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Reverend Jim 6,665 Hi, I'm Jim, one of DaniWeb's moderators.

You can win up to $55,000 to optimize NASA's Fluid Dynamics code. See the link for details.

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Short note on the HPFCC post by : NASA did announce a High Performance Fast Computing Challenge (HPFCC) around FUN3D and publicized a prize pool up to $55,000, but that public challenge was later cancelled (mid‑June 2017) after an unexpectedly large number of entrants and vetting complications. (nasa.gov)

FUN3D itself remains a maintained NASA CFD suite (Modern Fortran + support libraries) and the software/manuals are available through NASA distribution channels subject to U.S. release/export rules; historical FUN3D manuals and software entries are preserved in NASA catalogs and technical repositories. (software.nasa.gov)

Practical, reusable checklist for optimizing legacy Fortran (applies to FUN3D-style codes):

  • Profile first: find hot routines with gprof, Intel VTune or similar, then focus changes where they matter. (sourceware.org)

  • Compile-toolchain: try both GNU (gfortran) and Intel compilers; use aggressive optimization for experiments (-O3 / -Ofast or vendor equivalents) and architecture flags (-march=native / -xHost). Measure with and without each flag. (gcc.gnu.org)

  • Make inner loops vector- and cache-friendly: ensure contiguous arrays, minimize indirect indexing, prefer DO CONCURRENT or OpenMP SIMD pragmas where safe, and annotate loops when the compiler cannot prove independence. Small example:

    ! DO CONCURRENT makes independence explicit (Fortran 2008+)
do concurrent (i = 1:n)
  a(i) = b(i)*c(i) + alpha
end do

    (android.googlesource.com)

Final cautions: always validate numerical equivalence after enabling fast‑math or reordered execution, run regression tests before accepting changes, and document any compiler-specific pragmas so future maintainers understand portability tradeoffs. For FUN3D-specific work, consult the NASA software entry and the official manuals before attempting code redistribution or public experiments. (software.nasa.gov)

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