Modeling the performance of hypercubes: A case study using the particle- in-cell application (Q1114375)

We have mapped onto the iPSC hypercube a particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm that executes a plasma simulation. PIC simulates the movement of charged particles under the influence of an electrostatic field. This application provides a simple example of the problems associated with load balancing on distributed memory architectures. We present several alternative solutions to mappings of the algorithm onto the hypercube. One solution's performance is modeled and benchmarked with data from an implementation on the iPSC. The model is used to predict performance for larger size problems and a state-of-the-art hypercube architecture. We also introduce the use of provably optimal global communication algorithms that are needed for the PIC implementation on the hypercube.