CD-EXCALIBUR-FMS0055-M1.8.1_ReportNeptuneWorkshop7October2021 ============================================================= .. meta:: :description: technical note :keywords: ExCALIBUR,Report,of,NEPTUNE,Workshop,7,October,2021,M1.8.1,Abstract,The,report,describes,work,for,ExCALIBUR,project,NEPTUNE,at,Mile-,stone,M1.8.1.,It,comprises,the,minutes,of,the,NEPTUNE,workshop,held,on,7,October,2021.,UKAEA,REFERENCE,AND,APPROVAL,SHEET,Client,Reference:,UKAEA,Reference:,CD/EXCALIBUR-FMS/0055,Issue:,Date:,1.00,October,21,,2021,Project,Name:,ExCALIBUR,Fusion,Modelling,System,Prepared,By:,Name,and,Department,Ed,Threlfall,Wayne,Arter,Signature,N/A,N/A,Date,October,21,,2021,October,21,,2021,BD,Reviewed,By:,Rob,Akers,October,21,,2021,Advanced,Dept.,Manager,Computing,1,Introduction,The,workshop,took,place,at,UKAEA,Culham,on,7,October,2021,,10.00-16.00,BST.,A,hybrid,for-,mat,was,used,with,approximately,equal,split,between,attendance,in,person,and,attendance,via,Zoom.,Attendees,were,NEPTUNE,staff,and,board,from,UKAEA,as,well,as,external,grantees.,The,workshop,had,the,dual,aims,of,reviewing,progress,to,date,and,also,holding,discussions,intended,to,help,crystallize,future,plans,,ie.,the,current,position,is,one,of,deciding,which,strategy,to,pursue,,and,why.,1,2,Minutes,2.1,Present,•,Wayne,Arter,,UKAEA,i.p.,•,Michael,Barnes,,Oxford,•,Alys,Brett,,UKAEA,•,Chris,Cantwell,,Imperial,College,London,i.p.,•,James,Cook,,UKAEA,i.p.,•,Peter,Coveney,,University,College,London,•,David,Dickinson,,University,of,York,•,Patrick,Farrell,,Oxford,•,Tom,Goffrey,,Warwick,•,Serge,Guillas,,University,College,London,•,Ben,McMillan,,Warwick,•,Fulvio,Militello,,UKAEA,i.p.,•,Gihan,Mudalige,,Warwick,•,David,Moxey,,King’s,College,London,i.p.,•,Sarah,Newton,,UKAEA,i.p.,•,Martin,O’Brien,,UKAEA,•,John,Omotani,,UKAEA,i.p.,•,Joseph,Parker,,UKAEA,i.p.,•,Will,Saunders,,UKAEA,i.p.,•,Spencer,Sherwin,,Imperial,College,London,•,Sue,Thorne,,STFC,•,Ed,Threlfall,,UKAEA,i.p.,•,Nigel,Wood,,Met,Office,2,i.p.,indicates,present,in,person,,otherwise,via,Zoom.,Additional,UKAEA,staff,were,present,in,a,listening,capacity.,Note:,the,slides,displayed,during,the,workshop,will,become,available,(subject,to,presenter,permis-,sion),at,https:,//,github.,com/,ExCALIBUR-NEPTUNE/,Documents/,meetings/,workshop_,2021_,oct_,07,and,the,agenda,at,https:,//,github.,com/,ExCALIBUR-NEPTUNE/,Documents/,tex/,t18,.,Ac-,cess,to,the,repository,is,by,recognized,name,/,email,only,-,to,arrange,access,contact,nep-,tune@ukaea.uk.,2.2,Morning,review,session,2.2.1,Wayne,Arter,-,Introduction,First,was,a,review,of,strategies,for,software,development,/,engineering,,beginning,with,a,‘lite’,ver-,sion,of,the,ECSS-E-40,standard,for,ESA,space,applications,(ECSS,is,European,Cooperation,for,Space,Standardization),-,this,derives,a,Technical,Specification,(TS),to,represent,what,the,‘cus-,tomer’,wants.,For,reference,,the,basic,TS,for,NEPTUNE,is,a,suite,describing,the,tokamak,edge,in,a,comprehensive,range,of,detail,levels,using,a,large,range,of,computing,platforms,(from,lap-,top,to,HPC),,straightforwardly,mutable,to,include,new,physics,,and,aiming,to,provide,uncertainty,quantification,in,all,cases.,One,issue,with,the,customer-driven,approaches,in,the,case,of,NEPTUNE,is,the,disconnect,be-,tween,the,providers,of,the,funding,-,Met,Office,/,BEIS,-,and,the,intended,users,of,the,end,product,-,UKAEA,and,other,physicists,and,engineers;,it,is,quite,clear,that,the,end,users,are,not,the,ones,providing,the,funding,,so,one,must,be,careful,in,identifying,the,‘customer’.,Semantic,Software,Design,by,Hewitt,(2019),emphasizes,justification,of,why,the,project,outputs,are,good,for,all,customers.,Also,has,useful,lists,‘how,are,we,going,to,do,this’.,Many,development,ideas,in,this,book,are,to,be,applied,to,NEPTUNE,(note,there,are,a,number,of,relevant,TLAs,that,are,not,summarized,in,these,minutes).,One,complication,faced,by,NEPTUNE,is,the,range,of,users,,with,level-of-detail,needs,ranging,from,laptop,simulations,up,to,the,Exascale;,of,the,latter,,the,larger,machines,are,something,of,a,moving,target,so,ensuring,up-to-dateness,is,a,challenge.,The,project,is,currently,at,c.20%,spend,and,>,40%,duration.,A,slide,showed,the,outputs,to,date,(reports:,40,UKAEA,,25,grantee;,proxyapps:,1,UKAEA,,3,grantee);,WA,stated,from,his,private,sector,experience,that,the,cost,of,a,report,was,c.20k,-,on,this,basis,NEPTUNE,is,good