COMBS: First Open-Source Based Benchmark Suite for Multi-physics Simulation Relevant HPC Research

Recent scientific computing increasingly relies on multi-scale multi-physics simulations to enhance predictive capabilities by replacing a suite of stand-alone simulation codes that independently simulate various physical phenomena. Inevitably, multi-physics simulation demands high performance computing (HPC) through advanced hardware and software accelerating due to its intensive computing workload and run-time communication needs. Thus, its research has become a hotspot across different disciplines. However, it is observed that most benchmarks used in the evaluation of corresponding work are through commercial or in-house codes. Then, the lack of accessible open-source multi-physics benchmark suites has presented a challenge in uniformly evaluating simulation performance across related disciplines. This work proposes the first open-source based benchmark suite with 12 selected benchmarks for research in multi-physics simulation, the Clarkson Open-Source Multi-physics Benchmark Suite (COMBS). Multiple metrics have been gathered for these benchmarks, such as instructions per second and memory usage. Also provided are build and benchmark scripts to improve usability. Additionally, their source codes and installation guides are available for downloading through a github repository built by the authors. The selected benchmarks are from key applications of multi-physics simulation and highly cited publications. It is believed that this benchmark suite will facilitate to harness the full potential of HPC research in the field of multi-physics simulation.