SCALABLE HIGH-PERFORMANCE LATTICE GAS SUPERCOMPUTER ALGE FOR FINE-GRAINED MODELING OF COMPLEX GEOPHYSICAL SYSTEMS

OBJECTIVE: PROVIDE COMPLETE DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS FOR A TACTICAL SCALABLE HIGH-PERFORMANCE LATTICE GAS (LG) SUPERCOMPUTER ALGE FOR FINE-GRAINED MODELING OF COMPLEX GEOPHYSICAL SYSTEMS. EFFORT: BASED ON THE ADVANCED ARCHITECTURAL AND VLSI TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION WORK PIONEERED AT STANFORD AND ELSEWHERE ON A SCALABLE HIGH-PERFORMANCE LATTICE GAS SUPERCOMPUTER ALGE WE WILL DERIVE COMPLETE DESIGN (TECHNOLOGY-SENSITIVE HIGH LEVEL VHDL - E.G. SUB-MICRON CMOS) SPECIFICATIONS FOR A COMPETITIVE CAM ARCHITECTURE. THESE SPECIFICATIONS WILL INCLUDE CAD BASED SCHEMATIC CAPTURE, BOARD ROUTING, MECHANICAL HOUSING, COOLING (E.G. AIR FOR BOARDS, MICRO-CHANNEL FOR CHIP-MODULES), AND OPTIMIZATION AND INTEGRATION OF VISUALIZATION AND OTHER IMPORTANT I/O FUNCTIONS (OPERATING SYSTEM AND USER-TABLE AND DISPLAY PALETTE TABLE MANAGEMENT) IN ORDER TO AVOID OVERALL PERFORMANCE BOTTLENECKS. THESE FUNCTIONS ARE RELATIVELY STRAIGHTFORWARD TO PROVIDE FOR 2D LATTICE GAS COMPUTATION, BUT ARE VERY CRUCIAL IN PROVIDING SCALABLE HIGH PERFORMANCE SUPERCOMPUTING FOR 3-DIMENSIONAL TIME-EVOLVED LATTICE GAS (E.G. THE 24BIT 3-D RESP. 4-D TYPE MODELS).