Optimizing FORTRAN...

Thread Starter

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
This looks like an extremely interesting challenge... too bad I don't qualify to participate :D:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39803425

"Nasa is seeking help from coders to speed up the software it uses to design experimental aircraft.

It is running a competition that will share $55,000 (£42,000) between the top two people who can make its FUN3D software run up to 10,000 times faster.

The FUN3D code is used to model how air flows around simulated aircraft in a supercomputer."

The software was developed in the 1980s and is written in an older computer programming language called Fortran.
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
5,234
This looks like an extremely interesting challenge... too bad I don't qualify to participate :D:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39803425

"Nasa is seeking help from coders to speed up the software it uses to design experimental aircraft.

It is running a competition that will share $55,000 (£42,000) between the top two people who can make its FUN3D software run up to 10,000 times faster.

The FUN3D code is used to model how air flows around simulated aircraft in a supercomputer."

The software was developed in the 1980s and is written in an older computer programming language called Fortran.

The sensitive nature of the code means the competition is only open to US citizens who are over 18.
That'll keep it out of the hands of our enemies.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,839
Fortran was the second language I learned...

For that price, they won't be taken seriously. Making a critical program run 10,000 times faster should be worth millions...
 

Thread Starter

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
Fortran was the second language I learned...

For that price, they won't be taken seriously. Making a critical program run 10,000 times faster should be worth millions...
Except you win both the money and the prestige of having solved a problem for NASA... which should count heavily in your curriculum...
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
And you only get half of it! It does seem a bit silly. Who, amongst the people that might have the chops to do this, would have nothing better to do with their time? It's quite possible that it can't even be done. Who'd want to spend precious time on this?
 

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
One could write it and sell it to a beltway bandit for a fair price. The bandit will sell it for twice that to NASA and pay the writer a consulting fee for any updates.
 

BR-549

Joined Sep 22, 2013
4,928
NS is a polite way of saying....no kidding. I wonder how far that would go at dollars per man hour. Let's say one man...for 1980 hrs(year).......28.00 bucks an hour. No bennies.

I wonder what a nasa lawyer or spokesperson makes a year.

Does the government only pay their programmers $30/hr and no bennies?

I am not a programmer........could any one programmer or group of......complete this task in 1980 man hours?

Sounds el cheapo to me. Government exploitation.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
NS is a polite way of saying....no kidding. I wonder how far that would go at dollars per man hour. Let's say one man...for 1980 hrs(year).......28.00 bucks an hour. No bennies.

I wonder what a nasa lawyer or spokesperson makes a year.

Does the government only pay their programmers $30/hr and no bennies?

I am not a programmer........could any one programmer or group of......complete this task in 1980 man hours?

Sounds el cheapo to me. Government exploitation.
Exploitation?
 

Thread Starter

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
Our BS detectors are being overwhelmed by this offer. A 10,000X software only improvement factor is the equivalent to magic for this type of numeric solver software.
View attachment 127054
It could be, but if NASA is saying that it could be done... then they might be on to something... or not...
Personally, I'd first consider translating the software to a more efficient language that could also take advantage of modern resources...

This type of problem lends itself to parallel processing. Hell, maybe it works that way already, and that's where the most potential for improvement might be found.
 
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