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New PATC Course: HPC code optimisation workshop @ LRZ Volker Weinberg Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), Germany Contact: Volker.Weinberg@lrz.de As code optimisation techniques are getting more and more important in HPC, LRZ @ GCS as one of the six European PRACE Advanced Training Centres (PATC) has extended its curriculum by a new PATC course “HPC code optimisation workshop”, which took place at LRZ on May 4, 2017 for the first time. The workshop was organised as a compact course and focused on code improvement and exploration of the latest Intel processor features, in particular the vector units. During the optimisation process, the attendees learned how to enable vectorisation using simple pragmas and more effective techniques, like changing the data layout and alignment. The process was guided by the hints from the Intel compiler reports, and by using the Intel Advisor tool. The outline of the workshop included basics of modern computer architectures, optimisation process, vectorisation and the Intel tools. An N-body code was used to support the described optimisation solutions with practical examples. Through a sequence of simple, guided examples of code modernisation, the attendees developed awareness on features of multi and many-core architectures, which are crucial for writing modern, portable and efficient applications. The exercises were done on the SuperMIC system at LRZ. The lectures were given by Dr. Fabio Baruffa and Dr. Luigi Iapichino, who are both members of the Intel Parallel Computing Center (IPCC) established at LRZ in 2014. In this framework, the team at LRZ is active in the optimisation of the performance of the Gadget code, a widely used community code for computational astrophysics, on multi and many-core computer architectures. The experiences made within the optimisation work for the IPCC were passed to the participants of the workshop as best practice recommendations. Due to the great success of the workshop, it will be repeated in May 2018 at LRZ. Figure 1: Participants of the new PATC course: “HPC code optimisation workshop” @ LRZ, May 4, 2017. © A. Podo (LRZ)