SFB 716 Subproject D.9

For simulations with really huge numbers of particles, the biggest computers of the world are required. The full power of a super computer such as Hawk, Stuttgart's high-performance computer at the HLRS, is required to simulate problems that match the size of the smallest experiments that can be realized. With Hawk's almost 320,000 cores that's easier said than done - even for simple scenarios. And if one considers highly dynamic scenarios for which the particle distribution changes quickly and frequently in time, such as those studied in the SFB, then it is a major challenge to keep so many processors constantly busy. Good load balancing is then the crucial bottleneck.

In this project, we study the load balancing of dynamical simulations with huge numbers of particles. New algorithms have to be developed, and classical schemes to distribute load amongst the processors have to be questioned. D.9 aims to demonstrate for and with scenarios of the SFB that simulations can then be “a bit larger and faster”.