Geant4 v9.4
Kernel III
Makoto Asai (SLAC)
Geant4 Tutorial Course
Contents
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Parallel geometry
Moving objects
Fast simulation (Shower parameterization)
Computing performance
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Geant4 v9.4
Parallel geometry
Parallel navigation
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In the previous versions, we have already had several ways of utilizing a
concept of parallel world. But the usages are quite different to each other.
– Ghost volume for shower parameterization assigned to
G4GlobalFastSimulationManager
– Readout geometry assigned to G4VSensitiveDetector
– Importance field geometry for geometry importance biasing assigned to
importance biasing process
– Scoring geometry assigned to scoring process
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We merge all of them into common parallel world scheme.
– Readout geometry for sensitive detector will be kept for backward
compatibility.
– Other current “parallel world schemes” became obsolete.
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Parallel navigation
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Occasionally, it is not straightforward to define sensitivity, importance or
envelope to be assigned to volumes in the mass geometry.
– Typically a geometry built machinery by CAD, GDML, DICOM, etc. has this
difficulty.
•
New parallel navigation functionality allows the user to define more than one
worlds simultaneously.
– New G4Transportation process sees all worlds simultaneously.
– A step is limited not only by the boundary of the mass geometry but also by
the boundaries of parallel geometries.
– Materials, production thresholds and EM field are used only from the mass
geometry.
– In a parallel world, the user can define volumes in arbitrary manner with
sensitivity, regions with shower parameterization, and/or importance field for
biasing.
• Volumes in different worlds may overlap.
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Parallel navigation
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G4VUserParrallelWorld is the new base class where the user implements a
parallel world.
– The world physical volume of the parallel world is provided by
G4RunManager as a clone of the mass geometry.
– All UserParallelWorlds must be registered to UserDetectorConstruction.
– Each parallel world has its dedicated G4Navigator object, that is
automatically assigned when it is constructed.
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Though all worlds will be comprehensively taken care by G4Transportation
process for their navigations, each parallel world must have its own process to
achieve its purpose.
– For example, in case the user defines a sensitive detector to a parallel world,
a process dedicated to this world is responsible to invoke this detector.
G4SteppingManager sees only the detectors in the mass geometry. The
user has to have G4ParallelWorldScoringProcess in his physics list.
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exampleN07
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Mass geometry
– sandwich of
rectangular
absorbers and
scintilators
Parallel scoring
geometry
– Cylindrical layers
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Defining a parallel world
main() (exampleN07.cc)
G4VUserDetectorConstruction* geom = new ExN07DetectorConstruction;
G4VUserParallelWorld* parallelGeom
= new ExN07ParallelWorld("ParallelScoringWorld");
geom->RegisterParallelWorld(parallelGeom);
runManager->SetUserInitialization(geom);
– The name defined in the G4VUserParallelWorld constructor is used as the
physical volume name of the parallel world, and must be used for
G4ParallelWorldScoringProcess (next slide).
void ExN07ParallelWorld::Construct()
G4VPhysicalVolume* ghostWorld = GetWorld();
G4LogicalVolume* worldLogical = ghostWorld->GetLogicalVolume();
– The world physical volume (“ghostWorld”) is provided as a clone of the world
volume of the mass geometry. The user cannot create it.
– You can fill contents regardless of the volumes in the mass geometry.
– Logical volumes in a parallel world needs not to have a material.
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G4ParallelWorldScoringProcess
void ExN07PhysicsList::ConstructProcess()
{
AddTransportation();
ConstructParallelScoring();
ConstructEM();
}
G4ParallelWorldScoringProcess must
be defined after G4Transportation
but prior to any EM processes.
Name of the parallel world defined by
G4VUserParallelWorld constructor
void ExN07PhysicsList::ConstructParallelScoring()
{
G4ParallelWorldScoringProcess* theParallelWorldScoringProcess
= new G4ParallelWorldScoringProcess("ParaWorldScoringProc");
theParallelWorldScoringProcess->SetParallelWorld("ParallelScoringWorld");
theParticleIterator->reset();
while( (*theParticleIterator)() ){
G4ProcessManager* pmanager = theParticleIterator->value()->GetProcessManager();
pmanager->AddProcess(theParallelWorldScoringProcess);
pmanager->SetProcessOrderingToLast(theParallelWorldScoringProcess, idxAtRest);
pmanager->SetProcessOrdering(theParallelWorldScoringProcess, idxAlongStep, 1);
pmanager->SetProcessOrderingToLast(theParallelWorldScoringProcess, idxPostStep);
}
}
AlongStep must be 1, while AtRest and PostStep must be last
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Geant4 v9.4
Moving objects
4D RT Treatment Plan
Source: Lei Xing, Stanford University
+
+ ……
+
Ion
chamber
Lower
Jaws
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MLC
Upper
Jaws
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Moving objects
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In some applications, it is essential to simulate the movement of some volumes.
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•
E.g. particle therapy simulation
Geant4 can deal with moving volume
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In case speed of the moving volume is slow enough compared to speed of
elementary particles, so that you can assume the position of moving
volume is still within one event.
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Two tips to simulate moving objects :
1.
Use parameterized volume to represent the moving volume.
2.
Do not optimize (voxelize) the mother volume of the moving volume(s).
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Moving objects - tip 1
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Use parameterized volume to represent the moving volume.
– Use event number as a time stamp and calculate position/rotation of the
volume as a function of event number.
void MyMovingVolumeParameterisation::ComputeTransformation
(const G4int copyNo, G4VPhysicalVolume *physVol) const
{
static G4RotationMatrix rMat;
G4int eID = 0;
Null pointer must be protected.
const G4Event* evt = G4RunManager::GetRunManager()->GetCurrentEvent();
This method is also invoked while
if(evt) eID = evt->GetEventID();
geometry
closed at
Here, event
numberisisbeing
converted
G4double t = 0.1*s*eID;
thetobeginning
of run, i.e.
time.
event
loop has not yet began.
