John McCalpin

John joined TACC in 2009 as a Research Scientist in the High Performance Computing Group after a twelve year career in performance analysis and system architecture in the computer industry. His industrial experience includes 3 years at SGI (Origin2000 and Altix3000), 6 years at IBM (Power4/4+ and Power5/5+), and 3 years at AMD (accelerated computing technologies). Prior to his industrial career, John was an oceanographer (Ph.D., Florida State), spending six years as an assistant professor at the University of Delaware engaged in research and teaching on numerical simulation of the large-scale circulation of the oceans.

Areas of Research

• Performance Analysis in High Performance Computing
• Computer System Architecture
• Simulation of Large-Scale Circulation in the Ocean
• Applied Mathematics of Partial Differential Equations

Current Projects

• STREAM: Sustainable Memory Bandwidth in High Performance Computers
• MemSuite: a microbenchmark suite for precisely controlled computer performance measurement and analysis
• HPC Challenge Benchmark: a suite of benchmarks to explore different aspects of performance in computer systems and clusters

Selected Publications

• McCalpin, J., Moore, C., Hester, P., 2007: "The Role of Multicore Processors in the Evolution of General-Purpose Computing," CTWatch Quarterly, Volume 3, Number 1, February 2007.
• H. M. Mathis, H. M., A. Mericas, J. D. McCalpin, R. J. Eickemeyer, and S. R. Kunkel, 2005: "Characterization of simultaneous multithreading (SMT) efficiency in POWER5", IBM Journal of Research and Development, 49(4/5):555-564.
• Narayanan, Chandrasekher and John D. McCalpin, 1997: "Vertical Structure of Horizontal Velocity in Regular Shoaling Waves: Comparisons with Boussinesq Theories", Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering, 123(3):130-136.
• McCalpin, John D., and Dale B. Haidvogel, 1996: "Phenomenology of the Low-Frequency Variability in a Reduced-Gravity, Quasigeostrophic Double-Gyre Model". Journal of Physical Oceanography, 26(5):739-752.
• McCalpin, John D., 1996: "A Case Study of Some Issues in the Optimization of Fortran 90 Array Notation". Scientific Programming, 5:219-237.
• McCalpin, John D., 1995: "Rossby Wave Generation by Poleward-Propagating Kelvin Waves: The Low-Frequency, Quasigeostrophic Approximation". Journal of Physical Oceanography, 25(6):1415-1425.

Memberships/Professional Affiliations

• IEEE Computer Society
• American Geophysical Union

Professional Activities

• Invited participant in the Salishan Conference on High-Speed Computing, sponsored by the DOE nuclear weapons design laboratories, 2001-2006.
• Participant in the "Blue Planet" workshop (August 2002) leading to the development of a comprehensive strategy proposal from Lawrence Berkeley and Argonne National Laboratories ("Creating Science-Driven Computer Architecture: A New Path to Scientific Leadership")
• Participant in Department of Defense working group that produced the Report on High Performance Computing for the National Security Community, April-June 2002.
• Institute for Defense Analysis Working Group on Export Controls for High Performance Computing Systems, October 1997

Education

• B.S., Physics, Texas A&M University
• M.S., Oceanography, Texas A&M University
• Ph.D., Oceanography, The Florida State University