,value,for,money.,He,remarked,also,that,there,is,expected,to,be,significant,UKAEA,development,work,(now,transitioning,from,primarily,external,development,to,a,hybrid,of,external,/,internal).,Question,from,Fulvio,Militello,re.,acronym,on,WA,slide,-,‘RB’,is,‘Requirements,Baseline’.,The,impression,given,was,that,FM,liked,the,Hewitt-type,approach.,FM,also,wanted,to,see,a,GANTT,chart,showing,when,(presumably,code),outputs,would,appear,and,at,what,time,user,feedback,would,be,sought,(note,Rob,Akers,gave,assurance,via,the,chat,that,there,exists,a,GANTT,chart,with,all,the,deliverables,and,decision,points).,WA,reminded,FM,that,development,at,this,stage,was,via,proxyapps,(Ben,Dudson’s,original,strategy),and,stated,that,the,proxyapps,were,intended,3,to,increase,in,complexity,starting,from,a,simple,baseline,-,the,early,proxyapps,more,appropriate,to,the,DJF,stage,of,Hewitt.,FM,expressed,a,desire,to,see,the,overall,project,road,map,-,WA,referred,him,to,the,Science,Plan,(and,stated,that,he,had,no,GANTT,charts,to,hand,at,the,time).,2.2.2,David,Dickinson,T/NA083/20,Fluid,Referent,Models,DD,gave,an,overview,of,his,activities.,It,was,noted,that,infrastructure,had,been,created,eg.,Slack,channel,,github,,ReadTheDocs,(the,latter,currently,sparse).,2.1,Elliptic,solver,-,vorticity,equation.,SD1D,,Hermes-3,1-D,fluids.,The,York,team,has,seen,a,significant,restructure,with,the,departure,of,Ben,Dudson,and,Peter,Hill,from,the,project.,Some,tasks,have,been,shifted,in,delivery,date.,York,have,interacted,with,PEANO,performance,analysis,workshops,,VECMA,,and,exploring,the,use,of,ReFrame,(Python,regression,testing,framework).,BOUT++,preconditioning,-,Ben,Dudson,is,still,expected,to,deliver,a,report,in,collaboration,with,STFC.,Task,3,-,kinetics.,Work,proceeding,via,Python,implementations,eg.,1-D,2-species,Vlasov-Amp,`ere;,example,seemed,to,show,simple,uniform,grid,outperforming,Hermite,quadrature,approach,-,higher,order,not,better,in,this,case,(Runge,phenomenon?).,Using,Jupyter,notebooks.,Task,4,-,multi-fluids,in,1-D,,to,be,extended,to,3-D.,Brief,mention,of,design,patterns,to,handle,arbitrary,number,of,species,and,interactions.,Showed,Hermes-3,design,pattern,-,state,object,passed,down,a,chain,of,interaction,objects.,Issues,of,inheritance,vs.,state-command.,All,of,the,above,work,is,still,using,finite-difference.,The,intention,appears,to,be,that,conversion,to,spectral-hp,is,the,next,step.,WA,agreed,that,there,are,fundamental,software,engineering,issues,attached,to,the,multi-species,multi-interactions,code.,2.2.3,Gihan,Mudalige,T/NA086/20,Investigate,DSLs,and,code,generators,Gihan,standing,in,for,Steven,Wright,of,York.,He,gave,a,survey,of,the,grant,reports,eg.,systems,and,their,components;,software,approaches,(eg.,SYCL,a,newcomer,,also,showed,instructive,synthesis,vs.,analysis,diagram,which,ranges,from,general-purpose,programming,eg.,C++,up,to,domain-,specific,scientific,codes;,DSLs,are,somewhere,between,the,two).,Also,data,representation,and,I/O:,HDF5,etc;,also,Kokkos,Views,and,Umpire,for,memory,/,resource,management.,Evaluations,of,performance,portability,-,BOUT++,,Nektar++,,EPOCH,too,large,for,this,to,be,prac-,tical,,so,resorted,to,mini-apps,eg.,MinFE,,Nekbone,,minEPOCH.,Two,benchmarks,-,application,efficiency,is,vs.,best,yet,achieved,,architectural,efficiency,is,vs.,theoretical,max,performance.,Per-,formance,portability,results,presented,,also,cited,some,work,done,by,Bristol,(Deakin,,McIntosh-,Smith).,Presented,own,assessment,of,SYCL,/,OP2,/,MGCFD,using,colouring,scheme.,4,GM,opinion,is,that,modern,C++,best,opens,up,avenues,to,performance,portability.,Also,note,must,avoid,vendor,lock-in,risk.,Remark,that,open,standards,are,less,agile,where,the,latest,hardware,is,concerned,(though,note,that,Intel,support,for,SYCL,may,help,here).,2.2.4,David,Moxey,T/NA078/20,Progress,examining,performance,of,Nektar++,for,fusion,applications,D2.1,Nektar-Diffusion,anisotropic,diffusion,proxyapp,delivered,-,with,github,actions,and,Docker,images.,Task,1,(meshing),admitted,to,be,somewhat,delayed.,DM,showed,Nektar-Diffusion,examples.,Initial,attempt,with,step,function,source,poor,due,to,Runge,phenomenon,(cannot,even,represent,this,initial,data,acceptably,well),,so,substituted,approx.,step,function,based,on,tanh,for,much,better,result.,Also,saw,advantage,of,field-aligned,grid.,Showed,data,layout,used,for,AVX2,kernels:,basis,function,duplicated,over,multiple,AVX2,lanes,for,vector,mult,(has,C++,wrapper,to,avoid,cumbersome,intrinsics,syntax,,also,templated,on,element,shape,and,polynomial,order).,Mentioned,matrix-free,methods.,Showed,roofline,analysis,with,excellent,performance,results,for,straight-sided,elements;,curved,elements,significantly,slower,due,to,lack,of,affine,property.,Advantage,from,vectorization,larger,at,higher,polynomial,order.,They,plan,to,do,further,analysis,of,performance,of,the,numerical,performance,of,Nektar-Diffusion.,Further,reporting,on,Task,1,also,imminent.,Questions,from,Stan,Pamela,about,the,code,eg.,whether,using,weak,form,(yes);,degree,of,conti-,nuity,(C0,-,not,using,discontinuous,Galerkin,here).,2.2.5,Peter,Coveney,T/NA080/20,Methods,and,toolkits,for,UQ,of,high-dimensional,para-,metric,and,coupled-model,applications,on,HPC,PC,opened,with,general,slide,on,the,scientific,method,and,need,for,UQ.,Component-based,VECMA,toolkit,approach.,Pilot,Job,manages,HPC,workflows,by,submitting,ensemble,as,‘Tro-,jan,Horse’.,MUSCLE3,code,coupling,framework,(has,been,used,for,eg.,transport,,equilibrium,,and,turbulence).,US,using,Radical,Cybertools,on,Summit,(not,user-friendly).,Seemed,to,be,a,few,problems,with,QCG-PJ,job,manager,in,terms,of,load-balancing,and,also,a,bit,of,overhead.,Note,there,are,quite,a,few,papers,on,VECMA,presenting,the,new,features.,Rob,noted,that,STEP,project,using,VECMA,to,good,effect.,One,anticipated,feature,is,ensemble,Kalman,filters.,SEAVEA,project,commencing,-,fusion,is,primary,use,case;,showed,fast-track,(eg.,MoGP),and,longer-term,deep-track,components.,Noted,ARCHER2,machine,not,yet,working,to,full,design,scale.,Question,from,Fulvio,about,how,to,handle,epistemic,uncertainty.,PC,cited,CovidSim,where,940,input,parameters,were,whittled,down,according,to,significance,,with,successful,outcome;,found,projected,death,toll,had,a,heavy-tailed,distribution,making,the,mean,hard,to,estimate.,5,2.2.6,Serge,Guillas,T/NA081/20,Suitability,and,potential,of,reduced,order,modelling,(ROM),to,fusion,models,SG,explained,his,and,Deyu,Ming’s,work,using,non-intrusive,Gaussian,process,ROM.,Obvious,‘ghost’,defect,in,surrogate,model,for,anisotropic,diffusion,but,basically,within,the,predicted,de-,viation.,Mention,made,of,active,learning,(AL),approaches,and,mutual,information,for,computer,experiments,(MICE),approach,with,aim,to,target,regions,of,large,uncertainty,eg.,near,turbulent,transition.,AL,helps,with,loss,of,space-filling,property,when,a,coupled,model,is,used;,new,sample,positions,are,chosen,in,a,smart,way.,Forthcoming,AQUIFER,project,will,expand,on,physics-informed,GP,(eg.,boundary,conditions,and,constraints,eg.,parameters,≥,0);,also,particle,filters,,and,reduced,output,dimension,for,models,with,sharp,transitions.,Deep,GPs,can,accommodate,the,latter.,Planning,to,study,coupled,model,of,anisotropic,heat,transport,plus,isotropic,conductor,to,model,‘in-plasma’,/,‘in-wall’,heat,transport,(note,UKAEA’s,Will,Saunders,is,working,on,this).,2.2.7,Ben,McMillan,T/NA079/20,Optimal,use,of,particles,BM,summarized,his,work,,much,of,which,had,involved,providing,a,version,of,minEPOCH,modified,so,it,was,easier,to,add,and,test,new,algorithms.,He,proceeded,to,discuss,M.3,-,implicit,particles,method.,The,code,solves,the,Maxwell-Lorentz,equations,using,an,implicit,method,and,a,second-,order,Crank-Nicolson,stepper,to,overcome,timestep,limitations.,Jacobian-free,Newton-Krylov,solver,stores,only,fields,in,Krylov,subspace,as,particle,equations,decouple.,Iterative,method,due,to,large,number,of,DOFs,(c.109).,Error,behaviour,demonstrated,to,beat,explicit,solver.,Future,pre-,conditioning,work,continuing,even,though,grant,has,finished.,Also,sub-stepping,with,gyro-orbits,resolved,for,some,particles,,c.f.,Chen,et,al,2011.,GK-PIC,M4/6,incorporated,drift,kinetics,as,in,ORB5.,Control,variates,reduce,noise,(f,=,f0,+,g,with,f0,coming,from,fluid,equations).,Future,work,needed:,PIC,in,unstructured,mesh,/,curved,boundary;,seed,particles,tried,in,Nektar-,Driftwave,-,no,conclusions,for,curved,elements,or,electromagnetic,fields,from,FEM.,Mesh-free,methods:,PIC/FEM,coupling,via,FCIFEM,-,MPI,issues,here.,Code,is,Fortran,and,requires,total,rewrite,to,use,SYCL,/,Kokkos.,Plans,for,EPOCH,include,submitting,independent,bid,for,exascale,applications.,WA,made,it,clear,that,former,NEPTUNE,grantees,are,welcome,to,attend,ongoing,NEPTUNE,project,meetings,provided,that,they,are,prepared,to,share,their,NEPTUNE,-relevant,work.,2.2.8,Michael,Barnes,,Oxford,T/NA085/20,Development,of,gyro-averaged,model,Note,UKAEA,staff,Sarah,Newton,,John,Omotani,,and,Joseph,Parker,have,all,contributed,to,this,work.,Very,hard,problem,,therefore,many,simplifications,involved,eg.,parallel,dynamics,only,,electro-,static.,Starting,point,is,‘standard’,drift,kinetics.,Method,of,lines,and,strong,stability-preserving,6,Runge-Kutta.,Spectral,element,code,(in,Julia,and,on,github),with,a,higher-order,finite-difference,check.,Wall,boundary,conditions,simplified,-,ions,re-enter,as,neutrals.,Moment-kinetic,approach,in,co-moving,frame,,no,density,flow,or,pressure.,Code,outputs,compared,to,analytic,solutions;,phase-space,plots,of,ion,and,neutral,distribution,functions,shown.,Phenomenology,appears,qualitatively,correct,ie.,particles,ejected,from,boundary,ionize,and,get,accelerated,back,toward,wall.,Now,extending,work,to,helical,,also,testing,and,parallelizing.,WA,thanked,the,grantee,,noting,very,good,progress,on,a,challenging,problem.,2.2.9,Sue,Thorne,,STFC,T/NA084/20,Preconditioning,for,NEPTUNE,ST,summarized,work,done,Jan-July,2021,,starting,with,an,introduction,to,preconditioning,-,goal,is,to,transform,to,a,matrix,with,clustered,eigenvalues,or,with,small,condition,number.,Note,that,a,non-symmetric,matrix,makes,iterations,more,expensive,,also,convergence,may,be,non-monotonic.,Two,basic,approaches:,general,preconditioner,,or,block,preconditioner,based,on,physics.,BOUT++,diffusion,problem,used,PetSc,solver;,explicit,matrices,so,small,problems,up,to,‘order’,c.8000.,Big,improvement,shown,here,when,preconditioner,applied,to,GMRES,(Patrick,Farrell,asked,whether,GMRES,was,restarted,-,answer,was,‘no’).,Nektar++,ADR,solver,matrix,problem,not,as,successful,-,small,reduction,in,number,of,required,iterations,(however,,preconditioned,solution,was,more,accurate,so,should,permit,a,larger,time,step);,todo,here,is,to,incorporate,MCMCMI.,Blocked,preconditioners,in,BOUT++,SD1D,,which,already,has,a,good,preconditioner,(audience,question,from,Julia,Inca,Chiroque,revealed,that,MCMCMI,was,being,used,in,this,case):,small,improvements,shown;,not,solving,to,large,accuracy,as,only,10,iterations,permitted,,but,their,work,again,allowed,a,larger,time,step.,Case,D4,with,neutrals,(with,which,the,BOUT++,developers,are,themselves,not,happy),showed,good,improvement,c.35%,(further,results,documented,in,their,reports).,Proposed,future,roadmap,included,exploration,of,state-of-the-art,time-advancing,techniques,,in-,cluding,anisotropy,,and,coupling,continuum,and,particle,representations.,Note,Rob,Akers,wanted,to,talk,to,ST,re,cross-cutting,exascale,computing,project.,2.2.10,Patrick,Farrell,,Oxford:,anisotropic,diffusion,PF,reviewed,briefly,his,work,-,theory,for,spectral,convergence,does,not,apply,in,cases,of,strong,anisotropy,,hence,application,of,a,trick,from,nonlinear,elasticity,introducing,new,variable,into,prob-,lem.,Test,cases,from,Deluzet-Narski,(asymptotic-preserving).,Results,showed,good,performance,unless,X-point,present,-,difficulty,with,the,latter,seemed,to,be,non-smooth,solution,,known,to,be,bad,for,FEM.,2.3,UKAEA,in-house,work,These,were,all,short,five-minute,presentations.,7,James,Cook,showed,his,work,on,particles,(greatly,expanded,upon,in,the,afternoon,session).,Joseph,Parker,showed,the,outputs,from,the,VECMA,hackathons,eg.,applying,Gaussian,process,and,machine,learning,surrogates,to,BOUT++.,Will,Saunders,gave,an,overview,of,his,work,with,the,Soldrake,1-D,scrape-off,layer,model,and,also,work,designing,a,Julia,particles,framework.,Ed,Threlfall,gave,an,overview,of,simulations,of,two-dimensional,vertical,natural,convection,using,Nektar++.,2.4,Afternoon,discussion,sessions,2.4.1,Software,engineering,WA,structured,this,session,around,some,notes,by,Ben,Dudson,(who,was,not,present,at,the,work-,shop);,in,addition,,he,revisited,four,sources,of,knowledge,re,s/w,engineering:,the,ECSS-E-40,‘lite’,standard,(successfully,used,in,by,WA,the,past,,albeit,for,projects,smaller,than,NEPTUNE),,the,text,by,Hewitt,,the,approach,of,Spencer,Smith,/,Dubey,et,al,,and,the,approach,detailed,in,the,textbook,Physically-Based,Rendering:From,Theory,to,Implementation,by,Pharr,,Jakob,,and,Humphreys,(one,criticism,of,the,latter,is,that,it,is,too,large,,at,1235,pp.,,for,easy