TaskTorrent: a Lightweight Distributed Task-Based Runtime System in C++

Abstract: We present TaskTorrent, a lightweight distributed task-based runtime in C++. TaskTorrent uses a parametrized task graph to express the task DAG, and one-sided active messages to trigger remote tasks asynchronously. As a result the task DAG is completely distributed and discovered in parallel. It is a C++14 library and only depends on MPI. We explain the API and the implementation. We perform a series of benchmarks against StarPU and ScaLAPACK. Micro benchmarks show it has a minimal overhead compared to other solutions. We then apply it to two large linear algebra problems. TaskTorrent scales very well to thousands of cores, exhibiting good weak and strong scalings.