Unleashing PFlop/s for Plasma Science with PIConGPU

PIConGPU is a massively parallel open source particle-in-cell (PIC) code written for CUDA capable graphics cards (GPUs). PIC codes are used to model fully relativistic electro-magnetic interactions between particles and discrete mesh points (fields) in a self-consistent manner. That allows for ab-intio simulations ranging from astrophysical scenarios like emerging plasma instabilities to modern laser-driven particle accelerators like the laser-wakefield accelerator (LWFA).

In this talk, we will present the strategy to port a non-trivial algorithm to a modern, massively parallel hardware architecture like GPUs. We give a short introduction in our free multi-GPU Framework libPMacc for general mesh and particle based simulations. Based on that, scalings up to 18,000 GPUs on the Titan supercomputer (Oak Ridge National Lab) will be discussed.

Applications will include results of in-situ far field radiation diagnostics for the relativistic Kelvin-Helmholtz-Instability (KHI) by evolving billions of electrons and calculating their individual Liénard-Wiechert potential for arbitrary directions and frequencies on the fly.