Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 20
Stochastic Simulation Data
Management
Dimitris Servis
AutoForm Development GmbH
20.1
Background :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 239
20.2
Science Use Case ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 240
20.3
The I/O Challenge ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 241
20.4
Using HDF5 in Industrial Stochastic Simulations ::::::::::::::: 243
20.4.1
Data Model and Versioning ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 244
20.4.2
VFL and Filters ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 244
20.4.3
Encryption ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 244
20.4.4
Robustness ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 244
20.4.5
Fragmentation ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 245
20.4.6
Process and Thread Synchronization :::::::::::::::::::: 245
20.5
A (Near) Ecient Architecture Using HDF5 :::::::::::::::::::: 245
20.6
Performance :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 247
20.7
Conclusion :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 248
20.1 Background
The Finite Element Method (FEM) is one of those tools that made it early
into industrial applications and in particular the simulation of engineering sys-
tems. In the early 1990s there was already enough academic work on using
FEM as well as niche and high-end industrial applications. It was the time
when general-purpose FEM software was becoming ubiquitous but processing
power was still in small supply. Soon, processing power started catching up
and it was possible to simulate structures with millions of elements, yet it was
so dicult to manipulate and process this information because software was
not equally able to scale and was too general purpose. Meanwhile, the indus-
try started seeing value in using FEM as it promised to reduce the cost of
expensive physical testing and modeling. Special-purpose software emerged,
aiming at solving specific problems in a way that industrial users could under-
stand and customers could measure cost savings and quality improvements.
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