The algorithms, implementation details, and applications of VPIC, a state-of-the-art first principles 3D electromagnetic relativistic kinetic particle-in-cell code, are discussed. Unlike most codes, VPIC is designed to minimize data motion, as, due to physical limitations (including the speed of light!), moving data between and even within modern microprocessors is more time consuming than performing computations. As a result, VPIC has achieved unprecedented levels of performance. For example, VPIC can perform billion cold particles pushed and charge conserving accumulated per second per processor on IBM’s Cell microprocessor—equivalent to sustaining Los Alamos’s planned Roadrunner supercomputer at petaflop (quadrillion floating point operations per second). VPIC has enabled previously intractable simulations in numerous areas of plasma physics, including magnetic reconnection and laser plasma interactions; next generation supercomputers like Roadrunner will enable further advances.
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May 2008
Research Article|
March 05 2008
Ultrahigh performance three-dimensional electromagnetic relativistic kinetic plasma simulationa)
K. J. Bowers;
K. J. Bowers
c)
Plasma Theory and Applications (X-1-PTA),
Los Alamos National Laboratory
, MS F699, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
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B. J. Albright;
B. J. Albright
Plasma Theory and Applications (X-1-PTA),
Los Alamos National Laboratory
, MS F699, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
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L. Yin;
L. Yin
Plasma Theory and Applications (X-1-PTA),
Los Alamos National Laboratory
, MS F699, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
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B. Bergen;
B. Bergen
Plasma Theory and Applications (X-1-PTA),
Los Alamos National Laboratory
, MS F699, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
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T. J. T. Kwan
T. J. T. Kwan
Plasma Theory and Applications (X-1-PTA),
Los Alamos National Laboratory
, MS F699, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
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Phys. Plasmas 15, 055703 (2008)
Article history
Received:
November 08 2007
Accepted:
January 15 2008
Citation
K. J. Bowers, B. J. Albright, L. Yin, B. Bergen, T. J. T. Kwan; Ultrahigh performance three-dimensional electromagnetic relativistic kinetic plasma simulation. Phys. Plasmas 1 May 2008; 15 (5): 055703. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2840133
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