UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE
AND ECONOMY
COMPUTER SCIENCE
ECMM461
High Performance Computing
Individual Project
Date Set: 31 March 2023
Date Due: 28 April 2023
Return Date: 19 May 2023
This Individual Project comprises 20% of the overall module assessment.
This is an individual exercise and your attention is drawn to the College and University guidelines
on collaboration and plagiarism, which are available from the College website.
This is the coursework for this module and tests your understanding of how to find numerical
solutions to partial di↵erential equations, and parallel programming.
ECMM461: Individual Project
1 Introduction and Background
The 2020’s are expected to see the arrival of the first “exascale” supercomputers, capable of more
than 1018 floating point operations per second as measured by the LINPACK benchmark. This
development is considered to be an important milestone in High Performance Computing.
There are significant challenges associated with constructing an exascale supercomputer and
making e↵ective use of its capability. Section 21.4 of Sterling, Anderson and Brodowicz (the
HPC textbook for the module) discusses exascale computing and the challenges that it presents.
The challenges associated with weather and climate models in particular are discussed in the paper
“Crossing the Chasm: How to develop weather and climate models for next generation computers?”
E↵orts are currently underway to address exascale computing challenges, including the Excalibur
programme in the UK.
2 The Assignment
For this assessment you will write a 1000 word essay on one of the challenges associated with
exascale computing. Your essay should describe the challenge and argue why it is vital to solve
this challenge. You should also describe how the challenge is being addressed and evaluate the
advantages and disadvantages of the potential solutions.
3 Guidance
The University Library has a Computer Science Subject Guide with links to a number of key
resources (including the “Web of Science” bibliographic index) to help find relevant literature.
This assessment is subject to standard University rules on academic conduct and honesty. You
can find the regulations here: http://as.exeter.ac.uk/academic-policy-standards/tqa-manual/
aph/managingacademicmisconduct/. The Essay Marking Criteria are given at the end of this doc-
ument. In writing your essay, you should consider the following points:
• Quality of answer: Essay brief interpreted correctly and answered well.
• Structure and quality of writing: Clear and articulate. Specialist terminology defined where
appropriate. Proper use of sections, paragraphs and signposting.
• Use of literature: An appropriate range of relevant content from academic journals or other
respected sources.
• Quality of argument: Claims justified by evidence. Conclusions follow from main body of
essay.
• Presentation: Presented in a consistent font no smaller than 11 point, with margins not less
than 2cm, single column, and single space between lines. Tables and figures of good quality
with appropriate captions. Correct grammar and no spelling mistakes.
• Referencing: References should be consistently cited in an approved style, with all external
material explicitly and unambiguously acknowledged. A list of approved referencing styles
can be found at https://libguides.exeter.ac.uk/c.php?g=654150&p=4795420.
There are many resources available to help you write a good essay. Academic support on essay
writing is available from ASSET. They provide several relevant online courses, including “Essay
writing”, “Academic honesty and plagiarism”, and “Academic reading”.
4 Deliverables
The deliverable for this assessment is a 1000 word essay which is due at 12 noon on 28 April 2023.
1
ECMM461: Individual Project
• Your essay should be 1000 words (± 10%) in length. References are not included in the word
limit.
• You may include diagrams, figures and/or tables if appropriate.
• Your essay needs to be submitted to e-BART
• This essay is worth 20% of the module grade for ECMM461.