Creating Stable Productive CSE Software Development and Integration Processes in Unstable Environments on the Path to Exascale

Abstract

The Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Advanced Technology Development and Mitigation (ATDM) project focuses on R&D for exascale computational science and engineering (CSE) software. Exascale application (APP) codes are co-developed and integrated with a large number of 2^nd generation Trilinos packages built on top of Kokkos for achieving portable performance. These efforts are challenged by needing to develop and test on many unstable and constantly changing pre-exascale platforms using immature compilers and other system software. Challenges, experiences, and lessons learned are presented for creating stable development and integration workflows for these types of difficult projects. In particular, we describe automated workflows, testing, and integration processes as well as new tools and multi-team collaboration processes for effectively keeping a large number of automated builds and tests working on these unstable platforms.