User: knarf Date: 2016/12/06 02:01 PM
Added: /about/releases/ ET_2016_11_announcement.txt
Log: preliminary release announcement
File Changes:
Directory: /about/releases/ ===========================
File [added]: ET_2016_11_announcement.txt Delta lines: +167 -0 =================================================================== --- about/releases/ET_2016_11_announcement.txt (rev 0) +++ about/releases/ET_2016_11_announcement.txt 2016-12-06 20:01:30 UTC (rev 1678) @@ -0,0 +1,167 @@ + + ____ ____ ____ __ __ _ _ __ __ _ __ ____ _ _ +( _ ( _ ( __)( ) ( )( / )( )( ( \ / _\ ( _ ( / ) + ) __/ ) / ) _) / (_/\ )( / / \ )( / // \ ) / ) / +(__) (___)(____)____/(__)_)(_/(__)_)__)_/_/(___)(__/ + + + +We are pleased to announce the fourteenth release (code name "Gaposchkin") of the +Einstein Toolkit, an open, community developed software infrastructure for +relativistic astrophysics. This release includes, among other things, +more examples in the Einstein Toolkit Gallery. + +In addition, bug fixes accumulated since the previous release in May 2016 +have been included. + +The Einstein Toolkit is a collection of software components and tools for +simulating and analyzing general relativistic astrophysical systems that builds +on numerous software efforts in the numerical relativity community including +CactusEinstein, the Carpet AMR infrastructure and the relativistic +magneto-hydrodynamics code GRHydro. For parts of the toolkit, the Cactus +Framework is used as the underlying computational infrastructure providing +large-scale parallelization, general computational components, and a model for +collaborative, portable code development. The toolkit includes modules to build +complete codes for simulating black hole spacetimes as well as systems governed +by relativistic magneto-hydrodynamics. + +The Einstein Toolkit uses a distributed software model and its different +modules are developed, distributed, and supported either by the core team of +Einstein Toolkit Maintainers, or by individual groups. Where modules are +provided by external groups, the Einstein Toolkit Maintainers provide quality +control for modules for inclusion in the toolkit and help coordinate support. +The Einstein Toolkit Maintainers currently involve postdocs and faculty from +six different institutions, and host weekly meetings that are open for anyone +to join in. + +Guiding principles for the design and implementation of the toolkit include: +open, community-driven software development; well thought out and stable +interfaces; separation of physics software from computational science +infrastructure; provision of complete working production code; training and +education for a new generation of researchers. + +For more information about using or contributing to the Einstein Toolkit, or to +join the Einstein Toolkit Consortium, please visit our web pages at +http://einsteintoolkit.org. + +The Einstein Toolkit is primarily supported by NSF +1550551/1550461/1550436/1550514 (Einstein Toolkit Community Integration and +Data Exploration). + +The Einstein Toolkit contains about 200 regression test cases. On a large +portion of the tested machines, almost all of these test suites pass, using both +MPI and OpenMP parallelization. + +The changes between this and the previous release include: + +=== Upcoming changes for the next releases + +The Tmunu paramer support_old_CalcTmunu_mechanism, will be removed after this +release. If you rely on this, your code is probably unnecessarily slow. Let us +know if the removal would create a problem for you. + +Most of the Fortran code in GRHydro was already replaced by more modern, and +much easier to maintain C++ code. Up to now, both versions are compiled, and +can be chosen at start-time. For a few releases the C++ versions are the +default. After this release, the Fortran versions will be removed. Let us know +if the removal would create a problem for you. + +=== Larger changes since last release === + +* Cactus Flesh + - Update linker flags to allow linking using newer versions of 'ar' + - Add '.' to perl @INC directory to allow build using newer versions of Perl + - Provide Cactus version as CACTUS capability to thorns + - Allow aligining interior (instead of just origin) of grid functions + - Output build timing information in VERBOSE mode +* Formaline + - Attempt to use fast methods where possible (hardlinks are available) + - Only update files in thorns that changed + -> should make it noticibly faster on most systems +* Simfactory + - use of environment variables CACTUS_NUM_PROCS and CACTUS_NUM_THREADS + in runscript of all machines. Update your private entries accordingly. + - Updates to several machines (too many to list) +* Multipole + - Add possibility to have separate output directory +* McLachlan + - use parameter other_timelevels for constraints: should use less memory + in most cases +* ExternalLibraries + - Version updates if built from scratch: OpenMPI, OpenBLAS + +* New thorns or tools + - Llama: - multi-patch infrastructure for the Einstein Toolkit + - has been publicly available for some time already, but is + now part of the Einstein Toolkit + - CT_Dust: first public version of cosmological dust code + + +=== How to upgrade from Brahe (ET_2016_05) === + +To upgrade from the previous release, use GetComponents with the new thornlist +to check out the new version. Switching to the new branch is not possible for +most repositories due to repository moves. + +See the [http://einsteintoolkit.org/download Download] page on the Einstein +Toolkit website for download instructions. + +=== Remaining issues with this release === + +* Certain machines need to be configured specially in Simfactory because the + remote directories cannot be determined automatically just from the user + name. See the Machine notes below. + +* Recovering with Carpet: Carpet stores metadata (such as the simulation time) + only for Carpet::max_timelevels time levels, although it is possible to + allocate more time levels. These additional time levels then cannot be + recovered; the symptom is an assertion failure during recovery. The solution + is to either increase Carpet::max_timelevels, or to decrease the number of + active time levels. + +=== Machine notes === + +Supported (tested) machines include: + +- Default Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, and MacOS installations +- Bethe +- Bluewaters +- Comet +- Draco +- Edison +- Gulob +- Gordon +- Hydra +- Minerva +- Queenbee 2 +- Shelob +- SuperMic +- Supermike II +- Stampede (CPU) +- Wheeler +- Zwicky + + +* Stampede: defs.local.ini needs to have sourcebasedir = $WORK and basedir = + $SCRATCH/simulations configured for this machine. You need to determine + $WORK and $SCRATCH by logging in to the machine. + A new configuration for KNL nodes is being worked on, but not yet included + in the release (but compilation works and tests mostly pass). + +All repositories participating in this release carry a branch ET_2016_11 +marking this release. These release branches will be updated if severe +errors are found. + +The "Gaposchkin" Release Team on behalf of the Einstein Toolkit Consortium +(2016-12-08) + +Steven R. Brandt +Peter Diener +Roland Haas +Ian Hinder +Frank Löffler +Erik Schnetter +Barry Wardell + +December 8th, 2016 +