Parallel Programming with Migratable Objects

Abstract—The advent of petascale computing has introduced new challenges (e.g. heterogeneity, system failure) for program-ming scalable parallel applications. Increased complexity and dynamism in science and engineering applications of today have further exacerbated the situation. Addressing these challenges requires more emphasis on concepts that were previously of secondary importance, including migratability, adaptivity, and runtime system introspection. In this paper, we leverage our experience with these concepts to demonstrate their applicability and efficacy for real world applications. Using the CHARM++ parallel programming framework, we present details on how these concepts can lead to development of applications that scale irrespective of the rough landscape of supercomputing technology. Empirical evaluation presented in this paper spans many mini-applications and real applications executed on modern supercom-puters including Blue Gene/Q, Cray XE6, and Stampede. I