crop cycles were considered, from spring to winter 2007: tomato and spinach, respectively. Tomato was transplanted on 20 April and harvested on 26 July; spinach was sowed on 18 October and harvested on 27 December. While tomato was actively irrigated (540 mm plus 117 mm of rain), autumn rainfalls (148 mm) completely satisfied the spinach water requirements and no irrigations were needed. A flow-weighted averaging of nitrate concentration over multiple drainage water samplings allowed to calculate an higher overall loss of nitrogen during spinach cultivation, as a consequence of an higher fertilization rate. An increasing nitrate concentration was registered in the drainage water from the start to the end of the experimental period. The drainage S.A.R. values were always significant lower than those of the irrigation water. This first investigation confirmed the very worrying and dangerous conditions of the local agricultural practices and the need of drastic and quick technical adjustments

TEST: Assessing NoC policies facing aging and leakage power

The trend to increase the number of cores integrated on a single die makes Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) a key component from the interconnection viewpoint. Unfortunately, continuous scaling of CMOS technology poses severe concerns regarding failure mechanisms, such as NBTI, that are crucial in achieving a reasonable component lifetime. Furthermore, the leakage power became more and more a critical issues as the technology scales up. Finally, Process Variation (PV) makes harder the scenario, decreasing device lifetime and performance predictability during chip fabrication. Several techniques have been presented in literature facing the NBTI and or the static power consumption. This paper proposes a methodology to analyze such techniques from the feasibility viewpoint. It is explored their effectiveness in contrasting NBTI and saving static power in the NoC as well as the associated overheads and drawbacks. For the two considered policies, it is achieved a NBTI mitigation up to 55% and a power saving up to 51% with performance and area overheads less than 10% and 5%, respectively

Resource-Aware Application Execution Exploiting the BarbequeRTRM

Energy efficiency and thermal management have become ma- jor concerns in both embedded and HPC systems. The progress of silicon technology and the subsequent growth of the dark silicon phenomena are negatively a ecting the reliability of computing systems. As a result, in the next future we expect run-time variability to increase in terms of both performance and computing resources availability. To address these is- sues, systems and applications must be able to adapt to such scenarios. This work provides a brief overview of the Barbeque Run-Time Resource Manager (BarbequeRTRM) and the application execution model that it exploits, in order to deal with run-time performance and available re- sources variability