Re: Guix on clusters and in HPC

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Thomas Danckaert <post@thomasdanckaert.be> skribis:

> From: ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)
> Subject: Guix on clusters and in HPC
> Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2016 16:20:43 +0200
>
>> So I’ve come up with an initial list of work items going from the
>> immediate needs to crazy ideas (batch scheduler integration!) that
>> hopefully make sense to cluster/HPC people.  I’d be happy to get
>> feedback, suggestions, etc. from whoever is interested!
>
> Here's a semi-crazy suggestion: some HPC people really like the intel
> compiler/math kernel library, so a way to switch toolchains on
> packages, and somehow integrate “foreign” toolchains would suit
> them. But that might be “advocating the use of non-free software” (in
> fact I almost feel like a heretic for bringing this up :-) ...).

Yeah, I’m aware of this.  In section 5 of
<https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01161771/en>, we wrote:

  GNU Guix does not provide proprietary software packages.
  Unfortunately, proprietary software is still relatively common in HPC,
  be it linear algebra libraries or GPU support.  Yet, we see it as a
  strength more than a limitation.  Often, these “black boxes”
  inherently limit reproducibility—how is one going to reproduce a
  software environment without permission to run the software in the
  first place? What if the software depends on the ability to “call
  home” to function at all? More importantly, we view reproducible
  software environments and reproducible science as a tool towards
  improved and shared knowledge; developers who deny the freedom to
  study and modify their code work against this goal.

As heretic as it may seem in HPC circles ;-), I stand by this.

Regarding GPU support, there’s light on the horizon with GCC’s new PTX
backend, OpenACC support, and with libgomp’s offloading support.

We’ll see!

Ludo’.