Team 6 Status Review October 18, 2005

1. Team 6 Status ReviewOctober 18, 2005 David Woollard (ID: 8735) Andrew Hart (ID: 4152) Peter Tipton (ID: 4594) Campus David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

2. Topic Description • Graphical Development Environment for PS.LINDA Parallel Programming Language • Goals: • Visualize and manipulate component deployment/redeployment and configuration for parallel workflows • Offer system views for both the scientific and system administration community • Speed-up parallel computation development time through better visualization of processes David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

3. Motivation Process 1 Process 1 Node 1 Node 1 Process 2 Process 2 Data 1 Process 0 Process 0 Node 2 Node 2 Node 0 Data n Node 0 Process 3 Process 3 Node 3 Node 3 TraditionalParallel Workflow Each piece of data follows One predetermined path Process n Process n Node n Node n David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

4. Motivation Process 1 Process 1 Process 1 Node 1 Node 1 Node 1 Process 2 Process 2 Process 2 Data 1 Process 0 Node 2 Node 2 Node 2 Node 0 Data n Process 3 Process 3 Process 3 Node 3 Node 3 Node 3 PS.LINDAParallel Workflow Each piece of data can follow any path Process n Process n Process n Node n Node n Node n David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

5. Description Revisited • Graphical Development Environment vs. Integrated Development Environment • A major hurtle for adopters of PS.LINDA has been visualization of system and deployment information in parallel with mental workflow models • No development environment for PS.LINDA exists currently • This environment must cater to users with vastly different approaches to parallel system development David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

6. Requirements (Abridged) • The environment shall consist of three views of a development of parallel code: workflow, component, and deployment. • The workflow view shall consist of a state diagram in which each state shall represent a data-parallel worker in the PS.LINDA language and transitions shall represent data (or tuples) exchanged between workers. • The system view shall provide the user the ability to create new states and new transitions, as well as assign transitions between states. • The environment shall generate skeleton code and allow further development in the PS.LINDA language for each of the workers and tuples generated in the workflow view. • The deployment view shall present the user with a listing and graphical view of system resources (i.e., each available machine and processor) in the target runtime environment. • The deployment view shall provide the user with the ability to modify deployment of components. • The environment shall provide the user the ability to save and re-load projects. David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

7. Navigation Map David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

8. User Analysis - Profiles • Computational and Research Scientists • Highly educated in a scientific field such as physics, math, chemistry and/or biology. These users are less-knowledgeable about parallel codes but are well-motivated. • Computational Support Staff • Responsible for maintaining parallel systems such as beowulf-class clustered supercomputers. System administrators, these uses are highly-skilled and well-motivated. • Parallel Programmers • Knowledgeable about both parallel code development and system-level detail. They are interested in the use of this system to aid in productivity and ease-of-use. These users are capable of both high-level, conceptual development and low-level execution. David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

9. Dialog Styles • Two primary methods of user input will be used: Fill In Forms and Command Language • Fill-in Forms are useful for our Scientific users to specify construction of parallel code elements and high-level interactions. • Command Language (PS.LINDA) is both necessary and also a natural choice for our system considering the high familiarity of intended users • Direct Manipulation will also be supported, though not as a primary method, due to the highly visual nature of our system. David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

10. Task Analysis David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

11. Environment • The system will run on a PC workstation with access via network to a Beowulf-class clustered supercomputer. • There are no anticipated resource constraints. • Because of the type of application, the workstation shall be dedicated to parallel code development and execution, allowing monopolization of available computing resources including screen real estate. David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

12. I/O Devices • The sources of user input for this system are the standard keyboard and mouse attached to the workstation. • The output for this device will be the workstation monitor as well as the network interface to the computational cluster. David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

13. Visual Design:Metaphor and Iconography • Metaphor • A parallel workflow conceptualized as a state-diagram. • Each state is a type of worker and each state transition is a data tuple produced at the source state and consumed at the sink state. • Iconography Tuple Worker David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

14. Visual Design: Color and Font • Color Palette • Fonts • Only system-supported fonts shall be used • Sans-serif wherever possible • User-entered text shall only appear on light or cream backgrounds Foreground Colors Background Colors David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

15. Home Page Design Workflow The workflow view presents a diagrammatic perspective of the relationships of the components that make up the task Deployment The deployment view is where users can view and dynamically modify the physical allocation characteristics of the task Component The component view allows for display and modification of the source code of any component of the task David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

16. Home Page Design (2/2) Screen Real Estate Summary • Background: Simple, two color scheme, with a distinct color for editable regions • Text Color: Burnt Sienna for good contrast against background colors • Graphics: Used only to display relational aspects of task components. No unnecessary graphics included • Layout: Related objects grouped logically together. Presents a coherent and uncluttered workspace to the user. David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

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28. Conclusions • Our development environment captures parallel workflows with the metaphor of the state machine. • We offer three views of the system (Workflow, Component, and Deployment) matching the conceptual models of our end users. • Current development of this system is progressing in Python with a PyQT built QT graphical user interface. • While our application GUI is somewhat limited by our choice of programming language, we feel that it is important to build a real-world system adoptable by parallel code developers today. David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart

29. Thank You David Woollard - Peter Tipton - Andrew Hart