[Beowulf] cluster softwares supporting parallel CFD computing

[Mattijs Janssens]

Patrick Geoffray wrote:
> Alas, people use blocking calls in general because
> they are lazy (50%), they don't know (40%) or they don't care (10%).

We did some tests with non-blocking v.s. blocking. Unfortunately in our code 
there is only a small window of overlap, i.e. almost immediately after one 
computes a result and swaps it to the neighbouring processor the value 
received from the neighbour is needed.

On small cases non-blocking was faster than blocking, on larger cases blocking 
definitely was advantageous. Maybe the MPI code used (LAM) does not handle 
multiple outstanding sends/receives well, maybe the network card does not 
like it, maybe it causes collisions at the destination processor. Anybody can 
comment on this?

(we got best performance by scheduling the communication so it happens in 
pairs. Every processor swaps its data with one of its neighbours (we're using 
domain decomposition), then goes and swaps to a different neighbour. This 
schedule lasts until every processor has swapped with all its neighbours. The 
schedule is determined at the start of the run since the decomposition does 
not change)

Mattijs

-- 

Mattijs Janssens

OpenCFD Ltd.
The Mews, Picketts Lodge,
Picketts Lane, Salfords,
Surrey RH1 5RG.
Tel: +44 (0)1293 821272
Email: M.Janssens at OpenCFD.co.uk
URL: http://www.OpenCFD.co.uk