Home - News - Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod to accelerate studies of quantum processes using oneAPI

08 December 2020

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Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod (UNN) is pleased to announce the establishment of a oneAPI Center of Excellence (CoE) to facilitate studies in contemporary physics using the power of CPUs, GPUs, and other accelerators with oneAPI cross-architecture programming. oneAPI is an industry initiative to deliver an open, standards-based, unified programming model that simplifies development of high-performance applications across a combination of XPUs. It provides developers the freedom to choose the best architecture for the specific problem they are solving without needing to rewrite software for the specific architecture and platform. The oneAPI CoE allows the university to address research challenges requiring high-performance computing (HPC) on heterogeneous architectures and expands the software curriculum to train the next generation of scientists.

The first software to be ported to oneAPI by the UNN researchers is the open-source framework Hi-Chi (High-Intensity Collisions and Interactions), which is intended for the simulation of high-intensity laser-matter interactions. Applications built on the Hi-Chi framework will then be optimized by an international research team led by the UNN researchers. It is anticipated that the oneAPI port will boost performance and expand the capabilities of the Hi-Chi framework. The re-engineered Hi-Chi routines will process enormous data sets over longer simulation timescales¾enabling comprehensive analyses and statistical inferences with a potential of triggering breakthroughs in applied and fundamental science.

Based on the experience gained from using oneAPI to reach these research objectives, UNN will provide feedback to help improve the future development of the oneAPI specification and its implementations.

Building on more than 20 years of collaboration between UNN and Intel in advancing HPC education in Russia, the university will also develop a programming course based on oneAPI. The course will be included in the masters programs in the Institute of Information Technologies, Mathematics, and Mechanics and feature practical examples covering areas from physics to finance. The course will train students on using oneAPI’s cross-architecture programming approach; how to exploit cutting-edge features of CPUs, GPUs, and other accelerators; and optimizing code using common programming tools that support familiar languages (C++, Fortran, OpenMP, etc.) and standards while providing full continuity with existing code.

“Establishing the oneAPI Center of Excellence enhances the scientific expertise of UNN and allows us to solve more complex research problems in classical and quantum systems utilizing the power of multiple architectures. Furthermore, the educational activity of the Center will strengthen our standing in the field of education in Russia,” comments UNN’s Vice Rector for Research, Professor Mikhail Ivanchenko.

“The increasing collaborations with the research community to use oneAPI to accelerate their work is exciting. Lobachevsky University’s porting of Hi-Chi to oneAPI will help propel physics research across architectures and across the scientific community. The establishment of a oneAPI Center of Excellence will foster educational advancement in Russia, preparing students to become the next generation of HPC programmers,” notes Ivan Kuzmin, General Manager of Intel R&D in Russia.