Efficient multicore-aware parallelization strategies for iterative stencil computations

Stencil computations consume a major part of runtime in many scientific simulation codes. As prototypes for this class of algorithms we consider the iterative Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel smoothers and aim at highly efficient parallel implementations for cache-based multicore architectures. Temporal cache blocking is a known advanced optimization technique, which can reduce the pressure on the memory bus significantly. We apply and refine this optimization for a recently presented temporal blocking strategy designed to explicitly utilize multicore characteristics. Especially for the case of Gauss-Seidel smoothers we show that simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) can yield substantial performance improvements for our optimized algorithm on some architectures.

Research highlights► Wavefront/pipelined parallel temporal blocking optimization. ► Shown for Gauss-seidel and Jacobi stencils. ► Explicitly uses shared caches on recent multicore processors. ► Significant speedups versus optimal non-blocked code observed. ► Effect of simultaneous multithreading (SMT) analyzed.