LS-DYNA Performance Improvements with Multi-Rail MPI on SGI Altix ICE Clusters

Multi-Rail networks can improve MPI communication performance by distributing the communication traffic to multiple independent networks (rails). Messages are divided into several chunks and sent out simultaneously using multiple rails. With the dual plane network topology of SGI Altix ICE clusters, MPI communication can hence utilize both the InfiniBand rails, including, ib0 and ib1 fabrics. The performance gains achievable with LS-DYNA for complex crashworthiness simulations through the use of MPT dual-rail over MPT singe-rail on an Altix ICE system are indeed significant.