Junichiro Makino - Böcker

Scientific Simulations with Special-Purpose Computers. The GRAPE Systems J. Makino University of Tokyo, Japan and M. Taiji Institute for Statistical Mathematics, Tokyo, Japan Physics is full of complex many-body problems, i.e. problems where there are a large number of bodies interacting. This is particularly true in astrophysics, where stars or galaxies can be thought of as individual particles, but also in plasma physics, hydrodynamics and molecular dynamics. Special purpose computers have been developed to handle these highly complex problems. Scientific Simulations with Special-Purpose Computers gives an overview of these systems, and then focuses on an extremely high profile and successful project-the GRAPE computer at the University of Tokyo-and discusses its development, performance and applications across a range of problems. The future development and applications of special purpose computers are also discussed. Written by two of the leading developers of the GRAPE system, this unique volume will be of great interest to readers across a wide range of fields, including, astrophysicists, astronomers, plasma physicists, researchers in molecular dynamics and computer scientists.

This volume reviews progress in the study of dynamics of star clusters. It focuses on the progress of both the observation and the theoretical modelling of star clusters. Results from the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope (HST) include the mass function down to the hydrogen burning limits, white dwarf sequence, and central density profiles of "post-collapse" clusters by star counts. On the theoretical side, this symposium saw the first direct evidence of gravothermal oscillation through N-body simulation, which was made possible by GRAPE-4, the dedicated special-purpose computer for N-body simulation. Numerical techniques to combine stellar evolution and dynamical evolution of the cluster were presented.

This volume reviews progress in the study of the dynamics of star clusters. It focuses on the progress of both the observation and the theoretical modelling of star clusters. Results from the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope (HST) include the mass function down to the hydrogen burning limits, white dwarf sequence, and central density profiles of "post-collapse" clusters by star counts. On the theoretical side, this symposium saw the first direct evidence of gravothermal oscillation through N-body simulation, which was made possible by GRAPE-4, the dedicated special-purpose computer for N-body simulation. Numerical techniques to combine stellar evolution and dynamical evolution of the cluster were presented. The book will be of primary interest to astrophysicists.

The International Symposium on Supercomputing - New Horizon of Computational Science was held on September 1-3, 1997 at the Science MuseuminTokyo,tocelebrate60-yearbirthdayofProfessorDaiichiroSug- imoto,who hasbeenleadingtheoreticalandnumericalastrophysicsfor 30 years. The conference coveredexceptionally wide range ofsubjects, to follow Sugimoto'saccomplishmentsinmanyfields.Onthefirstdaywehadthree talksonstellarevolutionandsixtalksonstellardynamics. Onthesecond day, six talks on special-purpose computingand four talks on large-scale computing in MolecularDynamicswere given. Onthethirdandthelast day,threetalks on dedicatedcomputerson LatticeQCDcalculationsand sixtalksonpresentandfutureofgeneral-purposeHPCsystemsweregiven. Inaddition,some30posterswerepresentedonvarioussubjectsincompu- tationalscience. Instellarevolution, D.Arnett (Univ. ofArizona) gaveanexcellenttalk on the recent development in three-dimensionalsimulation ofSupernova, inparticularonquantitativecomparisonbetweendifferenttechniquessuch asgrid-basedmethodsandSPH (SmoothedParticleHydrodynamics). Y. Kondo (NASA) discussedresentadvanceinthemodelingoftheevolution ofbinarystars,and1.Hachisu(Univ. ofTokyo)discussedRayleigh-Taylor instabilitiesinsupernovae(contributionnotincluded).Instellardynamics, P.Hut(lAS)gaveasuperbreviewonthelong-term evolution ofstellarsystem, J. Makino (Univ. ofTokyo) described briefly theresultsobtainedonGRAPE-4special-purposecomputerandthefollow- up project,GRAPE-6,whichisapprovedas ofJune 1997. GRAPE-6will be completed by year 2001 with the peak speed around 200 Tflops. R. Spurzem (Rechen-Inst.) and D. Heggie (Univ. of Edinburgh) talked on recentadvanceinthestudyofstarclusters,andE.Athanassoula(Marseille Observatory) describedthe work doneusingtheirGRAPE-3 systems. S. Ida (TokyoInst. ofTechnology) describedthe result ofthe simulationof theformationofMoon. Thefirst talkoftheseconddaywas given by F-H. Hsu oftheIBMT.J. Watson Research center, on "Deep Blue", the special-purpose computer for Chess,which, forthefirst timeinthehistory, wonthematchwiththe besthumanplayer,Mr. GaryKasparov(unfortunately,Hsu'scontribution isnot included in this volume). Then A. Bakker of Delft Inst. of Tech- nology looked back his 20 years ofdevelopingspecial-purpose computers formoleculardynamicsandsimulationofspinsystems. J.Arnoldgavean overviewoftheemergingnewfieldofreconfigurablecomputing,whichfalls inbetweentraditionalgeneral-purposecomputersandspecial-purposecom- puters.S.Okumura(NAO)describedthehistoryofultra-high-performance digital signalprocessors for radio astronomy. They havebuilt a machine with 20GaPS performance in early 80s, and keep improvingthe speed. M. Taiji (ISM) told on general aspects of GRAPE-type systems, and T. Narumi (Univ. of Tokyo) the 100-Tflops GRAPE-type machine for MD calculations,whichwillbefinished by 1999.

This book describes how we can design and make efficient processors for high-performance computing, AI, and data science. In chapter 5, how we can actually design processors with near-optimal efficiencies is described, and in chapter 6 how we can program such processors.

This book describes how we can design and make efficient processors for high-performance computing, AI, and data science. In chapter 5, how we can actually design processors with near-optimal efficiencies is described, and in chapter 6 how we can program such processors.