Rogue Wave Software has delivered a pre-release version of TotalView, its massively parallel, interactive and automated debugging tool, optimised for the IBM Blue Gene/Q-based Sequoia supercomputer at US Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). This is a significant milestone in a multi-year collaboration between LLNL, Rogue Wave and IBM. The three organisations worked in parallel to define the debugging interfaces and port the TotalView debugger, simultaneous to the development of the Blue Gene/Q hardware. TotalView engineers at Rogue Wave were able to begin validation and finalise the hardware-specific development shortly after the first Sequoia system was powered on.
Providing debugging capability on the Blue Gene/Q architecture involved collaboratively designing an interface called CDTI (Code Development and Tools Interface), which was then implemented by IBM and used by Rogue Wave in porting TotalView. CDTI also provides key functionality for other tools such as LLNL’s STAT and SCR.
‘Having an early-access version of TotalView available is vital to the installation and acceptance process for Sequoia. It is critical that our development teams have their familiar parallel debugging environment available as they iron out the inevitable issues that come up with running on a new system,’ said Kim Cupps, division leader of Livermore Computing at LLNL.
When it is deployed later this year at LLNL, Sequoia is expected to deliver 20 petaflops peak, double the speed of the fastest system currently on the Top500 list. LLNL plans to use Sequoia’s impressive computational capability to advance understanding of fundamental physics and engineering questions that arise in the US National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) program to ensure the safety, security and reliability of the United States’ nuclear deterrent without testing. Sequoia will also support NNSA/ DOE programs at LLNL that focus on non-proliferation, counterterrorism, energy, security, health and climate change.
