First steps towards more numerical reproducibility

Abstract : Questions whether numerical simulation is reproducible or not have been reported in several sensitive applications. Numerical reproducibility failure mainly comes from the finite precision of computer arithmetic. Results of floating-point computation depends on the computer arithmetic precision and on the order of arithmetic operations. Massive parallel HPC which merges, for instance, many-core CPU and GPU, clearly modifies these two parameters even from run to run on a given computing platform. How to trust such computed results? This paper presents how three classic approaches in computer arithmetic may provide some first steps towards more numerical reproducibility.