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Call for Papers PAW-ATM 2026:
Parallel Applications Workshop,
Alternatives To MPI+X
Held in conjunction with SC26, Chicago, IL
Submissions deadline: July 24, 2026
Notification to authors: August 30, 2026
Workshop date: November 15-20, 2026
https://sourceryinstitute.github.io/PAW/
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SUMMARY
As supercomputers become more and more powerful, the number and diversity of
applications that can be tackled with these machines grow. Unfortunately, the
architectural complexity of these supercomputers grows as well, with heterogeneous
processors, multiple levels of memory hierarchy, and many ways to move data and
synchronize between processors. The MPI+X programming model, use of which is
considered by many to be standard practice, demands that a programmer be expert
in both the application domain and the low-level details of the architecture(s)
on which that application will be deployed, and the availability of such superhuman
programmers is a critical bottleneck. Things become more complicated when evolution
and change in the underlying architecture translates into significant re-engineering
of the MPI+X code to maintain performance.
Numerous alternatives to the MPI+X model exist, and by raising the level of
abstraction on the application domain and/or the target architecture, they offer
the ability for “mere mortal” programmers to take advantage of the supercomputing
resources that are available to advance science and tackle urgent real-world problems.
However, compared to the MPI+X approach, these alternatives generally lack two things.
First, they aren’t as well known as MPI+X and a domain scientist may simply not be
aware of models that are a good fit to their domain. Second, they are less mature
than MPI+X and likely have more functionality or performance “potholes” that need
only be identified to be addressed.
PAW-ATM is a forum for discussing HPC applications written in alternatives to
MPI+X. Its goal is to bring together application experts and proponents of
high-level languages to present concrete example uses of such alternatives,
describing their benefits and challenges.
SCOPE AND AIMS
The PAW-ATM workshop is designed to be a forum for discussion of
supercomputing-scale parallel applications and their implementation in programming
models outside of the dominant MPI+X paradigm. Papers and talks will explore the
benefits (or perhaps drawbacks) of implementing specific applications with
alternatives to MPI+X, whether those benefits are in performance, scalability,
productivity, or some other metric important to that application domain.
Presenters are encouraged to generalize the experience with their application
to other domains in science and engineering and to bring up specific areas of
improvement for the model(s) used in the implementation.
In doing so, our hope is to create a setting in which application authors, language
designers, and architects can present and discuss the state of the art in alternative
scalable programming models, while also wrestling with how to increase their
effectiveness and adoption. Beyond well-established HPC scientific simulations, we also
encourage submissions exploring artificial intelligence, big data analytics,
machine learning, and other emerging application areas.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
* Novel application development using high-level parallel programming languages
and frameworks
* Examples that demonstrate performance, compiler optimization, error checking,
and reduced software complexity
* Applications from artificial intelligence, data analytics, bioinformatics, and
other novel areas
* Performance evaluation of applications developed using alternatives to MPI+X
and comparisons to standard programming models
* Novel algorithms enabled by high-level parallel abstractions
* Experience with the use of new compilers and runtime environments
* Libraries using or supporting alternatives to MPI+X
* Benefits of hardware abstraction and data locality on algorithm
implementation
Papers that include description of applications that demonstrate the use of
alternative programming models will be given higher priority.
SUBMISSIONS
Submissions are solicited in two categories:
1) Full-length papers presenting novel research results:
* Full-length papers will be published in the workshop proceedings. Submitted
papers must describe original work that has not appeared in, nor is under
consideration for, another conference or journal. Papers shall be eight (8)
pages minimum and not exceed ten (10) pages including text, figures, and
non-AD/AE appendices, but excluding bibliography, acknowledgments and AD/AE
appendices.
PAW-ATM follows the reproducibility initiative of SC26. Submissions shall
include an Artifact Description (AD) appendix, and may optionally include an
Artifact Evaluation (AE) appendix.
Authors should include a draft of the AD/AE appendices with the initial
manuscript PDF submission. You will have the opportunity to revise the AD/AE
appendices after papers are accepted and before artifact evaluation. See
https://sourceryinstitute.github.io/PAW/ for further details.
2) User experience abstracts:
* Abstracts will be evaluated separately and will not be included in the
published proceedings. Submissions in this track include a title and 1-4
pages abstract. The content may include any combination of novel and/or
previously published work that is relevant to the workshop’s scope. Content
that highlights the experiences of users of alternatives of MPI, and their
applications, will be prioritized within this submission category.
Abstracts may optionally include AD/AE appendices, not included in the
abstract page count, but such appendices will NOT be evaluated and no badges
will be awarded.
WORKSHOP CHAIR
* Karla Vanessa Morris Wright – Sandia National Laboratories
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
* Daniele Lezzi – Barcelona Supercomputing Center
* Tasuku Hiraishi – Kyoto Tachibana University
* Katherine Rasmussen – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
* Elliott Slaughter – SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
PROGRAM COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS
* Daniele Lezzi – Barcelona Supercomputing Center
* Katherine Rasmussen – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
* Oliver Alvarado Rodriguez – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
* Scott Baden – University of California, San Diego
* Dan Bonachea – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
* Nils Deppe – Cornell University
* Jason DeVinney – Center for Computing Sciences
* Nelson Dias – Federal University of Paraná
* Ryan D. Friese – Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
* Yanfei Guo – NVIDIA
* Magne Haveraaen – University of Bergen
* Tasuku Hiraishi – Kyoto Tachibana University
* Engin Kayraklioglu – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
* Daniele Lezzi – Barcelona Supercomputing Center
* Nouredine Melab – University of Lille
* Esteban Meneses Rojas – National High Technology Center
* Henry Monge Camacho – Oak Ridge National Laboratory
* Karla Vanesa Morris Wright – Sandia National Laboratories
* Brandon Neth – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
* Katherine Rasmussen – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
* Michael Schlottke-Lakemper – University of Augsburg
* Shumpei Shiina – Toyota Motor Corporation
* Elliott Slaughter – SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
* Andy Stone – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
* Gabriel Tanase – Amazon Web Services
* Thiago Teixeira – Intel
* Sean Treichler – NVIDIA
* Miwako Tsuji – Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
* Bradford L. Chamberlain – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
* Damian W. I. Rouson – Sourcery Institute
ARTIFACT EVALUATION COMMITTEE CHAIR
* Elliott Slaughter – SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
* Olivier Aumage – Inria
ARTIFACT EVALUATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS
* Keylor Arley – Universidad Costa Rica
* Yakup Budanaz – Technical University of Munich
* Fabio Durastante – University of Pisa
* Guillaume Helbecque – University of Lille
* Mert Hidayetoglu – Stanford University
* Jonas Posner – Fulda University of Applied Sciences
* Soren Rasmussen – National Center for Atmospheric Research
IMPORTANT DATES
* Manuscript Submissions deadline: July 24, 2026
* Artifact Description (AD) Stage 1 (mandatory) Submissions deadline: July 24, 2026
* Notification to authors: August 31, 2026
* Artifact Evaluation (AE) Stage 2 (optional) Submissions deadline: September 4, 2026
* AE and Reproducibility Badges review period: September 7–23, 2026
* Final AD/AE/Badges decisions and notification to authors: September 24, 2026
* Final program: September 6, 2026
* Camera-ready papers due from authors: September 25, 2026
* November 15–20, 2026: Workshop at SC26