A framework for parallel computational physics algorithms on multi-core: SPH in parallel

  • Authors:

  • David W. Holmes;John R. Williams;Peter Tilke

  • Affiliations:

  • Mechanical Engineering, James Cook University, Douglas, Townsville Qld 4811, Australia;Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA;Department of Mathematics and Modeling, Schlumberger-Doll Research Center, 1 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, MA 02139-1578, USA

  • Venue:
  • Advances in Engineering Software
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

In this paper, a simulation framework that enables distributed numerical computing in multi-core shared-memory environments is presented. Using multiple threads allows a single memory image to be shared concurrently across cores but potentially introduces race conditions. Race conditions can be avoided by ensuring each core operates on an isolated memory block. This is usually achieved by running a different operating system process on each core, such as multiple MPI processes. However, we show that in many computational physics problems, memory isolation can also be enforced within a single process by leveraging spatial sub-division of the physical domain. A new spatial sub-division algorithm is presented that ensures threads operate on different memory blocks, allowing for in-place updates of state, with no message passing or creation of local variables during time stepping. Additionally, the developed framework controls task distribution dynamically ensuring an events based load balance. Results from fluid mechanics analysis using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) are presented demonstrating linear performance with number of cores.