Cluster Molecular Dynamics on Massively Parallel Computers

Abstract

AbstractWe report the results of computer simulations of phase transitions in noble-gas clusters. The calculations were performed on a MasPar MP-l massively parallel computer with 8,192 processing elements (PE's). We discuss the efficient implementation of molecular dynamics algorithms for small clusters on this type of architecture. The simulations are based on a classical Lennard-Jones pair potential and follow the temporal evolution of the system by numerically integrating Newton's equations of motion using the Gear algorithm. Because the number of particles is much smaller than the number of PE's, optimal partitioning of the processing element array is an essential and non-trivial task.