µπ: A Scalable and Transparent System for Simulating MPI Programs

Abstract

µπ is a scalable, transparent system for experimenting with the execution of parallel programs on simulated computing platforms. The level of simulated detail can be varied for application behavior as well as for machine characteristics. Unique features of µπ are repeatability of execution, scalability to millions of simulated (virtual) MPI ranks, scalability to hundreds of thousands of host (real) MPI ranks, portability of the system to a variety of host supercomputing platforms, and the ability to experiment with scientific applications whose source-code is available. The set of source-code interfaces supported by µπ is being expanded to support a wider set of applications, and MPI-based scientific computing benchmarks are being ported. In proof-of-concept experiments, µπ has been successfully exercised to spawn and sustain very large-scale executions of an MPI test program given in source code form. Low slowdowns are observed, due to its use of purely discrete event style of execution, and due to the scalability and efficiency of the underlying parallel discrete event simulation engine, µsik. In the largest runs, µπ has been executed on up to 216,000 cores of a Cray XT5 supercomputer, successfully simulating over 27 million virtual MPI ranks, each virtual rank containing its own thread context, and all ranks fully synchronized by virtual time.