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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Large-scale particle simulations in a virtual-memory computer

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6925786
Virtual memory computers are capable of executing large-scale particle simulations even when the memory requirements exceed the computer core size. The required address space is automatically mapped onto slow disc memory by the operating system. When the simulation size is very large, frequent random accesses to slow memory occur during the charge accumulation and particle pushing processes. Accesses to slow memory significantly reduce the execution rate of the simulation. We demonstrate in this paper that with the proper choice of sorting algorithm, a nominal amount of sorting to keep physically adjacent particles near particles with neighboring array indices can reduce random access to slow memory, increase the efficiency of the I/O system, and hence, reduce the required computing time.
Research Organization:
Texas Univ., Austin (USA). Inst. for Fusion Studies; Alaska Univ., Fairbanks (USA). Geophysical Inst.
DOE Contract Number:
FG05-80ET53088
OSTI ID:
6925786
Report Number(s):
DOE/ET/53088-64; IFSR-64; ON: DE82021224
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English