Breakthroughs in electromagnetic simulation in Illinois supercomputer centreUrbana Champaign 10 July 2001 Researchers at the US Center for Computational Electromagnetics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed an algorithm to solve complex electromagnetic problems that is eight times faster than the previous fastest algorithm, a feat that will impact the analysis of electromagnetic scattering and allow complex real-world problems to be solved using computer simulations. Compute work has been done on a 128-processor SGI Origin2000 supercomputer
Weng Cho Chew, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the U
of I, and Research Scientist Sanjay Velamparambil used a 128-processor SGI
Origin2000 supercomputer at NCSA to compute electromagnetic scattering from
a full-size aircraft at a frequency of 8 gigahertz. The simulation involved
nearly 10.2 million unknown variables. The research is funded by the U. S.
Air Force Office of Scientific Research through the Multidisciplinary
Research Program of the University Research Initiative (MURI).
Electromagnetic scattering refers to how electromagnetic waves (microwaves
in this instance) are scattered when they come in contact with an
object--in this case an airplane. Scattering affects information that can
be obtained about the size, shape, and speed of the object. The algorithm
developed by Chew's group greatly speeds up the solution of integral
equations that arise in analyzing scattering and radiation problems. Their
technique can be applied to many areas of electrical engineering, including
the design of high-speed electronic circuits and the creation of
high-resolution radar cross-sections.
Three years ago, Chew's simulations could handle about 2 million unknowns.
Further refinements to the code about a year ago allowed the team to solve
problems with more than 9 million variables. The importance of this latest
simulation in the wake of the center's previous achievements is in the
technology used. The current simulation uses a new massively parallel
computer code called ScaleME (Scalable Multipole Engine) and a methodology
known as message passing, which harnesses the latent power of a massively
parallel computer.
Developing a scalable, parallel algorithm using message passing is a
challenge with numerous bottlenecks. Chew and his associates came up with
practical solutions to many of these bottlenecks and developed a core
algorithm that is more than eight times faster than previous algorithms.
This makes ScaleME the fastest algorithm to date used in electromagnetic
scattering research.
Although the current simulation is done on a supercomputer, ScaleME is
highly portable and works equally well on a variety of parallel computers,
including low-cost Linux clusters built from off-the-shelf components. This
fact will allow a larger number of users, often with limited budgets, to do
large-scale simulations.
Armed with the experience gained from these breakthrough simulations, Chew
and his team are currently working on electromagnetic scattering problems
involving larger aircrafts. That means solving even larger problems with
more complexities and more intricate details.
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