Parallel-processing a large scientific problem

We discuss a parallel-processing experiment that uses a particle-in-cell (PIC) code to study the feasibility of doing large-scale scientific calculations on multiple-processor architectures. A multithread version of this Los Alamos PIC code was successfully implemented and timed on a UNIVAC System 1100/80 computer. Use of a single copy of the instruction stream, and common memory to hold data, eliminated data transmission between processors. The multiple-processing algorithm exploits the PIC code's high degree of large, independent tasks, as well as the configuration of the UNIVAC System 1100/80. Timing results for the multithread version of the PIC code using one, two, three, and four identical processors are given and are shown to have promising speedup times when compared to the overall run times measured for a single-thread version of the PIC code.