| The ACTS Collection Project |
| The Advanced CompuTational
Software (ACTS) Collection is a set of software tools for computational
sciences. The starting point for the collection was the former Advanced
Computational Testing and Simulation Toolkit Project. The purpose of the ACTS Collection is to accelerate the
adoption and use of advanced computing by the Department
of Energy programs for their mission-critical problems. While DOE
has been motivated to develop the tools for its own programs, it also
encourages their adoption and use by non-DOE computational efforts. The
ACTS Collection Project disseminates information about the tools,
both inside and outside the DOE community. In addition, it focuses on
the installation, maintenance and support of the tools on DOE's
computing facilities. This information center is provided in collaboration with NERSC and is a source of information for everyone. It is also a critical buffer between tool developers and end users. Tool developers typically focus on their own interpretation of the tool and should not be expected to provide a candid, unbiased evaluation of the tool usefulness or stability. On the other hand, prospective users can evaluate the tools for themselves and submit their feedback. If you are interested in the tools on the collection, we suggest that you visit the Tool Descriptions page. If you are interested in a particular tool and would like more information on it or assistance in using it, please contact us at acts-support@nersc.gov. |
| About the ACTS Collection
The ACTS Collection is a set of software tools that help programmers write high performance scientific codes for high-endcomputers. The tools were mostly developed at DOE Laboratories and universities. ACTS tools are mostly libraries (written in C, C++ and Fortran). They are primarily designed to run on distributed memory parallel computers, using MPI for communication. Portability and performance were both considerations in their design and implementation. The tools fall into four broad categories: numerics, frameworks, execution support and developer support. The numerical tools implement numerical methods, and include sparse linear system solvers, ODE solvers, etc. The frameworks provide infrastructure that manages some of the complexity of parallel programming (e.g. distributing arrays, communicating boundary information, etc.) but do not actually implement numerical methods. Execution support is a catch-all category for application-level tools; these tools include performance analysis and remote visualization support. Developer support tools provide a infrastructure for tool developers and probably will not be used or seen directly in scientific applications. Information on the individual tools is provided in the Tool Descriptions page. ACTS tools are freely available to non-commercial users. Some are available without restrictions and some require a signed non-redistribution agreement. Criteria for accepting new tools in the collection are discussed in The ACTS Collection, Robust and High-Performance Tools for Scientific Computing - Guidelines for Tool Inclusion and Retirement. Who Benefits from ACTS Tools? The prime beneficiaries of ACTS tools are developers of parallel engineering and scientific applications. Many areas of scientific computing are covered by ACTS tools, and can potentially make use of them. Parallel software is inherently more complex than serial software and significantly more expensive to implement. In the past, many smaller projects have been unable to access the benefits of parallel computing because they lacked the resources to port their computational codes from serial to parallel implementations. Moreover, as the problems being solved become more complex, the challenges in building parallel programs become even greater. ACTS' goal is to alleviate this situation, and DOE has made a strong commitment to the success of the project. ACTS and the Collaboratory Pilot Projects The ACTS Collection has its origins in the former DOE 2000 project which had two main components, the Advanced Computational Testing and Simulation Toolkit and the National Collaboratory Project. A third part of DOE 2000, the collaboratory pilot projects, was in some sense a testbed for the Collaboratory Project. The first two parts of DOE2000 were related in that they both enhance the ability of DOE scientists to solve major scientific and technical problems. Increasingly, these problems involve multiple, complex subproblems that often span several disciplines, requiring scientists from multiple disciplines to work closely together. They also increasingly involve problems of such complexity that experimental investigation becomes difficult and less informative, forcing scientists to rely heavily on computational investigation. On these lines, the ACTS project has continued to improve collaborative computational efforts by providing a uniform basis for software development and by encouraging the writing of modular, reusable code. |