Parallel Simulation of Ion Recombination in Nonpolar Liquids

Abstract. Ion recombination in nonpolar liquids is an important problem in radiation chemistry. We have designed and implemented a parallel Monte Carlo simulation for this computationally-intensive task on a network of workstations. The main problem with parallelizing this application is that the amount of work performed by each process decreases during execution, resulting in high communication overhead and load imbalances. We address this problem by dynamically adjusting the number of processors that are used. We have evaluated the performance of the parallel program on two systems, one using Ethernet and the other using Myrinet. On Ethernet, the program suffers from a large communication overhead. Using the Myrinet high-speed network in combination with a programming system (Orca) that is optimized for fast networks, however, the program obtains a high efficiency.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1997
• Where: HPCN
• Authors: Frank J. Seinstra, Henri E. Bal, Hans J. W. Spoelder
• Keywords: Communication Overhead, Distributed And Parallel Computing, HPCN 1997, Important Problem, Parallel Monte Carlo