introduction

The SciDAC Applied Partial Differential Equations Center for Enabling Technologies (APDEC) is developing a collection of algorithmic and software components that can be assembled to simulate a broad range of complex multicomponent physical systems in which partial differential equations plays a central role. Specifically, our goal is to enable the agile development of high-performance simulation codes for complex multiphysics and multiscale applications, by providing a flexible toolset that meets the following requirements:

Capability - a sufficient variety of tools to support the broadest possible range of applications and the ability to combine the tools in as many ways as possible;

Expressiveness - a factoring of the tools so that non-essential details are hidden from the user that doesn't need them, while providing access to those details to a user that wants to customize the capabilities in the software; and

Performance - the implementation of the tools to obtain the highest possible performance on high-end platforms.