Re: [Swarm-Modelling] ABMs on Graphical Processor Units

[Russell Standish]

On Thu, Dec 27, 2007 at 10:08:17AM -0500, Roshan D'Souza wrote:
> 
> Unfortunately, Swarm, Repast, MASON, NetLogo, EcoLab, ASCAPE etc are all
> discrete event simulators designed for von-Neumann architectures. To use
> Cell, GPUs etc, you have to go data-parallel like we did.
> 
> 
...
> 
> Cell processors are very limited in the sense that they do not allow
> dynamic branching in the code. They probably use loop unrolling to solve
> while and for statements. Also, the memory bandwidth is lower as compared
> to the GPUs. Double precision GPUs are already available from ATI and the
> new NVIDIA GeForce 9 series with a reputed 1 TeraFlop processing power
> will be available spring 08. I believe GPUs is the way to go until we hit
> power consumption issues.
> 
> Also, I have been trying to get NSF to fund this research. Not much luck
> till now. I was wondering if anybody here who work in the application
> areas would be able to write me support letters.

I think the most useful outcome of this work would be a library of
data structures and algorithms with a C language interface (with a JNI
Java interface a relatively trivial proposition on top of that) that
provides useful building blocks for ABMs. Such a library would be
useful for all of the above toolsets (except perhaps NetLogo, for
which is not obvious how you call the Java layer from logo).

I'd be interested in getting involved - I had a number of years
experience at SIMD style programming on Connection Machines, and also
Vector programming on Fujitsu Vector Processors, so I should have the
right mindset. I've just got to go and buy the right GPU (and possibly
an upgrade to my desktop machine to run it). Now if I can just get one
of my clients to fund this, all the better :)

> 
> Regards,
> Dr. Roshan M. D'Souza PhD
> Asst. Professor
> Dept. of ME-EM
> Michigan Tech University
> Houghton MI 49931
> Ph: 906-487-1001

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> Modelling mailing list
> address@hidden
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