,assimilation).,WA,proposed,we,rule,out,the,following:,full-agile,development,with,rigid,release,dates,(releases,therefore,have,much,potential,for,errors,/,bugs,and,users,are,therefore,thrust,into,the,role,of,beta-testers);,the,customer-supplier,paradigm,(argued,not,to,be,fully,appropriate),,and,the,document-driven,ap-,proach,espoused,by,,among,others,,Spencer,Smith,and,Dubey,et,al,on,grounds,that,the,‘faking’,documents,post-facto,seems,dubious,,and,also,that,Hewitt,is,overly,commercially-oriented.,Hewitt,is,‘defensive’,and,includes,a,lot,of,justification,in,order,to,fend,off,eg.,in-house,competition.,Of,Ben’s,material:,a,set,of,repositories,now,exists,(as,recommended),and,there,is,little,argument,against,proposals,for,testing,and,documentation.,WA,noted,that,the,Slack,channel,is,somewhat,underused.,Re,training,,David,Moxey,said,Nektar++,training,would,become,available,soon,(limited,by,availability,of,postdoc);,also,VECMA,workshops,had,occurred.,The,project,is,using,github,(excalibur-neptune,repo),and,gitlab,(the,latter,UKAEA-internal).,WA,has,some,reservations,here,regarding,learning,curve,and,training,needs,(particularly,use,of,git,via,command,line).,Ben,defined,a,standard,workflow,(which,helps):,developers,contribute,by,adding,their,own,personal,branch,which,is,later,merged.,Ben’s,inclination,is,toward,early,sharing,of,code,,rather,than,exhaustive,checking,by,individual,devs.,Re,licensing,,MIT,is,most,flexible,but,most,proxyapps,use,BSD3.,Coupling,proxyapps,-,current,situation,seems,to,be,that,this,requires,significant,development,or,even,rewrite.,Associated,issues,are,integration,testing,,documentation,of,interfaces,,consistent,style,,clear,definition,of,project,aims,(cf.,Hewitt).,Work,has,at,least,started,on,the,following:,lists,of,acronyms,and,mathematical,symbols,,choice,of,physical,units,(presumed,SI,for,inputs,and,scaled,units,internally),,index,of,terms,(eg.,‘code’,-,confusion,in,EuroFusion,Road,Map,where,this,term,applies,to,software,and,also,buildings,regula-,tion),,code,modularization,(at,least,three,layers,anticipated),,and,DSLs.,All,devs,are,expected,to,8,participate,in,reviewing,and,testing,inc.,unit,tests,,performance,tests,inc.,periodic,regression,tests,using,possibly,Amazon,AWS,/,GPU,servers.,Automation,of,any,of,this,testing,is,encouraged,,as,is,the,recording,of,timing,information,from,the,outset.,Code,style,-,in,the,past,,this,has,been,one,of,the,most,debated,areas.,Example,is,CamelCase,vs,pot,hole,(WA,favours,latter),name,convention;,clang,tidy,can,automate,some,of,this,so,only,an,issue,for,how,the,code,is,stored.,Documentation,should,be,dynamic,,under,version,control,,and,tightly-coupled,to,the,source,code,ie.,embedded,or,at,least,in,the,same,directory.,Doxygen,said,to,produce,nice,,browser-friendly,out-,put.,LatexToHtml,also,explored,-,functional,if,not,the,smartest,in,appearance;,note,help,available,from,the,team,responsible,for,the,website,https://excalibur.ac.uk.,Markdown,recommended,for,readmes.,An,additional,tool,is,the,pandoc,file,converter,(note,that,this,is,also,useful,for,provid-,ing,a,standard,for,‘non-standard,standards’,eg.,Markdown).,Re,DSLs,,workshops,were,held,previously,(8,Apr,,23,Jul),with,the,conclusion,that,there,would,be,a,user-interface,DSL,(Python,/,Julia,favoured,over,shell,script),and,a,HPC,DSL,(SYCL,or,Kokkos,/,C++,favoured,over,eg.,Cray,Fortran).,Issue,of,different,levels,of,user.,Conventions,eg.,exascale,/,Exascale,(also,proxyapp,vs.,miniapp,-,solved,using,Latex,newcom-,mand).,Tab,and,line,width,can,be,automated.,C++20,is,likely,target,language,(but,issue,with,some,HPC,machines,not,having,sufficiently,up-to-date,compiler).,WA,invited,discussion,on,issues,of,debugging,/,user,scripts,,up-to-date,version,of,CMake,,Travis.,Discussion,re,Doxygen,alternatives.,PF,said,Firedrake,uses,Sphinx,which,is,very,good,,at,least,with,Python.,CC,said,Nektar++,uses,Doxygen,and,thinks,it,good,with,the,caveat,that,it,produces,large,dependency,diagrams.,JC’s,view,is,that,Sphinx,is,newer,but,nearly,identical.,DM,thinks,Sphinx,output,looks,better.,WS,said,Sphinx,cannot,output,xml.,WA,said,having,two,options,here,was,consistent,with,the,overall,NEPTUNE,ethos,(keep,multiple,options,to,avoid,possible,dead-,ends).,WS,asked,what,is,used,by,BOUT++,-,answer,Doxygen,exported,to,Sphinx.,Fulvio,Militello,queried,the,rejection,of,periodic,releases