Supercomputer Applications
UNIT #5   -   Computer Simulation


Why Use Computer Simulation?

When scientists are trying to test some product or else create a new machine or piece of equipment, it is usually not cost effective to build a large number of the prototypes without knowing before hand how effective various designs will be. With the advent of high performance computing, however, scientists are now able to create computer models of their designs, test them out, and then choose the best one for final construction.

There are often situations that happen so slowly that a computer model can be used to speed up the process. Scientists can then use their models for situations such as weather prediction, global warming, or hazardous waste control. We use many such computer models now for such predictions, although they are often simplifications of the actual situations. The alternative of waiting until after some catastrophic event has happened and just observing the results is not prudent, though.

In other situations, there are often things that we would like to investigate that are so small or happen so quickly that they cannot be observed by the human eye. We can use computer models to study such things and even make discoveries or predictions. Computer models can be used to study molecular dynamics, and even build smaller yet better computers.

Computer models such as these are often very computationally intensive, so therefore supercomputers are typically used to run them so that results can be obtained in a shorter time period. Below you will find a general introduction to computer simulation and supercomputing.

Computer Simulation Techniques

The following techniques are just a few of the possible simulation approaches one can use.

Assignments - UNIT #5