This month, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) became an institutional member of the High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF), a move that will expand the reach of Lab-developed scientific software, strengthen software stewardship, and give researchers a voice in shaping the future of high-performance computing (HPC) software.

As HPC and artificial intelligence (AI) adoption grows, more data centers are deploying GPUs and other accelerators, increasing the demand for portable, scalable software. Launched in 2024 as a subset of the Linux Foundation, HPSF provides a neutral platform for collaboration across industry, academia, and government to advance high-performance software stacks. By fostering a community-driven ecosystem, HPSF aims to enhance adoption and ensure the long-term impact and responsible management of high-performance scientific software.

“By joining HPSF as an institutional member, Berkeley Lab ensures that our researchers and developers have a seat at the table in shaping the future of HPC software. This membership strengthens our commitment to open, well-maintained, and portable scientific software, enabling us to collaborate with a broad open-source community to drive innovation and extend the impact of our work,” said Stefan Wild, Director of Berkeley Lab’s Applied Math and Computational Research (AMCR) Division.

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a Department of Energy Office of Science HPC user facility based at Berkeley Lab, plans to utilize software supported through HPSF to streamline its infrastructure setup and extend HPSF’s tools for its 12,000+ users. These tools enhance a variety of important activities on NERSC’s HPC and AI systems — including performance benchmarking, regression testing, and adherence to software development best practices. Brandon Cook, who leads NERSC’s Programming Environments and Models Group, notes that integrating HPSF software into lab-based HPC user facilities is a key component of the broader software ecosystem, supporting code development, testing, and delivery to a wide scientific community.

Before Berkeley Lab became an institutional member of HPSF, several of its software teams were already involved as HPSF project members — including AMReX and WarpX. These teams emphasized the benefits of having an entity like the Linux Foundation behind HPSF, including its credibility, infrastructure, and global network.

Experts note that the HPC community has historically been fragmented, with many similar capabilities being developed at different institutions. As a result, scientists and HPC users often hesitated to rely on third-party libraries due to a lack of reliable software support and governance models. However, efforts like the U.S. Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP) and the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking have helped foster a culture of joint multi-institutional development. HPSF builds on this momentum by providing a structured environment for collaboration and idea exchange, supporting training materials, and ensuring software is tuned for high-performance environments through continuous integration and engagement with HPC centers.

HPSF will host its inaugural HPSF Conference in Chicago, Illinois, this May. This event is “dedicated to advancing community-driven solutions for performance, portability, and productivity in a rapidly evolving High-Performance Computing (HPC) landscape.” As part of this conference, many of the member projects will host workshops focused on their packages.   

“We’re excited to bring so many AMReX users and developers together in one place to talk about how they currently use AMReX and what features would benefit them in the future,” said Ann Almgren, head of Berkeley Lab’s Applied Math Department and one of the lead developers of the AMReX code. “And we’re glad to be doing it in this way, as part of the larger scientific software community. We share the common goal of creating a sustainable, collaborative scientific software ecosystem where efforts like ours can thrive. Berkeley Lab joining HPSF as an institutional member is a significant step in that direction.”