,-,wants,release,plan,in,view,of,forthcoming,STEP;,also,queried,conclusion,that,the,customer-supplier,approach,not,appropriate.,WA,said,full,agile,(inflexible,periodic,release),only,really,works,if,there,is,a,captive,user,base,(whereas,NEP-,TUNE,clearly,has,competition).,Customer-supplier,model,implies,that,there,is,a,well-established,way,of,achieving,target,-,not,the,case,for,NEPTUNE,which,needs,flexibility.,FM,emphasized,that,there,are,some,clear,non-negotiable,requirements,which,must,be,specified,-,WA,concurred.,FM,made,the,point,that,the,users,were,UKAEA,engineers,and,physicists,and,that,the,code,needed,to,encompass,a,range,of,user,modes,,from,full,physics,to,reduced,component,models;,also,that,the,specific,questions,were,well-established,(he,revealed,also,a,liking,for,libraries):,therefore,,he,recommended,input,from,Tokamak,Science,division.,WA,clarified,that,there,was,a,requirements,baseline.,The,consensus,was,that,Tokamak,Science,is,part,supplier,and,should,be,encouraged,to,give,input,in,terms,of,physics,requirements,,but,not,necessarily,code,design.,JC,argued,that,flexibility,in,the,code,could,permit,straightforward,addition,of,features,required,in,future.,FM,opined,clearly,that,a,bottom-up,approach,would,not,lead,to,success.,Changing,the,subject,somewhat,,JP,came,out,in,favour,of,at,least,semi-regular,code,releases,as,both,good,motivation,for,developers,and,also,from,a,branding,perspective,ie.,the,release,allows,announcement,of,any,new,features,or,major,improvements,in,the,code,(ET,agreed,with,this).,FM,concurred,with,this,also.,JC,recom-,9,mended,incorporation,of,tests,as,part,of,the,release,cycle,using,a,benchmark,eg.,a,list,of,solved,problems,in,edge,physics.,JP,raised,the,question,of,documentation,eg.,how,to,write,the,manual.,JC,expressed,an,opinion,in,favour,of,the,alternative,approach,of,having,no,manual,,just,a,set,of,(guaranteed-to-work),ex-,amples,covering,the,available,modules.,Nektar++,does,have,a,fairly,comprehensive,user,manual,though,its,function,(in,the,view,of,CC),is,for,reference,rather,than,pedagogical,purposes;,DM,men-,tioned,that,tutorials,/,examples,were,available,in,service,of,the,latter,(in,fact,Nektar++,also,has,a,developer,manual,,though,this,is,currently,incomplete,and,thus,rather,sparse).,Note,WA,sug-,gests,that,different,levels,of,user,should,be,exposed,to,different,documentation,(cf.,Nektar++,user,and,dev,manual),which,could,perhaps,be,achieved,by,clever,website,design.,FM,has,a,positive,opinion,of,the,BOUT++,documentation.,Further,,Nektar++,has,notebooks,that,execute,the,code,in-place,(WS,mentioned,Firedrake,tutorials,using,rst,converted,into,an,executable,Python,script,,which,improve,the,user,experience,by,reducing,the,likelihood,of,a,commit,leading,to,non-working,code,examples);,DM,mentioned,py.test,which,runs,cells,and,acts,as,a,regression,test.,WA,said,that,his,students,use,Jupyter,(built,on,iPython),which,can,also,handle,Julia,,R,,and,even,C++.,DD,concurred,that,this,was,useful.,(Note,overlap,in,the,discussion,between,documentation,and,regression,testing.),Generally,important,to,make,sure,that,documentation,and,examples,actually,get,implemented,,given,the,wealth,of,technologies,available,in,this,area.,One,issue,,raised,by,CC,,is,that,NEPTUNE,currently,uses,several,different,codebases,(Nektar++,,BOUT++,,Firedrake),and,thus,it,is,difficult,to,dictate,a,unique,policy,-,multiple,approaches,possible.,WA,mentioned,that,the,anticipated,code,structure,was,a,series,of,layers,(ET,mentioned,the,starting,position,,which,was,Nektar++-based,internals,controlled,by,the,DSL,of,BOUT++).,CC,noted,that,the,proxyapp,used,existing,libraries,and,there,was,relatively,little,novel,code,(eg.,in,the,Nektar-Diffusion,proxyapp),to,which,to,apply,the,standards.,One,significant,issue,with,using,up-to-date,C++,(eg.,C++17),is,that,the,availability,of,compilers,on,various,HPC,platforms,cannot,be,guaranteed.,Nektar++,switched,to,C++,11,a,few,years,ago,(this,was,in,order,to,remove,a,Boost,dependency,,ie.,useful,features,drive,updates).,Note,HPC,software,stacks,are,relatively,‘stationary’.,One,useful,C++20,feature,is,template,function,speed-ups,(WA,mentioned,also,modules;,SYCL,support,also,appears,relevant).,JP,suggested,containerization,/,alternate,images,as,a,partial,solution,,though,JO,noted,some,HPC,requires,a,machine-specific,compiler.,DM,mentioned