Single-precision arithmetic in ECHAM radiation reduces runtime and energy consumption

Cotronei, Alessandro; Slawig, Thomas

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-2783-2020

Articles | Volume 13, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-2783-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-2783-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 6

Development and technical paper

|

24 Jun 2020

Development and technical paper |

| 24 Jun 2020

Single-precision arithmetic in ECHAM radiation reduces runtime and energy consumption

Alessandro Cotronei and Thomas Slawig

Data sets

Single precision arithmetic in ECHAM radiation reduces runtime and energy consumption Alessandro Cotronei and Thomas Slawig https://doi.org/10.5281/3560536

Short summary

We converted the radiation part of the atmospheric model ECHAM to single-precision arithmetic, using a step-by-step change in all modules. A small code portion still requires higher precision. The generated code can be easily changed from double to single precision and vice versa. The quality of the output of the single-precision version is comparable to observational data and the one of the original code. The runtime was reduced by 40 %, and the energy consumption could also be decreased.