[Beowulf] newbie

[Gus Correa]

Prentice Bisbal wrote:
> Tomislav Maric wrote:
>> @Prentice Bisbal || Greg Lindahl || John Hearns || anyone
>>
>> Why Intel compiler? OpenFOAM is compiled with gcc. My mentor instructed
>> me to compile it with the same gcc - we communicate via e-mail because
>> he's spread all over the world, so I'm keeping the differences in our
>> builds as small as possible.
>>
> 
> Someone else recommended the Intel Compilers, I just mentioned that
> there are restrictions on what Intel considers "academic use".
> 
> However, since you asked, commercial compilers generally optimize the
> code better than GCC. The performance/cost trade-off needs be be
> determined by you. If you do have a limited budget, GCC will probably be
> adequate.
> 
> Regardless of your compiler, you should look at optimized libraries to
> boost your performance. GotoBLAS, for example, is hand-optimized and is
> very fast for linear algebra operations. Because it's hand optimized
> with assembly code (or so I've been told) - never used it myself), it's
> performance should be the same regardless of the compiler.
> 
> 

Hi Tomislav, list

... and besides Prentice's great suggestion of GotoBLAS:

http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/resources/software/

... you may want to take a look also at FFTW:

http://www.fftw.org/

I don't know if OpenFOAM uses spectral methods,
and if it does, whether it has its own built-in FFTs.
However, if OpenFoam is spectral or pseudo-spectral,
and if it can be compiled with external FFT libraries,
FFTW is a great and fast free choice ( and may be relatively
simple to do, as your mentor seems to be on top of all
OpenFoam code details).

Gus Correa
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Gustavo Correa
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory - Columbia University
Palisades, NY, 10964-8000 - USA
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