Global‐view coefficients: a data management solution for parallel quantum Monte Carlo applications. (28th January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Niu, Qingpeng; Dinan, James; Tirukkovalur, Sravya; Benali, Anouar; Kim, Jeongnim; Mitas, Lubos; Wagner, Lucas; Sadayappan, P.
• Is Part Of: Concurrency and computation. Volume 28:Number 13(2016)
• Page Start: 3655
• Page End: 3671
• Publication Date: 2016-01-28
• Subjects: quantum Monte Carlo -- global arrays -- PGAS; Parallel processing (Electronic computers) -- Periodicals; Parallel computers -- Periodicals; 004.35
• DOI: 10.1002/cpe.3748
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1532-0626

Abstract

Summary: Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) applications perform simulation with respect to an initial state of the quantum mechanical system, which is often captured by using a cubic B‐spline basis. This representation is stored as a read‐only table of coefficients and accesses to the table are generated at random as part of the Monte Carlo simulation. Current QMC applications, such as QWalk and QMCPACK, replicate this table at every process or node, which limits scalability because increasing the number of processors does not enable larger systems to be run. We present a partitioned global address space approach to transparently managing this data using Global Arrays in a manner that allows the memory of multiple nodes to be aggregated. We develop an automated data management system that significantly reduces communication overheads, enabling new capabilities for QMC codes. Experimental results with QWalk and QMCPACK demonstrate the effectiveness of the data management system. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.