The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis
The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis
Workshop:Correctness 2021: 5th International Workshop on Software Correctness for HPC Applications
Authors: Ganesh Gopalakrishnan (University of Utah); Ignacio Laguna (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory); Ang Li (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)); Pavel Panchekha (University of Utah); Cindy Rubio-Gonzalez (University of California, Davis); and Zachary Tatlock (University of Washington)
Abstract: New heterogeneous computing platforms---especially GPUs and other accelerators---are being introduced at a brisk pace, motivated by the goals of exploiting parallelism and reducing data movement. Unfortunately, their sheer variety as well as the optimization options supported by them have been observed to alter the computed numerical results to the extent that reproducible results are no longer possible to obtain without extra effort. Our main contribution in this paper is to document the scope and magnitude of this problem that has not received much attention. We propose a taxonomy of sub-topics and details under each, and close with a summary table of these discussions. Given the magnitude of maintaining reliable information, we issue a call for community action, helping us maintain a website containing curated information.