> > A very interesting paper about accelerating agent-based models with graphics > cards (GPU). I placed the paper at > http://www.friam.org/DSouza_GPUacceleratedABM.pdf
Pretty neat. The fact is that if we want to take advantage of these kind of architectures in a general purpose way, we need compiler technology appropriate for them. Toolkits may still work if they can physically live within the constraints of such hardware, but Java VMs certainly cannot (e.g. a 256KB local store on a Cell SPU). Better yet would be to have an ABM language directly integrated with the compiler and have, e.g. agent distribution between different memory areas and processors directly managed. The compiler is in the best position to manage hardware. Certainly better than most modelers. One problem with software layering (ABM toolkits) is that compilers can't see through all that to prove those operations that are safe to do in parallel. LLVM (http://www.llvm.org/) would be one foundation, and a lot of work has been done on GCC to make new front ends easier. Marcus ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
