This publication explains how to tune C and Fortran application programs compiled with an Intel compiler on SGI® UV™ series systems, SGI® ICE™ clusters, and SGI® Rackable™ clusters.
This guide is written for experienced programmers who are familiar with Linux commands and with either C or Fortran programming. The focus in this document is on achieving the highest possible performance by exploiting the features of your SGI system. The material assumes that you know the basics of software engineering and that you are familiar with standard methods and data structures. If you are new to programming or software design, this guide will not be of use to you.
The SGI Foundation Software release notes and the SGI Performance Suite release notes contain information about the specific software packages provided in those products. The release notes also list SGI publications that provide information about the products. The release notes are available in the following locations:
Online at the SGI customer portal. After you log into the SGI customer portal, you can access the release notes.
The SGI Foundation Software release notes are posted to the following website:
https://support1-sgi.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4983
The SGI Performance Suite release notes are posted to the following website:
https://support1-sgi.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6093
Note: You must sign into the SGI customer portal, at https://support.sgi.com/login, in order for the preceding links to work. On the product media. The release notes reside in a text file in the /docs directory on the product media. For example, /docs/SGI-MPI-1.x-readme.txt .
On the system. After installation, the release notes and other product documentation reside in the /usr/share/doc/packages/ product directory.
All SGI publications are available on the SGI support portal. The following software publications provide information about Linux implementations on SGI systems:
SGI Foundation Software (SFS) User Guide
This manual explains how to configure and use SFS, includes information about basic configuration for features such as the hardware event tracker (HET), CPU frequency scaling and partitioning.
SGI Cpuset Software Guide
Explains how to use cpusets within your application program. Cpusets restrict processes within a program to specific processors or memory nodes.
SGI MPI and SGI SHMEM User Guide
Describes the industry-standard message passing protocol optimized for SGI computers. This manual describes how to tune the run-time environment to improve the performance of an MPI message passing application on SGI computers. The tuning methods do not involve application code changes.
MPInside Reference Guide
Documents the SGI MPInside MPI profiling tool.
SGI creates hardware manuals that are specific to each product line. The hardware documentation typically includes a system architecture overview and describes the major components. It also provides the standard procedures for powering on and powering off the system, basic troubleshooting information, and important safety and regulatory specifications.
The following procedure explains how to retrieve a list of hardware manuals for your system.
Procedure 1. To retrieve hardware documentation
Type the following URL into the address bar of your browser:
docs.sgi.com
In the search box on the Techpubs Library, narrow your search as follows:
In the search field, type the model of your SGI system.
For example, type one of the following: "UV 2000", "ICE X", Rackable.
Remember to enclose hardware model names in quotation marks ( " ") if the hardware model name includes a space character.
Check Search only titles.
Check Show only 1 hit/book.
Click search.
Compilers and performance tool information for software that runs on SGI Linux systems is available from a variety of sources. The following additional links might be useful to you:
The GNU hosts Debugging with GDB and the GDB User Manual at the GNU Project Debugger website. This website is as follows:
Intel provides documentation for all the Intel Parallel Studio XE products at the following website:
https://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-parallel-studio-xe-support/documentation
Intel provides detailed application tuning information in the Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Optimization Reference Manual, which is available from the following website:
Information about the Intel Xeon Processor E5 family of processors is at the following website:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/xeon/xeon-processor-e5-family.html
The Intel Software Network page includes information specific to the Intel VTune Performance Amplifier. This website is as follows:
Intel provides information about the Intel Performance Tuning Utility (PTU) at the following website:
https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-performance-tuning-utility/
Information about the OpenMP Standard and the OpenMP API specification for parallel programming can be found at the following website:
All SGI publications are available on the SGI customer portal at http://support.sgi.com. Select the following:
Support by Product > productname > Documentation
If you do not find what you are looking for, search for document-title keywords by selecting Search Knowledgebase and using the category Documentation.
You can view man pages by typing man title on a command line.
The following conventions are used in this documentation:
| [ ] | Brackets enclose optional portions of a command or directive line. | |
| command | This fixed-space font denotes literal items such as commands, files, routines, path names, signals, messages, and programming language structures. | |
| ... | Ellipses indicate that a preceding element can be repeated. | |
| user input | This bold, fixed-space font denotes literal items that the user enters in interactive sessions. (Output is shown in nonbold, fixed-space font.) | |
| variable | Italic typeface denotes variable entries and words or concepts being defined. | |
| manpage(x) | Man page section identifiers appear in parentheses after man page names. |
If you have comments about the technical accuracy, content, or organization of this publication, contact SGI. Be sure to include the title and document number of the publication with your comments. (Online, the document number is located in the front matter of the publication. In printed publications, the document number is located at the bottom of each page.)
You can contact SGI in either of the following ways:
Send e-mail to the following address:
Contact your customer service representative and ask that an incident be filed in the SGI incident tracking system:
SGI values your comments and will respond to them promptly.