Call for Position Papers

Workshop on Modeling & Simulation of Systems & Applications
August 13-14, 2014, Seattle, WA

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research

Workshop URL: http://hpc.pnl.gov/modsim/2014/
Submission URL: http://j.mp/modsim2014

SUBMISSIONS DUE ON JUNE 15 (11:59 PM EDT)

Meeting the performance, energy-efficiency, and resilience requirements of systems and applications at all scales from embedded to exascale will require rapid, accurate, and dynamic evaluation of tradeoffs. To provide these capabilities, significant advances in predictive modeling and simulation methods are needed. Models are key tools in the area of application/system co-design. As applications and systems evolve, models must be able to track ongoing complex changes and predict the impact of developments in both software and hardware design. While today's methods tend to focus on application performance as the metric of concern, modeling methods must evolve to consider performance, power consumption, and reliability in concert. It is critical to develop tools and techniques that will allow modeling capability to spread into the larger computational science community where it will have the greatest possible impact. Simulation and emulation capabilities must also expand along multiple directions, including scalability improvements, interoperability, support for system design from embedded to the extreme scale, and interfaces with modeling tools.

As part of the process, we solicit community input, in the form of position papers that describe novel research approaches for performance modeling and simulation at extreme scales. Position papers should address one or more of the following areas.

1. Integrated Modeling and Simulation of Performance, Power and Reliability

Both integrated modeling of multiple physical phenomena and the ability to capture the impact on the architecture and applications are significant challenges.
Position papers are encouraged that address: 1) modeling and understanding of the relationships between physical phenomena, such as temperature, energy, power, and reliability, and their impact on devices; 2) their impact at the microarchitecture and system levels; and 3) how modeling can help to maximize system-level performance and power attributes; 4) novel techniques and ideas for modeling of performance, power/energy, and reliability in an unified fashion




2. Standards, Integration, and Interoperability of ModSim Methodologies and Tools.

Without interoperable, best-practice-based, validated models, ModSim risks becoming an expensive process whose actual development may exceed a useful timeframe compared to the lifespan of systems. We are seeking white paper contributions related to many aspects of this topic: interfaces, best practices, how different methodologies can cooperate, verification and validation in support of interoperability, integration of modsim for various layers of the HW-SW stack, just to name a few.

Submissions

The Organizing Committee will review these position papers and invite selected contributors to participate in the workshop to be held on August 13-14th, 2014, in Seattle, WA. Responsive submissions will be made public via the workshop website and selected papers may be included in a post-workshop proceedings, if the decision is made for publication of proceedings.

The previous workshop report can be found here, and submissions can be made with EasyChair at http://j.mp/modsim2014.

Requirements

Position papers (up to 2 pages) should describe a fundamental computer science research approach in the development of performance modeling and simulation approaches to address the key challenges associated with high performance, energy efficient computing systems from embedded to extreme scale. This description should be followed by a brief summary of related work and an assessment of the approach based on the following dimensions:

Challenges addressed: Which modeling and/or simulation challenges does this approach address?
Maturity: What are the indicators that this approach will address the identified challenges?
Uniqueness: To what extent is the proposed approach unique? Could it be addressed by other research programs?
Novelty: How is this approach different from existing solutions?
Applicability: To what extent will the proposed approach, if successful, be applicable to other areas?
Effort: How much effort is needed to effectively explore this approach?

The paper may include any number of authors, but must provide contact information for a single "contact" author. There is no limit to the number of position papers that an individual or group can submit. Authors are strongly encouraged to follow the structure presented above. Authors of selected position papers will be invited to participate in a workshop based on the overall quality of the position paper(s) and our expectation that their inclusion in the workshop will stimulate constructive discussion by workshop participants. Unique positions that are well presented and emphasize transformative approaches will be given preference. Finally, all position papers will be made available online on the workshop website.

Summary

Length: Up to 2 pages (a list of cited references does not count against this limit).
Due Date: 11:59 PM EDT on June 15th. Submission site: http://j.mp/modsim2014
Notification of Selection for Workshop Presentation: July 12th.
ModSim Workshop, August 13-14, 2014, Seattle, WA

Organizing Committee:

Adolfy Hoisie, PNNL (Chair)
Laura Carrington, SDSC
Jon Hiller, STA
Darren Kerbyson, PNNL
Ankur Srivastava, UMD
Dolores Shaffer, STA
Martin Schulz, LLNL
Jeffrey Vetter, ORNL and Georgia Tech
Bill Ward, DoD
Noel Wheeler, DoD
Sudhakar Yalamanchili, Georgia Tech