Building and Matching Applications to NRL Supercomputers

We describe our experiences in building and executing codes from the Department of Defense (DoD) High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) TI-09 Benchmark suite on the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) HPC supercomputers. These include a 256 node SGI Altix 3000, an 864 core Cray XD1 and a 1,536 core SGI Altix ICE. These platforms constitute a variety of architectures where we can compare code performance based on commodity and custom components, including processors, interconnects, memory sizes and disk input/output (I/O) rates. Based on this code performance, we provide recommendations for compiler and linker options as well as a basis for determining which platform is best suited for a particular code.