Project Shelob is a major effort to support the computational science research, education and training requirements of investigators using modern high performance computing systems equipped with graphical processing units, or GPUs. GPUs are nearly identical to the high-end graphics cards found in personal computers dedicated to gaming applications. The same capabilities that support games with highly realistic real-time animations can be adapted to vastly improve the speed of getting answers on complex science problems. This comes at a cost, however, as the programming becomes more difficult, a burden considering that programming modern parallel computing systems is already a difficult task. The Shelob system provides a dedicated platform to allow experimenting on a production grade system, allowing new methods to be worked out, and providing a platform that can be used for teaching which does not interrupt the critical workflow on other research production systems. The Shelob system is a compute cluster that allows for parallel programming using distributed memory methods, and adds the ability for nodes to incorporate GPU processing. Such heterogeneous systems require programmers to understand both conventional message-passing (i.e. MPI) programming methods, and the methods specific to GPU programming. The only way researchers can determine how to mix the methods for best performance is to have system-level access to modify and adjust settings as necessary. There are high expectations for Shelob, not the least of which is instilling excitement in high school and undergraduate students over the possibilities presented for work and research in high performance computing. Programs such as Research Experiences for Undergraduates and the Beowulf Bootcamp, provide unique opportunities to students. Multi-institutional research groups, such as Cactus and Pluto, hope to develop easier ways to make use of the power promised by the Shelob system hardware. Other groups, such as the Louisiana-wide LA-SiGMA project, hope to develop the next generation of codes to support material science research and the development of novel materials for industrial applications.
