HPC Workshop "Floating Point arithmetic is not real. And your random numbers aren’t random", by Timothy Mattson

by Timothy Mattson

Friday 28 Mar 2025, 15:30 → 17:00 Europe/Berlin

Description

 This is a 90-minute workshop that covers the key topics EVERY scientist MUST know about numbers on computers.   In particular, we cover the fundamental issues raised by the IEEE-754 standard and what you need to know to avoid writing programs that cause disasters.   We then talk about how to safely use random numbers on a computer with a particular focus on how random numbers fall apart on parallel computers.

Note also our other workshops from Timothy Mattson:

•  "An Introduction to Parallel Programming with OpenMP", https://indico.hiskp.uni-bonn.de/event/852/
• "Using OpenMP to program GPUs", https://indico.hiskp.uni-bonn.de/event/854/

When and where is the workshop held?

The workshop is held in-person (no online participation possible) at the Campus Poppelsdorf at Uni Bonn. You will be notified of the exact address and room when your registration is accepted.

It takes place from 15:30 to 17:00, on Friday, March 28, 2025

You need to register to participate.

Who can register, and how?

The workshop is open to both Uni Bonn members (employees and students) and interested guests from other organizations. However, if there are too many registrations, Uni Bonn members have priority.

When you register, you will be put on a waiting list. You will be notified by March 10 whether you were accepted.

Prerequisites and equipment

Caution: This is not a beginner workshop! Basic knowledge of the following topics is recommended:

• C programming and compilation
• Basic use of an HPC cluster, particularly the Linux console, SSH and SLURM

 

You do not need to bring anything. You will be using the course room PCs and the supercomputer Marvin.

You do not need to have a Marvin account prior to the course, you will get temporary access.