Optimal Checkpointing for Adjoint Multistage Time-Stepping Schemes

Abstract: We consider checkpointing strategies that minimize the number of recomputations needed when performing discrete adjoint computations using multistage time-stepping schemes, which requires computing several substeps within one complete time step. In this case we propose two algorithms that can generate optimal checkpointing schedules under weak assumptions. The first is an extension of the seminal Revolve algorithm adapted to multistage schemes. The second algorithm, named CAMS, is developed based on dynamic programming, and it requires the least number of recomputations when compared with other algorithms. The CAMS algorithm is made publicly available in a library with bindings to C and Python. Numerical results illustrate that the proposed algorithms can deliver up to two times the speedup compared with that of classical Revolve. Moreover, we discuss a tailored implementation of an adjoint computation that is arguably better suited for mature scientific computing libraries by avoiding the central control assumed by the original checkpointing strategy. The proposed algorithms have been adopted by the PETSc TSAdjoint library. Their performance has been demonstrated with a large-scale PDE-constrained optimization problem on a leadership-class supercomputer.