,that,singularity,is,useful,-,built,for,generic,architecture.,CC,suggested,that,not,all,users,like,containers,(and,noted,that,Nektar++,has,a,significant,‘novice’,component,to,its,user,base).,2.4.2,Particles,This,discussion,centered,around,slides,prepared,by,James,Cook,showing,his,work,to,date,and,a,summary,of,anticipated,issues,with,NEPTUNE,particle,simulations.,The,session,provoked,lively,discussion,,which,overlapped,also,with,‘non-particle’,areas,eg.,fields,(which,nevertheless,need,coupling,to,particles).,John,Omotani,questioned,the,need,for,dynamic,mesh,adaptivity,and,noted,that,in,his,own,work,(steady-state,turbulence),h-adaptivity,was,not,useful,(see,Shockwave,code).,DM,raised,the,ques-,tion,of,how,to,know,when,a,referent,model,is,needed,(eg.,RANS,vs.,DNS,/,LES),-,iteration,,or,trial-and-error?,JO,said,that,in,his,own,work,,this,was,known,at,the,start,(gyro-radius,lengthscale).,Perhaps,there,should,be,the,option,to,dynamically,refine.,WA,mentioned,p-refinement,error,quan-,10,tification,and,also,local,p-refinement.,CC,mentioned,a,sensor,for,local,p-refinement,-,DM,noted,that,this,is,not,perfect;,WA,asked,what,was,the,relevant,error,indicator,-,DM,answered,discontinuity,sensor,(n.b.,not,in,the,sense,of,discontinuous,Galerkin,,rather,a,projection,to,one,order,lower).,These,are,local,error,estimators,,not,tied,to,the,physics.,CC,mentioned,best,to,avoid,h-adaptivity,,but,others,noted,it,might,be,needed,in,vicinity,of,X-point.,Methods,for,suppressing,cross-field,numerical,diffusion,were,mentioned,by,Ben,McMillan,-,FCI,(flux,coordinate-independent),method,for,higher-order,FEM,-,see,his,paper,A,partially,mesh-free,scheme,for,representing,anisotropic,spatial,variables.,JC,proposed,orienting,basis,functions,along,twisted,field,lines,-,twisted,grid.,BM,mentioned,that,achieving,machine-precision,quadrature,becomes,difficult.,JC,mentioned,particles,issues,in,curved,mesh,-,wall,intersections,-,he,believes,there,are,software,engineering,solutions,to,this,problem.,Others,(WA,,JO),seemed,less,optimistic.,WA,mentioned,also,BOUT++,mapped,coor-,dinates,-,can,deal,with,anisotropy,problems,by,elongating,elements,along,field,lines,(turbulence,elongated,on,this,axis).,MPI,rank,issues,-,ghost,or,halo,overlap,regions,with,size,regulated,by,v∆t;,mesh,adaptivity,clearly,needs,to,be,coordinated.,WA,suggested,sub-stepping,...,big,haloes,are,the,worry.,JO,said,electrons,easier,as,they,follow,the,field,lines,(hence,1-D,problem),unlike,neutrals.,DM,mentioned,he,has,worked,on,a,particles,code,within,Nektar++,-,tracer,particles,-,and,encountered,scaling,issues,(also,load,balancing,if,particles,cluster);,haloes,a,challenge.,WA,mentioned,probabilistic,approach,to,particle,tracking,-,effectively,ray-tracing,for,neutral,trajectories.,DM,mentioned,MPI,neighbourhood,communicators,to,minimize,global,communications,,and,thinks,there,is,literature,on,this.,JC,stated,hundreds,of,particles,expected,per,call,,thought,most,DOFs,would,be,particles;,ET,cited,(1,+,p)3,DOFs,per,element,per,field,component,,which,could,well,be,a,significant,fraction,(possibly,even,worse,for,6-D,kinetic,implementation?).,WA,noted,few,particles,/,cell,was,OK,for,resonant,physics,-,not,the,case,for,us,,however.,CC,asked,about,particles’,speed,range,(he,suggested,range,governed,by,,,though,the,range,is,larger,for,out-of-equilibrium,or,runaway,(cid:113),me,mi,electrons).,Again,,multispecies,design,issues,relevant.,WS,asked,what,was,typical,size,of,SOL,-,JO,said,heat,flux,width,c.,few,mm,,SOL,perhaps,c.10cm.,WA,mentioned,ITER,start,up,with,plasma,in,contact,with,wall,so,SOL,width,zero,-,need,accurate,surface,meshing,in,this,case.,The,issue,of,accessing,field,data,came,up,-,projections,and,non-conforming,grids,are,easy,to,do,in,Nektar++,-,position,in,element,needed,in,order,to,evaluate,field,(find,which,element,first,using,eg.,octree).,Finding,which,element,harder,if,not,planar-facetted,-,needs,Newton,iteration,as,opposed,to,simple,geometrical,test.,WA,mentioned,that,in,neutronics,,particle,keeps,track,of,what,element,contains,it,,but,that,this,would,not,work,well,for,fast,particles.,CC,recommends,substepping.,WA,quipped,that,the,thing,to,do,was,make,sure,can,deal,with,particles,exiting,element,via,the,vertex,as,this,is,the,hardest,case.,DM,suggested,backtracking,line,search,back,to,halo;,CC,said,he,thought,this,must,be,a,solved,problem,in,ray-tracing,/,computer,graphics.,DM,said,field,data,in,halo,non-trivial,as,involves,communication,-,issues,updating,coupled,particles,/,fields.,11,2.4.3,Afternoon,concluding,session,WA,asked,for,any,questions,concerning,the,in-house,presentations,(none),and,advertised,that,our,reports,are,going,to,be,made,public,(github,branch,awaiting,WA,approval).,The,main,picture,re,software,engineering,was,one,of,consensus.,There,were,some,important,questions,to,resolve,re,particles,eg.,speed,limit,on,implicit,PIC;,Newton,iteration,convergence.,Ben,McMillan,said,Steven,Wright,had,experience,in,these,(but,no,present,at,meeting,due,to,parental,leave).,SW,still,involved,in,NEPTUNE,so,would,be,good,to,arrange,a,sub-meeting,on,the,particles,topic.,JC,open,to,input,for,directing,his,efforts,toward,a,particle,code,using,FCI,/,FEM.,BM,willing,to,help,even,though,his,NEPTUNE,funding,has,expired.,WA,said,another,critical,thing,is,whether,we,can,get,asymptotic-preserving-type,methods,working,-,PF,mildly,optimistic,this,will,work,without,need,to,mesh,field-lines,,and,that,he,will,make,available,a,mini-app,written,in,Firedrake,(n.b.,this,will,solve,the,same,problem,as,Nektar-Diffusion,but,will,incorporate,the,intermediate-variable,trick,hence,ought,to,work,better).,This,was,the,end,of,the,main,meeting,,but,David,Moxey,and,Chris,Cantwell,stayed,on,to,discuss,Nektar++-related,issues,with,UKAEA,staff.,3,Additional,inputs,from,chat,transcripts,This,is,a,non-exhaustive,summary,of,the,main,points,made,in,the,chat.,These,threads,had,some,degree,of,independence,from,the,main,proceedings,due,to,their,taking,place,concurrently,with,the,main,presentations.,•,Rob,Akers,/,Gihan,Mudalige,re,Pennycook,metric,Question,(RA),was,whether,foreknowledge,of,UKRI,exascale,roadmap,2022-2028,would,skew,use,of,Pennycook,metric,for,deciding,which,portability,framework,to,deploy.,Answer,(GM),was,that,Pennycook,can,be,used,on,a,downselected,set,of,hardware,platforms,(as,opposed,to,applying,to,‘all,hardware’).,•,Point,about,high,order,methods,libraries,,Spencer,Sherwin,SS,made,point,that,devs,of,eg.,Firedrake,need,to,work,closely,with,PetSc,developers,(tight,integration,between,solvers,and,discretization).,Patrick,Farrell,agreed,strongly.,•,Novel,hardware,access,,Rob,Akers,RA,advertised,the,novel,hardware,to,which,we,have,access,via,the,ExCALIBUR,H&ES,programme,eg.,Graphcore,,Cerebras,(maker,of,giant,chips),-,listed,on,ExCALIBUR,web-,site,-,let,him,know,if,access,is,desired.,Also,special,mention,of,A100,Nodes,/,NVLink,in,Cambridge,DiRAC,with,excellent,file,access,performance.,•,Portability,framework,choice,,Rob,Akers,RA,made,it,clear,that,we,have,access,to,6,FTE,of,Intel,SYCL,/,oneAPI,support,via,Cambridge,Open,Exascale,Lab,and,also,promise,of,help,from,Codeplay.,Additional,Intel,promise,of,help,12,for,deployment,on,Xe,/,Ponte,Vecchio,and,Sapphire,Rapids.,RA,has,ensured,Nektar++,is,on,Intel,priority,use,case,list.,Also,anticipated,alliances,with,US,national,labs,for,access,to,US,exascale,machines.,Important,to,know,which,other,libraries,etc,need,to,go,on,priority,lists,for,Intel,/,AMD,/,NVidia,accelerators.,Gihan,Mudalige,raised,question,of,SYCL,adoption,-,needs,discussion,with,Intel;,also,Kokkos,and,OpenMP,5,-,Bristol,(McIntosh-Smith),able,to,advise,here.,Refer,to,Codeplay,for,SYCL,vs.,Kokkos;,also,Garth,Wells,promising,results,-,SYCL,outperforming,native,CUDA,in,FEniCs,(n.b.,the,latter,well-written,such,that,porting,to,SYCL,was,easy,-,NEPTUNE,take,note!).,•,Parallellizing,sequential,design,,Rob,Akers,RA,asked,Serge,Guillas,whether,possible,to,parallelize,sequential,design,by,having,each,thread,do,part,of,parameter,space,-,answer,was,need,to,do,in,a,smart,way,eg.,avoid,feature-,less,regions,of,parameter,space,-,but,there,are,some,strategies,here.,Note,Peter,Challenor,(Exeter,grantee,-,not,present,at,meeting),espouses,expected-squared,leave-one-out,(ES-,LOO),over,MICE.,•,Exploiting,ExCALIBUR,XC,coupling,project,(led,by,David,Emerson),,Rob,Akers,RA,asked,Sue,Thorne,whether,this,could,be,done,...,(answer,appeared,to,be,affirmative;,UKAEA,would,like,to,support,with,c.1,FTE).,13,Acknowledgement,The,support,of,the,UK,Meteorological,Office,and,Strategic,Priorities,Fund,is,acknowledged.,14 :pdfembed:`src:_static/CD-EXCALIBUR-FMS0055-M1.8.1_ReportNeptuneWorkshop7October2021.pdf, height:1600, width:1100, align:middle`