This IBM® Redbooks® publication is one in a series of IBM books written specifically for the IBM System Blue Gene/P Solution. The Blue Gene/P system is the second generation of a massively parallel supercomputer from IBM in the IBM System Blue Gene Solution series. In this book, we provide an overview of the application development environment for the Blue Gene/P system. We intend to help programmers understand the requirements to develop applications on this high-performance massively parallel supercomputer.

In this book, we explain instances where the Blue Gene/P system is unique in its programming environment. We also attempt to look at the differences between the IBM System Blue Gene/L Solution and the Blue Gene/P Solution. In this book, we do not delve into great depth about the technologies that are commonly used in the supercomputing industry, such as Message Passing Interface (MPI) and Open Multi-Processing (OpenMP), nor do we try to teach parallel programming. References are provided in those instances for you to find more information if necessary.

Prior to reading this book, you must have a strong background in high-performance computing (HPC) programming. The high-level programming languages that we use throughout this book are C/C++ and Fortran95. Previous experience using the Blue Gene/L system can help you better understand some concepts in this book that we do not extensively discuss. However, several IBM Redbooks publications about the Blue Gene/L system are available for you to obtain general information about the Blue Gene/L system. We recommend that you refer to "IBM Redbooks" on page 371 for a list of those publications.

Part 1. Blue Gene/P: System and environment overview

Chapter 1. Hardware overview

Chapter 2. Software overview

Part 2. Kernel overview

Chapter 3. Kernel functionality

Chapter 4. Execution process modes

Chapter 5. Memory

Chapter 6. System calls

Part 3. Applications environment

Chapter 7. Parallel paradigms

Chapter 8. Developing applications with IBM XL compilers

Chapter 9. Running and debugging applications

Chapter 10. Checkpoint and restart support for applications

Chapter 11. mpirun

Chapter 12. High-Throughput Computing (HTC) paradigm

Part 4. Job scheduler interfaces

Chapter 13. Control system (Bridge) APIs

Chapter 14. Real-time Notification APIs

Chapter 15. Dynamic Partition Allocator APIs

Part 5. Applications

Chapter 16. Performance overview of engineering and scientific applications

Appendix A. Blue Gene/P hardware-naming conventions

Appendix B. Files on architectural features

Appendix C. Header files and libraries

Appendix D. Environment variables

Appendix E. Porting applications

Appendix F. Mapping

Appendix G. htcpartition

Appendix H. Use of GNU profiling tool on Blue Gene/P

Appendix I. Statement of completion