Skip to main content
Log in

A Note on N-Body Computations with Cutoffs

  • Published:
Theory of Computing Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

    We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.

    Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.

Abstract

We provide a theoretical analysis of the communication requirements of parallel algorithms for molecular dynamic simulations. We describe two commonly used algorithms, space decomposition and force decomposition, and analyze their communication requirements; each is better in a distinct computation regime. We next introduce a new hybrid algorithm that further reduces communication. We show that the new algorithm is optimal, by providing a matching lower bound.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. M.P. Allen and D.J. Tildesley. Computer Simulation of Liquid}. Oxford Science Publications, Oxford, 1987.

  2. G.S. Almasi C. Cascaval J.G. Castaños M. Denneau et al. (2002) ArticleTitleDemonstrating the scalability of a molecular dynamics application on a petaflop computer Journal of Parallel Programming 30 317–351 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1019856029918 Occurrence Handle1012.68048

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. A.Bar-Noy and S.Kipnis. Designing broadcasting algorithms in the postal model for message-passing systems. In Proceedings of the 4th Annual Symposium on Parallel Algorithms and Architectures, pages 13–22, 1992.

  4. J. Board K. Schulten (2000) ArticleTitleThe fast multipole algorithm IEEE Computational Science & Engineering 2 56–59

    Google Scholar 

  5. Yu.D. Burago and V.A. Zalgaller. \Geometric Inequalities}. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1988.

  6. M.T. Dickerson D. Eppstein (1996) ArticleTitleAlgorithms for proximity problems in higher dimensions Computational Geometry Theory and Applications 5 277–291

    Google Scholar 

  7. P. Ewald (192) ArticleTitleDie Berechnung optischer und elektrostatischer Gitterpotentiale Annalen der Physik 64 253–287 Occurrence Handle48.0566

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  8. L.F. Greengard. The Rapid Evaluation of Potential Fields in Particle Systems. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1988.

  9. L. Greengard V. Rokhlin (1987) ArticleTitleA fast algorithm for particle simulation Journal of Computational Physics 73 325–348

    Google Scholar 

  10. R. Motwani and P. Raghavan. Randomized Algorithms. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995.

  11. S. Plimpton (1995) ArticleTitleFast parallel algorithms for short-range molecular dynamics Journal of Computational Physics 117 1–19

    Google Scholar 

  12. M. Snir. A note on n-body computation with cutoffs. Technical Report RC22059, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, 2001.

  13. V.E. Taylor R. Stevens K. Arnold (1997) ArticleTitleParallel molecular dynamics: implications for massively parallel machines Journal on Parallel and Distributed Computin 45 166–175

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marc Snir.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Snir, M. A Note on N-Body Computations with Cutoffs. Theory Comput Systems 37, 295–318 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00224-003-1071-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00224-003-1071-0

Keywords

Navigation