Cactus: Issues for Sustainable Simulation Software

Abstract

The Cactus Framework is an open-source, modular, portable programming environment for the collaborative development and deployment of scientific applications using high-performance computing. Its roots reach back to 1996 at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications and the Albert Einstein Institute in Germany, where its development started. Since then, the Cactus framework has witnessed major changes in hardware infrastructure as well to its community. This paper describes its growth through these changes and, drawing upon lessons from its past, also discusses future challenges for Cactus.

Keywords

• frameworks
• scientific computing
• software sustainability