The impact of advances in computer technology on particle transport Monte Carlo

Conference · Tue Jan 21 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:6870617

Martin, W R ^[1]; Rathkopf, J A ^[2]; Brown, F B ^[3]

---

1. Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering
2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
3. Knolls Atomic Power Lab., Schenectady, NY (United States)

Advances in computer technology, including hardware, architectural, and software advances, have led to dramatic gains in computer performance over the past decade. We summarize these performance trends and discuss the extent to which particle transport Monte Carlo codes have been able to take advantage of these performance gains. We consider MIMD, SIMD, and parallel distributed computer configurations for particle transport Monte Carlo applications. Some specific experience with vectorization and parallelization of production Monte Carlo codes is included. The topic of parallel random number generation is discussed in some detail. Finally, some software issues that hinder the implementation of Monte Carlo methods on parallel processors are addressed.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 6870617
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC-109525; CONF-920431--30; ON: DE93009550
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

663600* -- Radiation Physics-- (1992-)
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200 -- Mathematics & Computers
ARRAY PROCESSORS
CALCULATION METHODS
ITERATIVE METHODS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
PARALLEL PROCESSING
PERFORMANCE
PROGRAMMING
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADIATION TRANSPORT
SHIELDING