Petascale Parallelization of the Gyrokinetic Toroidal Code
Stephane Ethier (Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory)Mark Adams (Columbia University)
Jonathan Carter (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Leonid Oliker (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Abstract:
The Gyrokinetic Toroidal Code (GTC) is a global, three-dimensional particle-in-cell application developed to study microturbulence in tokamak fusion devices. The global capability of GTC is unique, allowing researchers to systematically analyze important dynamics such as turbulence spreading. In this work we examine a new radial domain decomposition approach to allow scalability onto the latest generation of petascale systems. Extensive performance evaluation is conducted on three high performance computing systems: the IBM BG/P, the Cray XT4, and an Intel Xeon Cluster. Overall results show that the radial decomposition approach dramatically increases scalability, while reducing the memory footprint - allowing for fusion device simulations at an unprecedented scale.
Keywords:
Large Scale Simulations in CS&E, Parallel and Distributed Computing, Performance Analysis
