Parallel Fortran in Physics (VS1) (U02675)

? Credit Points : 10 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : PHY-5-VParForPh

This course is for students with substantial programming experience in Java who would wish to apply computation methods in large scale physics modelling problems using modern Fortran (both serial and parallel). Fortran 90/95 is introduced first, covering all the most important aspects of the language. The course then outlines the basic principles of high performance computing including the design of HPC platforms, parallel programming models and the principal methods of measuring and characterising serial and parallel performance. Parallel programming in Fortran using the Open MP directives is then introduced. A substantial parallel programming exercise completes the course.

Entry Requirements

? This course is only available to part year visiting students.

? This course is a variant of the following course : U00661

? Pre-requisites : Year 3/4 Physics, including Modelling & Visualisation in Physics or Advanced Computer Simulation, or equivalent.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Undergraduate (School of Physics), (School of Physics, Schedule Q)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 5th year

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 4 hour(s) per week for 7 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Tuesday	10:00	10:50	KB
Lecture	Friday	10:00	10:50	KB

? Additional Class Information : Study/computer work in own time required each week, with substantial programming exercise completed in last 4 weeks.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of this course a student should be able to:
1)Ability to code small scale physics problems in Fortran 90/95, including the use of modules, array sub-objects, file I/O (formatted and unformatted)
2)Ability to measure, analyse and assess the performance of HPC programs
3)Ability to interpret the overall performance characteristics in terms of the basic hardware and software design
4)Ability to code simple parallel physics problems using Open MP directives in Fortran 90/95, including the use of work sharing constructs, synchronisation constructs, the use of private and shared memory, and timing functions
5)Exposure to the basic concepts of parallel Fortran using MPI

Assessment Information

Checkpoint programming exercises at the end of each of seven weeks, 50%
A substantial parallel programming exercise where both the code and the results obtained from running and evaluating the code will be assessed, 50%