Massively Parallel QCD
The theory of the strong nuclear force, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), can be numerically simulated from first principles on massively-parallel supercomputers using the method of Lattice Gauge Theory. We describe the special programming requirements of lattice QCD (LQCD) as well as the optimal supercomputer hardware architectures that it suggests. We demonstrate these methods on the BlueGene massively-parallel supercomputer and argue that LQCD and the BlueGene architecture are a natural match. This can be traced to the simple fact that LQCD is a regular lattice discretization of space into lattice sites while the BlueGene supercomputer is a discretization of space into compute nodes, and that both are constrained by requirements of locality. This simple relation is both technologically important and theoretically intriguing. The main result of this paper is the speedup of LQCD using up to 131,072 CPUs on the largest BlueGene/L supercomputer. The speedup is perfect with sustained performance of about 20% of peak. This corresponds to a maximum of 70.5 sustained TFlop/s. At these speeds LQCD and BlueGene are poised to produce the next generation of strong interaction physics theoretical results.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 940899
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JRNL-229921; IBMJAE; TRN: US0807241
- Journal Information:
- IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 52, Issue 1/2; ISSN 0018-8646
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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