Field Model

Overview

Field Model (FM) is a C++ library designed to provide a model for scientific field data, in particular the large data sets typically produced by supercomputing systems. FM in particular is designed for analysis and visualization uses, i.e., post-processing scenarios or concurrent visualization applications [EHGMS06] where the data are read-only. FM was developed at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at NASA Ames Research Center, and has been used as one component in the development of visualization applications there (e.g., [EHGMS06,EGM04]). FM features:

Field Model is a follow-on to the Field Encapsulation Library (FEL) project [MHE00]. Like FEL, FM provides abstractions that support polymorphism with mesh and field objects. Also like FEL, FM adopts a consistent lazy-evalution philosophy and features out-of-core paging. Unlike FEL, FM provides a cleaner factoring between core field data abstractions and abstractions specific to a paricular data format, in particular, PLOT3D [WBPE92]. The goal is to be able to easily bring in data from a variety of data sources and formats into a common data model, enhancing the reuse of analysis algorithms written in terms of that model. FM also differs from FEL in that FM is availble as Open Source software.

See our Source Forge projects page for more.

References

[EHGMS06] David Ellsworth, Chris Henze, Bryan Green, Patrick Moran, and Timothy Sandstrom, "Concurrent Visualization in a Production Supercomputer Environment", IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (Proceedings Visualization 2006), Vol. 12, No. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2006, pages 997-1004. Access article via IEEE Xplore. See also technical report NAS-07-002.

[EGM04] David Ellsworth, Bryan Green, and Patrick Moran, "Interactive Terascale Particle Visualization", in Proceedings of Visualization 2004, Austin, TX, October 2004, pages 353-360. Access article via IEEE Xplore.

[EM03] David Ellsworth, and Patrick Moran, "Accelerating Large Data Analysis By Exploiting Regularities," in Proceedings IEEE Visualization 2003, Seattle, WA, October 2003, pp. 561-568. Access article via IEEE Xplore.

[MHE00] Patrick J. Moran, Chris Henze and David Ellsworth, "Field Encapsulation Library: The FEL 2.2 User Guide," NAS Technical Report NAS-00-002. NASA Ames Research Center, January, 2000. Access the report via the NAS web site.

[MH99] Patrick Moran and Chris Henze, "Large Field Visualization With Demand-Driven Calculation," in Proceedings IEEE Visualization 1999, San Francisco, California, October 1999, pp. 27-33. Access article via IEEE Xplore.

[CE97] Michael Cox and David Ellsworth, "Application-Controlled Demand Paging for Out-of-Core Visualization," Proceedings of Visualization '97, Phoenix, AZ, October 1997, pp. 235-244. See also technical report NAS-97-010.

[WBPE92] P. Walatka, P. Buning, L. Pierce, and P. Elson. "PLOT3D Users Manual," NASA Technical Memorandum 101067.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the NAS Division at NASA Ames Research Center for providing a stimulating research and development environment. Thanks to SourceForge for hosting Field Model.

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