I/O Performance of the SX-Aurora TSUBASA
Mitsuo Yokokawa, Ayano Nakai, Kazuhiko Komatsu, Yuta Watanabe, Yasuhisa Masaoka, Yoko Isobe, Hiroaki Kobayashi
Abstract
File outputs or checkpoints for intermediate results frequently appear at appropriate time intervals in large-scale time-advancement numerical simulations where they are utilized for simulation post-processing and/or for restarting consecutive simulations. However, file input/output (I/O) for large-scale data often takes excessive time due to bandwidth limitations between processors and/or secondary storage systems like hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs). Accordingly, efforts are ongoing to reduce the time required for file I/O operations in order to speed up such simulations, which means it is necessary to acquire advanced I/O performance knowledge related to high-performance computing systems used. In this study, I/O performance with respect to the connection bandwidth between the vector host (VH) server and the vector engines (VEs) for three configurations of the SX-Aurora TSUB-ASA supercomputer system, specifically the A300-2, A300-4, and A300-8 configurations, were measured and evaluated. The accelerated I/O function, which is a distinctive feature of the SX-Aurora TSUBASA I/O system, was demonstrated to have excellent performance compared to its normal I/O function.