xref: /libCEED/README.md (revision 974a6da51469a578a89dd8a6db7338d45aff776c)
1# libCEED: the CEED API Library
2
3[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/CEED/libCEED.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/CEED/libCEED)
4[![Code Coverage](https://codecov.io/gh/CEED/libCEED/branch/master/graphs/badge.svg)](https://codecov.io/gh/CEED/libCEED/)
5[![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-BSD%202--Clause-orange.svg)](https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause)
6[![Doxygen](https://codedocs.xyz/CEED/libCEED.svg)](https://codedocs.xyz/CEED/libCEED/)
7
8## Code for Efficient Extensible Discretization
9
10This repository contains an initial low-level API library for the efficient
11high-order discretization methods developed by the ECP co-design [Center for
12Efficient Exascale Discretizations (CEED)](http://ceed.exascaleproject.org).
13While our focus is on high-order finite elements, the approach is mostly
14algebraic and thus applicable to other discretizations in factored form, as
15explained in the API documentation portion of the [Doxygen documentation](https://codedocs.xyz/CEED/libCEED/md_doc_libCEEDapi.html).
16
17One of the challenges with high-order methods is that a global sparse matrix is
18no longer a good representation of a high-order linear operator, both with
19respect to the FLOPs needed for its evaluation, as well as the memory transfer
20needed for a matvec.  Thus, high-order methods require a new "format" that still
21represents a linear (or more generally non-linear) operator, but not through a
22sparse matrix.
23
24The goal of libCEED is to propose such a format, as well as supporting
25implementations and data structures, that enable efficient operator evaluation
26on a variety of computational device types (CPUs, GPUs, etc.). This new operator
27description is based on algebraically [factored form](https://codedocs.xyz/CEED/libCEED/md_doc_libCEEDapi.html),
28which is easy to incorporate in a wide variety of applications, without significant
29refactoring of their own discretization infrastructure.
30
31The repository is part of the [CEED software suite][ceed-soft], a collection of
32software benchmarks, miniapps, libraries and APIs for efficient exascale
33discretizations based on high-order finite element and spectral element methods.
34See http://github.com/ceed for more information and source code availability.
35
36The CEED research is supported by the [Exascale Computing Project][ecp]
37(17-SC-20-SC), a collaborative effort of two U.S. Department of Energy
38organizations (Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security
39Administration) responsible for the planning and preparation of a [capable
40exascale ecosystem](https://exascaleproject.org/what-is-exascale), including
41software, applications, hardware, advanced system engineering and early testbed
42platforms, in support of the nation’s exascale computing imperative.
43
44For more details on the CEED API see http://ceed.exascaleproject.org/ceed-code/.
45
46## Building
47
48The CEED library, `libceed`, is a C99 library with no external dependencies.  It
49can be built using
50
51    make
52
53or, with optimization flags
54
55    make OPT='-O3 -march=skylake-avx512 -ffp-contract=fast'
56
57These optimization flags are used by all languages (C, C++, Fortran) and this
58makefile variable can also be set for testing and examples (below).
59
60The library attempts to automatically detect support for the AVX
61instruction set using gcc-style compiler options for the host.
62Support may need to be manually specified via
63
64    make AVX=1
65
66or
67
68    make AVX=0
69
70if your compiler does not support gcc-style options, if you are cross
71compiling, etc.
72
73## Testing
74
75The test suite produces [TAP](https://testanything.org) output and is run by:
76
77    make test
78
79or, using the `prove` tool distributed with Perl (recommended)
80
81    make prove
82
83## Backends
84
85There are multiple supported backends, which can be selected at runtime in the examples:
86
87|  CEED resource           | Backend                                           |
88| :----------------------- | :------------------------------------------------ |
89| `/cpu/self/ref/serial`   | Serial reference implementation                   |
90| `/cpu/self/ref/blocked`  | Blocked refrence implementation                   |
91| `/cpu/self/tmpl`         | Backend template, delegates to `/cpu/self/ref/blocked` |
92| `/cpu/self/avx/serial`   | Serial AVX implementation                         |
93| `/cpu/self/avx/blocked`  | Blocked AVX implementation                        |
94| `/cpu/self/xsmm/serial`  | Serial LIBXSMM implementation                     |
95| `/cpu/self/xsmm/blocked` | Blocked LIBXSMM implementation                    |
96| `/cpu/occa`              | Serial OCCA kernels                               |
97| `/gpu/occa`              | CUDA OCCA kernels                                 |
98| `/omp/occa`              | OpenMP OCCA kernels                               |
99| `/ocl/occa`              | OpenCL OCCA kernels                               |
100| `/gpu/cuda/ref`          | Reference pure CUDA kernels                       |
101| `/gpu/cuda/reg`          | Pure CUDA kernels using one thread per element    |
102| `/gpu/magma`             | CUDA MAGMA kernels                                |
103
104
105The `/cpu/self/*/serial` backends process one element at a time and are intended for meshes
106with a smaller number of high order elements. The `/cpu/self/*/blocked` backends process
107blocked batches of eight interlaced elements and are intended for meshes with higher numbers
108of elements.
109
110The `/cpu/self/ref/*` backends are written in pure C and provide basic functionality.
111
112The `/cpu/self/avx/*` backends rely upon AVX instructions to provide vectorized CPU performance.
