SX-Aurora TSUBASA Software

NEC SX Vector Supercomputer

NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA Software Environment

With the NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA release a new concept when it comes to software have been developed. The previous generation of NEC SX-series machines was running the Super-UX Operating System, that provided optimal performance for the dedicated set of hardware supplied with the NEC SX machines. Combining this knowledge with the functionality of the current Linux kernel stack enables a larger variety of hardware and software concepts for SX-Aurora TSUBASA.

The NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA system takes advantage of the versatility of Linux. The users have access to all hardware and software that is supported by Linux, but for the applications the Aurora system offers a well-tuned and optimized compiler and libraries. The Vector Host takes care of all OS-related tasks as well as of tasks like scheduling or monitoring without disturbing the application. The application runs dedicated on the Vector Engine.

The interface between the Vector Host and the Vector Engine is controlled by a Linux Kernel module so that applications can be run transparently for the user on the Vector Engine.

The user will work in a complete Linux environment, including optimized compilers and highly tuned libraries. Execution of the application can be started from within the Linux environment either interactively or via a batch system. Everything that compiles for Linux can also be compiled for the Vector Engine. The compilers support Fortran 2003, with extensions from Fortran 2008, as well as C++14. The compilers are able to vectorize and auto-parallelize loops. For general parallelization OpenMP and MPI will be supported.