Hello,
Question: When thinking about multiple core processors, will Elmer Multi-physics take advantage of processor multitasking? I assume it will since you mentioned MPI[1]. Since I am learning, I thought I would make sure before I concentrate on such processors as Intel Xenon.
I was reviewing some processors today, looking at the benchmarks, and it seems that Intel has better performance than AMD. Some research has seemed to indicate Intel is a better performer as well[2].
Since I don't think I can afford a cluster or US $9,000.00 dollar workstation computer with dual processors, I really need to try and optimize my system. As such, I am paying attention to number of processor cores, higher cache RAM, and faster system bus. If I build my own instead of buying from Dell or HP, I will probably get an dual processor capable board so I can add on in the future.
Many such boards have significant GPU capabilities. I know Ansys is starting to take advantage of GPU's, but COMSOL has said the mount of RAM on current GPUs is not enough to support their solvers. Still, I assume nVidia, etc, might eventually develop a work around that would make CUDA more beneficial. In some cases, the performance of GPU over CPUs is quite remarkable[2].
Question: What are your opinions on the above Dr. Raback?
Of course, I suppose that today's motherboards might not be able to handle future GPUs though. I just hope for an opportunity to scale up over time. I am learning how to use multi-physics, learning about turbulence models, I make mistakes, I currently have a slow computer, and it can take a while before I discover non-convergence, etc. As such, my progress is a bit slow. I cannot afford or manage a cluster, but want a good workstation.
Since this topic/thread might be visited in the future, I will share some of my future references.
References:
[1] Kuron, Mike. HPC Best Practices for Structural Mechanics—Part I. caeai.com[online]. 2014. Available from:
https://caeai.com/resources/hpc-best-pr ... ics-part-i
[2] Thibault, Julien; Senocak, Inanc. CUDA Implementation of A Navier-Stokes Solver on Multi-GPU Desktop Platforms for Incompressible Flows, January 2009. scholar works.boisestate.edu[online]. 2014. Available from:
http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/ ... ng_facpubs