Early Experience on Using Knights Landing Processors for Lattice Boltzmann Applications

Abstract

The Knights Landing (KNL) is the codename for the latest generation of Intel processors based on Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture. It relies on massive thread and data parallelism, and fast on-chip memory. This processor operates in standalone mode, booting an off-the-shelf Linux operating system. The KNL peak performance is very high - approximately 3 Tflops in double precision and 6 Tflops in single precision - but sustained performance depends critically on how well all parallel features of the processor are exploited by real-life applications. We assess the performance of this processor for Lattice Boltzmann codes, widely used in computational fluid-dynamics. In our OpenMP code we consider several memory data-layouts that meet the conflicting computing requirements of distinct parts of the application, and sustain a large fraction of peak performance. We make some performance comparisons with other processors and accelerators, and also discuss the impact of the various memory layouts on energy efficiency.

References in corpus (7)

• Lattice Boltzmann method with self-consistent thermo-hydrodynamic equilibria
• Comparison of different Propagation Steps for the Lattice Boltzmann Method
• Lattice Boltzmann Methods for thermal flows: continuum limit and applications to compressible Rayleigh-Taylor systems
• Massively parallel lattice-Boltzmann codes on large GPU clusters
• Evaluation of DVFS techniques on modern HPC processors and accelerators for energy-aware applications
• Optimization of Lattice Boltzmann Simulations on Heterogeneous Computers
• First Experiences Optimizing Smith-Waterman on Intel's Knights Landing Processor

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Performance portability of lattice Boltzmann methods for two-phase flows with phase change