[petsc-dev] Adding support memkind allocators in PETSc

[Jed Brown]

Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> writes:
>   Even if it "helps" in only 30 percent of applications that is still
>   a good thing (and a great thing politically). Then it becomes an
>   issue of education and proper profiling tools to tell people for
>   their apps that it won't work; so the other 70% is not "confused".

How much does it have to help those 30% if the complexity contributes to
driving 30% of potential new users away from HPC?

I'm in favor of doing the simplest thing until presented with
overwhelming evidence that the complicated thing is necessary.  I
understand that this doesn't win grants; you have to say that the simple
thing that has been working will never work at exascale.

>   Note that Marc Snir today told me that it is perfectly fine if the
>   "largest computing systems", i.e. the LCFs can only provide useful
>   performance for a small subset of all possible applications.

Even when that small subset does not contain the primary apps used to
sell the machines to Congress.  It's just too difficult to have a
consistent story.
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