113
114The `/cpu/self/xsmm/*` backends rely upon the [LIBXSMM](http://github.com/hfp/libxsmm) package
115to provide vectorized CPU performance. The LIBXSMM backend does not use BLAS or MKL; however,
116if LIBXSMM was linked to MKL, this can be specified with the compilation flag `MKL=1`.
117
118The `/*/occa` backends rely upon the [OCCA](http://github.com/libocca/occa) package to provide
119cross platform performance.
120
121The `/gpu/cuda/*` backends provide GPU performance strictly using CUDA.
122
123The `/gpu/magma` backend relies upon the [MAGMA](https://bitbucket.org/icl/magma) package.
124
125## Examples
126
127libCEED comes with several examples of its usage, ranging from standalone C
128codes in the `/examples/ceed` directory to examples based on external packages,
129such as MFEM, PETSc, and Nek5000. Nek5000 v18.0 or greater is required.
130
131To build the examples, set the `MFEM_DIR`, `PETSC_DIR` and `NEK5K_DIR` variables
132and run:
133
134```console
135# libCEED examples on CPU and GPU
136cd examples/ceed
137make
138./ex1 -ceed /cpu/self
139./ex1 -ceed /gpu/occa
140cd ../..
141
142# MFEM+libCEED examples on CPU and GPU
143cd examples/mfem
144make
145./bp1 -ceed /cpu/self -no-vis
146./bp1 -ceed /gpu/occa -no-vis
147cd ../..
148
149# PETSc+libCEED examples on CPU and GPU
150cd examples/petsc
151make
152./bp1 -ceed /cpu/self
153./bp1 -ceed /gpu/occa
154cd ../..
155
156cd navier-stokes
157make
158./navierstokes -ceed /cpu/self
159./navierstokes -ceed /gpu/occa
160cd ../..
161
162# Nek+libCEED examples on CPU and GPU
163cd examples/nek5000
164./make-nek-examples.sh
165./run-nek-example.sh -ceed /cpu/self -b 3
166./run-nek-example.sh -ceed /gpu/occa -b 3
167cd ../..
168```
169
170The above code assumes a GPU-capable machine with the OCCA backend
171enabled. Depending on the available backends, other Ceed resource specifiers can
172be provided with the `-ceed` option.
173
174## Benchmarks
175
176A sequence of benchmarks for all enabled backends can be run using
177
178```console
179make benchmarks
180```
181
182The results from the benchmarks are stored inside the `benchmarks/` directory
183and they can be viewed using the commands (requires python with matplotlib):
184
185```console
186cd benchmarks
187python postprocess-plot.py petsc-bp1-*-output.txt
188python postprocess-plot.py petsc-bp3-*-output.txt
189```
190
191Using the `benchmarks` target runs a comprehensive set of benchmarks which may
192take some time to run. Subsets of the benchmarks can be run using targets such
193as `make bench-petsc-bp1`, or `make bench-petsc-bp3`.
194
195For more details about the benchmarks, see
196[`benchmarks/README.md`](benchmarks/README.md)
197
198
199## Install
200
201To install libCEED, run
202
203    make install prefix=/usr/local
204
205or (e.g., if creating packages),
206
207    make install prefix=/usr DESTDIR=/packaging/path
208
209Note that along with the library, libCEED installs kernel sources, e.g. OCCA
210kernels are installed in `$prefix/lib/okl`. This allows the OCCA backend to
211build specialized kernels at run-time. In a normal setting, the kernel sources
212will be found automatically (relative to the library file `libceed.so`).
213However, if that fails (e.g. if `libceed.so` is moved), one can copy (cache) the
214kernel sources inside the user OCCA directory, `~/.occa` using
215
216    $(OCCA_DIR)/bin/occa cache ceed $(CEED_DIR)/lib/okl/*.okl
217
218This will allow OCCA to find the sources regardless of the location of the CEED
219library. One may occasionally need to clear the OCCA cache, which can be accomplished
220by removing the `~/.occa` directory or by calling `$(OCCA_DIR)/bin/occa clear -a`.
221
222### pkg-config
223
224In addition to library and header, libCEED provides a [pkg-config][pkg-config1]
225file that can be used to easily compile and link. [For example][pkg-config2], if
226`$prefix` is a standard location or you set the environment variable
227`PKG_CONFIG_PATH`,
228
229    cc `pkg-config --cflags --libs ceed` -o myapp myapp.c
230
231will build `myapp` with libCEED.  This can be used with the source or
232installed directories.  Most build systems have support for pkg-config.
233
234## Contact
235
236You can reach the libCEED team by emailing [ceed-users@llnl.gov](mailto:ceed-users@llnl.gov)
237or by leaving a comment in the [issue tracker](https://github.com/CEED/libCEED/issues).
238
239## Copyright
240
241The following copyright applies to each file in the CEED software suite, unless
242otherwise stated in the file:
243
244> Copyright (c) 2017, Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC. Produced at the
245> Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. LLNL-CODE-734707. All Rights reserved.
246
247See files LICENSE and NOTICE for details.
248
249[ceed-soft]:   http://ceed.exascaleproject.org/software/
250[ecp]:         https://exascaleproject.org/exascale-computing-project
251[pkg-config1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pkg-config
252[pkg-config2]: https://people.freedesktop.org/~dbn/pkg-config-guide.html#faq
253