Mapping schemes of the particle-in-cell method implemented on the PAX computer (Q1114378)

The particle-in-cell (PIC) model refers to the motion of many particles driven by a force that results in part from the field that they themselves generate. An example of the PIC model, an electrostatic electron plasma model, was processed by the parallel computer PAX. The potential field was solved by applying a fast Fourier transform to the Poisson equation. The workload in particle pushing was allocated by the Eulerian method (or present-address method) and the Lagrangian method (or birthplace method). Two schemes for the space mapping - direct and modular mappings - were also tested. It was demonstrated that modular mapping can overcome the efficiency degradation, which was observed in the direct mapping of the nonuniform particle distribution. The performance scaling law, a general expression for the execution time, and efficiency are given. Based on the scaling law, the performance is extended to a larger machine.