Since the first workshop aimed at familiarizing users with the DOE Advanced CompuTational Software (ACTS) Collection was held five years ago, organizers Tony Drummond and Osni Marques have seen a real shift in the participants.

Initially, the 50 or so attendees seemed new to many aspects of HPC, but were eager to learn about the ACTS Collection, a set of software tools aimed at simplifying the solution of common and important computational problems. Starting last year and continuing in 2004, however, the participants arrived ready to immediately start working with the tools, Drummond and Marques said.

“This year, we noticed that a lot of the people were really ready to use the tools, which is a change from the first years,” said Drummond. “They asked more questions and even took advantage of their two-week post-workshop access to the Seaborg supercomputer at NERSC.”

The 2004 workshop, held Aug. 24-27 at LBNL, drew 45 participants, including students, researchers and industry representatives. Drummond and Marques, who are members of CRD’s Scientific Computing Group, organize the workshop in their role as managers of the ACTS Collection.

The workshop featured speakers from LBNL, as well as Argonne, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge and Pacific Northwest national labs, and Sandia National Laboratories. The workshop also featured hands-on sessions to give attendees experiences in using the tools.

The workshop facilitates one-on-one exchanges between tool developers and users. Additionally, this year’s event drew industry participation ranging from major players in HPC technology (HP and IBM) to commercial library and application software development companies (IMSL). All industrial participants contributed feedback and complimented the ACTS Collection project and the individual tool development projects.

“Increasing the visibility of the ACTS collection among industrial HPC collaborations helps guarantee the long-term support for the robust software we develop and support under ACTS,” Drummond added.