HDF5 Tag

Why do we use HDF5? We moved to HDF5 for our simulation data in 2016 from using our own proprietary file format. HDF5 had been on our radar for some time and we spent a couple of years investigating it and other file formats before deciding which we should switch to. HDF5 met all the criteria we had at the time. Amongst the criteria were: performance in speed and size, an accepted standard for scientific data, being open source, providing additional tools....

Tobias Weinzierl, Durham University, UK, Sven Köppel, FIAS, Germany, Michael Bader, TUM, Germany, HDF Guest Bloggers ExaHyPE develops a solver engine for hyperbolic differential equations solved on adaptive Cartesian meshes. It supports various HDF5 output formats. Exascale computing is expected to allow scientists and engineers to simulate, and ultimately understand, wave phenomena with unprecedented accuracy over unprecedented time spans. To harvest the power of exascale machines, well-suited software however has to become available. ExaHyPE is a H2020 project writing a PDE solver engine—similar to a 3D computer game engine—that will allow groups with a decent CSE expertise to write their own solver for hyperbolic equation systems within a year. The resulting solver will scale to exascale. This is made possible by the unique...

Internal compression is one of several powerful HDF5 features that distinguish HDF5 from other binary formats and make it very attractive for storing and organizing data. Internal HDF5 compression saves storage space and I/O bandwidth and allows efficient partial access to data. Chunk storage must be used when HDF5 compression is enabled....

Scot Martin, Harvard University, HDF Guest Blogger HDF5 storage is really interesting. To me, its format has no fixed structure, but instead is based on introspection and discovery. Seems great to me; Mathematica has its origins first in artificial intelligence, so we ought to be able to do something here.  Approaching twenty-two years with Mathematica and almost a “Hello, World!” ability in C, I decided to jump right in. Enter The HDF Group's P/Invoke for my salvation. Here’s how we make use of it in Mathematica: LoadNETAssembly["HDF.PInvoke.dll"] Bang! Ready to go in Mathematica. Here’s a proof of concept for how it works: Module[ (* The three symbols should have initial values so that there is *) (* memory allocation when Mathematica interfaces with P/Invoke. *) {major=0,minor=0,revision=0,return}, CompoundExpression[ (* access...

Christian Hoene, Symonics GmbH; and Piotr Majdak, Acoustics Research Institute; HDF Guest Bloggers Spatial audio - 3D sound.  Back in the ‘70’s, “dummy head” microphones were used to create spatial audio recordings. With headphones, one was able to listen to those recordings and marvel at the impressive spatial distribution of sounds – just like in real life. [caption id="attachment_11132" align="aligncenter" width="624"] Displays the difference between listening to a real source and listening to realistic virtual sounds via headphones[/caption] Nowadays, we have a much better understanding of the human binaural perception and we can even simulate spatial audio signals with the help of computers.  Indeed, a modern virtual reality (VR) headset such as the Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear utilizes 3D audio to allow...

The HDF Server allows producers of complex datasets to share their results with a wide audience base. We used it to develop the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED) Analysis Tool, a website which guides the user through our dataset. A simple webmap interface allows users to select an area of interest and produce data visualization charts. ...