Graphic generated by VORPAL which shows plasma wake fields
generated as a result of a laser pulse injected into the plasma.
We are using the machine to study the Itanium architecture as well as Intel's C++ compiler. Of interest to us is the performance of VORPAL -- a flexible numerical plasma simulation code (http://www-beams.colorado.edu/vorpal/) on a variety of machines, including the Itanium. Unlike the majority of scientific analysis tools, VORPAL is written in C++. This raises interesting questions as to a compiler's ability to adequately optimize such a high level language, especially on the Itanium which relies so heavily on compiler optimization for its performance.
VORPAL is a product of the Center for Integrated Plasma studies (cips.colorado.edu).
Last updated 3/1/04 by M. Petersen