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root/group/trunk/OOPSE/libmdtools/DumpWriter.cpp
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Comparing trunk/OOPSE/libmdtools/DumpWriter.cpp (file contents):
Revision 936 by tim, Tue Jan 13 20:35:25 2004 UTC vs.
Revision 947 by gezelter, Thu Jan 15 14:22:16 2004 UTC

# Line 171 | Line 171 | void DumpWriter::writeFrame( vector<ofstream*>& outFil
171  
172   #ifdef IS_MPI
173    
174 +  /*********************************************************************
175 +   * Documentation?  You want DOCUMENTATION?
176 +   *
177 +   * Why all the potatoes below?  
178 +   *
179 +   * To make a long story short, the original version of DumpWriter
180 +   * worked in the most inefficient way possible.  Node 0 would
181 +   * poke each of the node for an individual atom's formatted data
182 +   * as node 0 worked its way down the global index. This was particularly
183 +   * inefficient since the method blocked all processors at every atom
184 +   * (and did it twice!).
185 +   *
186 +   * An intermediate version of DumpWriter could be described from Node
187 +   * zero's perspective as follows:
188 +   *
189 +   *  1) Have 100 of your friends stand in a circle.
190 +   *  2) When you say go, have all of them start tossing potatoes at
191 +   *     you (one at a time).
192 +   *  3) Catch the potatoes.
193 +   *
194 +   * It was an improvement, but MPI has buffers and caches that could
195 +   * best be described in this analogy as "potato nets", so there's no
196 +   * need to block the processors atom-by-atom.
197 +   *
198 +   * This new and improved DumpWriter works in an even more efficient
199 +   * way:
200 +   *
201 +   *  1) Have 100 of your friend stand in a circle.
202 +   *  2) When you say go, have them start tossing 5-pound bags of
203 +   *     potatoes at you.
204 +   *  3) Once you've caught a friend's bag of potatoes,
205 +   *     toss them a spud to let them know they can toss another bag.
206 +   *
207 +   * How's THAT for documentation?
208 +   *
209 +   *********************************************************************/
210 +
211    int *potatoes;
212    int myPotato;
213  

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