A casual talk about high-performance computing and performance optimization: Computing

Content introduction

In this insightful article, the authors dive into the complexities of high-performance computing (HPC) and the critical role of performance optimization. This article stands out because of its comprehensive analysis of factors that affect HPC efficiency, such as parallelism, memory access, and computation. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the hardware architecture for writing high-performance code, and the need to efficiently utilize registers to avoid pipeline stalls. The article also touches on the symbiotic relationship between compilers and HPC, highlighting that while compilers can automate many optimizations, manual tuning is sometimes required for optimal performance. This content is particularly valuable for programmers and engineers looking to improve their HPC applications, as it provides practical strategies for optimization that are often tailored to specific machines. If you’re interested in pushing the limits of computing performance, this article may provide you with some key insights and tips.

Automatic summary

– The key to high-performance computing and performance optimization is to choose an appropriate optimization strategy. There is no unified answer.
– Key aspects of performance optimization include parallelism, memory access, communication and computation.
– The RoofLine model can be used to determine whether the program is a computing bottleneck or a memory access bottleneck. However, for specific codes, the bottleneck needs to be determined by observing the waiting status of the computing unit and memory access unit during hardware execution.
– The core of computing optimization is to make full use of efficient computing units, such as AVX-512 and TensorCore, and rationally utilize register resources.
– Avoiding pipeline blocking is the key to improving performance, and data-related and control-related problems can be reduced through techniques such as instruction rearrangement and loop unrolling.
– HPC is inseparable from the hardware architecture and compiler, and requires an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of the hardware architecture and compiler for optimization.

Original link: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/688613416