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ARCHER2 Weekly Newsletter

By ARCHER2 Service on March 5, 2025

Tags: newsletters 

Exhibits and Engagement Activities for the ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2024

We are looking for exhibits and/or activities to participate in the ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2025 on the 14th - 15th May 2025 in Edinburgh at South Hall, The University of Edinburgh. These exhibits/activities will be in the main foyer area of the event and attendees will be able to engage with these throughout the event. These exhibits may for example showcase your outreach activities aimed at the general public or showcase dissemination activities for fellow professionals. These do not need to be on a large scale, our aim is to highlight a diverse range of activities.

If you are interested in showcasing your activities at the event please email events@archer2.ac.uk to discuss.

ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2025

Following the success of ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2024, we are pleased to announce that ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2025 will take place on the 14th - 15th May 2025 in Edinburgh at South Hall, The University of Edinburgh.

The event will provide ARCHER2 users with the opportunity to showcase their science achievements on ARCHER2. The two-day programme will include a variety of talks from ARCHER2 researchers and other invited presenters involved in the ARCHER2 service, a poster session and a panel session.

The event is in-person and there is no registration fee.

We would like to invite the ARCHER2 community to submit posters for presentation at the ARCHER2 Celebration of Science 2025. Posters should demonstrate your work on ARCHER2, showcasing the science outcomes and impact achieved.

Full details and registration forms

The Science behind the Image Competition - 1

Wednesday 5th March 15:00 - 16:00

In this webinar, Dr Nikita Chaturvedi, Department of Physics, Imperial College London, will talk about the science behind their image “Pulsed-power driven magnetic reconnection” from the 2024 ARCHER2 Image and Video Competition

More details and join link

Exploring Dataflow Architectures for Improved Efficiency in Earth System Models

CONTINENTS project webinar

The International Collaboration Towards Net Zero Computational Modelling and Simulation (CONTINENTS), is starting a webinar series that will run monthly. The first instance will be on Thursday, the 13th of March at 16h UK time, and will be delivered by Justs Zarins (EPCC), with the title: “Exploring Dataflow Architectures for Improved Efficiency in Earth System Models”, the abstract is available below. No registration needed, please feel free to re-share.

Abstract:

Earth system models are crucial for simulating environmental processes but demand significant computational resources and energy. In this presentation we will explore the potential of dataflow architectures to enhance both computational and energy efficiency of ESMs. We will primarily discuss the Cerebras Wafer Scale Engine, examining its capabilities and evaluating its suitability for the shallow water equation.

Event link

GPU programming using directives

Edinburgh, 13 - 14 March 2025 09:00 - 17:00 GMT

The OpenMP offload and OpenACC APIs support portable GPU programing using directives in Fortran, C and C++. This course will provide an introduction to GPU programming with directives, aimed at scientific application programmers wishing to develop their own software. The course will give a background on GPU architecture and programming API, and then focus on using OpenMP offload directives. The course will cover offloading code and data movement, as well as more advanced topics such as interoperability with HIP and performance tuning. We will also cover the similarities and differences between OpenMP and OpenACC.

Note that although the course will use AMD GPUs for practical exercises, it is also appropriate for those wishing to use NVIDIA or Intel GPUs.

Pre-requisite Programming Languages:

Attendees must be able to program in Fortran, C or C++ (course examples and exercises will limit themselves to Fortran and C). A familiarity with threaded programming models (especially OpenMP for CPUs) would be useful, but no previous knowledge of GPU programming is required.

Registration closes tomorrow, Thursday 6th March 16:00 GMT

Full details and registration

Software Carpentry

Online, 17 - 21 March 2025 09:30 - 13:00 GMT

Software Carpentry aims to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop will cover basic concepts and tools, including:

  • Program design (Python)
  • Version control with Git
  • The Unix Shell

Full details and registration

GPU programming with HIP

Online, 24 - 26 March 2025 10:00 - 16:00 GMT

This three-day course will provide an introduction to GPU computing with HIP aimed at scientific application programmers wishing to develop their own software. The course will give a background on the difference between CPU and GPU architectures as a prelude to introductory exercises in HIP programming. The course will discuss the execution of kernels, memory management, among other topics.

The course will not discuss programming with compiler directives, but does provide a concrete basis of understanding of the underlying principles of the HIP model which is useful for programmers ultimately wishing to make use of OpenMP or OpenACC. The course will not consider graphics programming, nor will it consider machine learning packages.

Note that the course is also appropriate for those wishing to use NVIDIA GPUs via the CUDA API, although we will not specifically use CUDA.

Attendees must be able to program in C or C++. A familiarity with threaded programming models would be useful, but no previous knowledge of GPU programming is required.

Full details and registration

Introduction to Modern Fortran

Imperial College London, 24 - 25 March 2025 09:30 - 16:30 GMT

This course is aimed at users and developers who know how to program, but have little or no experience in Fortran, and those who may wish to have a refresher in Fortran.

Fortran (a contraction of Formula Translation) was the first programming language to have a standard (in 1954), but has changed significantly over the years. More recent standards (the latest being Fortran 2023) come under the umbrella term “Modern Fortran”. Fortran retains very great significance in many areas of scientific and numerical computing, particularly for applications such as quantum chemistry, plasmas, and in numerical weather prediction and climate models.

This course provides an introduction to the basics of writing Fortran. It will cover basic syntax, variables, expressions and assignments, flow of control, and introductions to i/o and user-defined types. Common Fortran idioms are introduced and contrasted with those available in C-like languages; the course will try to focus on real usage rather than formal descriptions.

At the end of the course you should be able to understand many Fortran programs and be confident to start to write well-structured and portable Fortran. Fortran is a rather “large” language, so it is not possible to cover all its features in a two day course. Further elements of Fortran are discussed in the “Intermediate Modern Fortran” course. Prerequisites:

Attendees must be familiar with the basic concepts of programming: variables, logic, flow of control, loops, functions and so on. No knowledge of Fortran is assumed. Previous programming experience might typically be in the context C/C++ or python. If you know no programming, we suggest this course on Fortran is not the place to start.

The course requires a Fortran compiler, for which a local machine or laptop may be appropriate [1]. If you do not have access to a Fortran compiler, course training accounts on ARCHER2 will be available which provide access to various compilers. Use of a text editor will be required (some may prefer an IDE, but we do not intend to consider or support IDEs).

[1] This may typically be gfortran, freely available as part of Gnu Compiler Collection (GCC). See e.g., https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/GFortranBinaries

Full details and registration

Recently added known issues

The “Known Issues” page of the ARCHER2 Documentation https://docs.archer2.ac.uk/known-issues/ lists all current open known issues including a description of the issue, its symptoms and any work-arounds.

No recent issues.

Upcoming ARCHER2 Training

Further details of upcoming training

We always welcome researchers wishing to present their work in a webinar - please contact the Service Desk if you would be interested in presenting your work.

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Recordings of past courses

Recordings of past virtual tutorials