This repository contains a number of games that we have used to help build intuition around High Performance Computing concepts. We have incorporated them into short courses and workshops whose audience includes current and future users of an HPC System. They could also be played as a demonstration for those interested in how these systems and programs work.
The Be the Scheduler game was created to answer the question "Why isn't my job running?". This game simulates the operation of an HPC Scheduler, or resource manager. The cluster and jobs are made up of Lego pieces and a deck of cards are jobs that are submitted to the scheduler.
In this game, students act out a parallel computation as processors within a cluster. The full game demonstrates a hybrid parallel computing program, using both shared and distributed memory. Each student is a processor and completes a given task, whose result is a letter and a position. The final result is a completed phrase.
This simple game demonstrates the basics of shared and distributed parallel programs. Students represent processors that are working together on a task (a jigsaw puzzle). In the Shared Memory round, small groups work on small puzzles together. The Distributed Memory round consists of large puzzles that are broken up amongst teams, and then gathered together in a final communication step.