HDF5 is a mature library and file format for the exchange of scientific data, as well as for it's high-performance archival and retrieval. It has emerged as the standard for the underlying architecture in utilities such as pytables and NetCDF. HDF5 bindings exist for python, C++, Fortran and java, with others under active development. Recently ODBC support has been added and interoperability with Apache Spark and other hyperscale technologies has been demonstrated.

 

HDF5 has deep and rich functionality, and getting started with it can be challenging. This tutorial session will provide an introduction to basic concepts of HDF5, and will showcase how a small subset of its features have been used to tune the performance of a petascale seismic code.