0.374 Pflop/s trillion-particle kinetic modeling of laser plasma interaction on Roadrunner

  • Authors:

  • K. J. Bowers;B. J. Albright;B. Bergen;L. Yin;K. J. Barker;D. J. Kerbyson

  • Affiliations:

  • X-1-PTA Plasma Theory and Applications;X-1-PTA Plasma Theory and Applications;CCS-2 Computational Physics;X-1-PTA Plasma Theory and Applications;Computing of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM;Computing of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 2008 ACM/IEEE conference on Supercomputing
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

We demonstrate the outstanding performance and scalability of the VPIC kinetic plasma modeling code on the heterogeneous IBM Roadrunner supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory. VPIC is a three-dimensional, relativistic, electromagnetic, particle-in-cell (PIC) code that self-consistently evolves a kinetic plasma. VPIC simulations of laser plasma interaction were conducted at unprecedented fidelity and scale---up to 1.0 x 1012 particles on as many as 136 x 106 voxels---to model accurately the particle trapping physics occurring within a laser-driven hohlraum in an inertial confinement fusion experiment. During a parameter study of laser reflectivity as a function of laser intensity under experimentally realizable hohlraum conditions [1], we measured sustained performance exceeding 0.374 Pflop/s (s.p.) with the inner loop itself achieving 0.488 Pflop/s (s.p.). Given the increasing importance of data motion limitations, it is notable that this was measured in a PIC calculation---a technique that typically requires more data motion per computation than other techniques (such as dense matrix calculations, molecular dynamics N-body calculations and Monte-Carlo calculations) often used to demonstrate supercomputer performance. This capability opens up the exciting possibility of using VPIC to model, from first-principles, an issue critical to the success of the multi-billion dollar DOE/NNSA National Ignition Facility.