Performance of Applications using Dual-Rail InfiniBand 3D Torus network on the Gordon Supercomputer

Abstract

Multi-rail InfiniBand networks provide options to improve bandwidth, increase reliability, and lower latency for multi-core nodes. The Gordon supercomputer at SDSC, with its dual-rail InfiniBand 3-D torus network, is used to evaluate the performance impact of using multiple rails. The study was performed using the OSU micro-benchmarks, the P3FFT application kernel, and scientific applications LAMMPS and AMBER. The micro-benchmarks confirmed the bandwidth and latency performance benefits. At the application level, performance improvements depended on the communication level and profile.