Using VORPAL

Easy visualization

VORPAL comes with a graphical visualization utility to assist users with data analysis. The visualization utility allows the user to analyze field and particle data without needing the details of the VORPAL output file format or creating custom visualization tools. The visualization utility is cross platform (including Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux), and researchers can use it independantly of the VORPAL simulation code -- for instance, one can run a simulation on a remote supercomputing platform, transfer the results to a local machine, and use the visualization utility to analyze the results. This utility also aids collaboration, because collaborators unfamiliar with the details of the code can still use the visualization utility to analyze results.

Supports multiple platforms and standard hardware

VORPAL is run on a variety of supercompers, including IBM's Blue Gene and Cray X1E. Above image from Wikimedia Commons.

VORPAL runs on typical PC and workstation hardware as well as clusters and massively parallel supercomputers. The software supports platforms including Linux, Mac OS X, and AIX and continues to scale linearly in parallel to well over 1,000 processors.

Collaboration

VORPAL uses simple text files for input, so researchers working with different hardware and operating systems can share input files, greatly facilitating rapid collaboration. Data dump/restore files are binary compatible across hardware and operating systems, since VORPAL uses the industry-standard HDF5 file format. This allows a great deal of flexibility; for example, the results of a long simulation performed on a dedicated high-performance Linux cluster, can be copied to a PC running Linux, Microsoft Windows, or Mac OS X for further study.

Who Uses VORPAL?

World-class research institutions such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the University of Colorado at Boulder are actively using VORPAL in research to study problems such as:

Modeling of laser wake field accelerators
Electron cooling of ion beams
Photonic band gap systems
RF heating of fusion plasmas
Breakdowns in microwave guides
Simulation of ion sources and Penning sources
Modeling of plasma thrusters

Consulting services

Tech-X Corporation provides consulting services to help you configure and optimize your VORPAL environment. We also offer product training and product usage consulting to help you leverage your investment in VORPAL as quickly as possible.