G4double r = rotSpeed*t;
(0.1 sec/event)
G4double z = velocity*t+orig;
You are responsible not to make
while(z>0.*m) {z-=8.*m;}
the moving volume get out of
rMat.set(CLHEP::HepRotationX(-r)); (protrude from) the mother volume.
Position and rotation
physVol->SetTranslation(G4ThreeVector(0.,0.,z));
are set as the function
physVol->SetRotation(&rMat0);
of event number.
}
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Moving objects - tip 2
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Do not optimize (voxelize) the mother volume of the moving volume(s).
– If moving volume gets out of the original optimized voxel, the navigator gets
lost.
motherLogical -> SetSmartless( number_of_daughters );
–
–
With this method invocation, the one-and-only optimized voxel has all
daughter volumes.
For the best performance, use hierarchal geometry so that each mother
volume has least number of daughters.
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Geant4 v9.4
Fast simulation
(shower parameterization)
Fast simulation - Generalities
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Fast Simulation, also called as shower parameterization, is a shortcut to the
"ordinary" tracking.
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Fast Simulation allows you to take over the tracking and implement your own
"fast" physics and detector response.
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The classical use case of fast simulation is the shower parameterization where
the typical several thousand steps per GeV computed by the tracking are replaced
by a few ten of energy deposits per GeV.
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Parameterizations are generally experiment dependent. Geant4 provides a
convenient framework.
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Parameterization features
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Parameterizations take place in an
envelope. An envelope is a region,
m
that is typically a mother volume of
a sub-system or of a major module
of such a sub-system.
•
Parameterizations are often
dependent to particle types and/or
may be applied only to some kinds
e
of particles.
•
They are often not applied in
complicated regions.
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Models and envelope
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Concrete models are bound to the envelope
through a G4FastSimulationManager object.
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This allows several models to be bound to one
G4LogicalVolume
envelope.
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The envelope is simply a G4Region which has
G4FastSimulationManager.
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All [grand[…]]daughter volumes will be sensitive to
« envelope »
(G4Region)
the parameterizations.
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A model may returns back to the "ordinary"
tracking the new state of G4Track after
G4FastSimulationManager
parameterization (alive/killed, new position, new
ModelForElectrons
momentum, etc.) and eventually adds secondaries
ModelForPions
(e.g. punch-through) created by the
parameterization.
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Fast Simulation
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The Fast Simulation components are
indicated in white.
G4LogicalVolume
Envelope
(G4LogicalVolume)
G4FastSimulationManager
Placements
G4Track
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G4ProcessManager
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Process xxx
Multiple Scattering
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G4FastSimulationManagerProcess
G4Transportation
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ModelForElectrons
ModelForPions
When the G4Track comes in an envelope,
the G4FastSimulationManagerProcess
looks for a G4FastSimulationManager.
If one exists, at the beginning of each step
in the envelope, each model is asked for a
trigger.
In case a trigger is issued, the model is
applied at the point the G4track is.
Otherwise, the tracking proceeds with a
normal tracking.
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Geant4 v9.4
Computing performance
Different levels of parallelism
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Job execution = O(1~10) runs
 Multi-job
– X-section data files, external geometry description
Run = O(10^2~10^9) events
 Run parallelism
– X-sections in memory, optimized geometry in memory, histograms
– Event loop
Event = O(10~10^9) tracks
 Event parallelism
– Primary tracks, secondary tracks
– Hits, score
Track = O(1~10^3) steps
 Track parallelism
– Travelling in geometry
– Generating secondary tracks
Step
– Geometrical navigation
– Physics processes
– Hits, score
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DIANE (DIstributed ANalysis Environment)
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DIANE is a tool which helps application communities and smaller Virtual
Organizations using the distributed computing infrastructures more efficiently. The
automatic control and scheduling of computations on a set of distributed worker
nodes leads to an improvement of the quality of service of the EGEE/LCG Grid.
– http://it-proj-diane.web.cern.ch/it-proj-diane/
This is a “multi-job” approach based on
GRID environment,
Geant4 offers one example to illustrate
the use of DIANE.
Similar approaches with commercial
Cloud computing facilities are seen in
company users.
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MPI (Message Passing Interface)
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MPI is a language-independent communications protocol used to program parallel
computers. MPI's goals are high performance, scalability, and portability. MPI
remains the dominant model used in high-performance computing today. MPI is
not sanctioned by any major standards body; nevertheless, it has become a de
facto standard for communication among processes that model a parallel program
running on a distributed memory system.
Geant4 offers a built-in MPI layer. Currently, LAM, MPICH2 and Open MPI are
supported. Geant4 also offers a couple of examples which illustrate the use of
MPI.
“Run parallelism” approach.
For example of exMPI01 in geant4.9.3/examples/extended/parallel/MPI, core i7
took 122 seconds (single thread), 62 seconds (2 threads) and 34 seconds (4
threads) wall clock time.
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TOP-C (Task Oriented Parallel C/C++)
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TOP-C is a tool of “task-oriented” master-slave architecture to make an
application parallelized with a distributed memory model based on MPI.
– Shared memory model (thread-based for a multi-processor node) is under
development. See later slides.
TOP-C is developed and maintained by G. Cooperman and his team at
Northeastern University.
– http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/gene/topc.html
Geant4 offers a couple of examples to illustrate the use of TOP-C.
“Event parallelism” approach.
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Parallelism
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GRID (and Cloud) is surely a valid option. But it is outside of parallelization of
Geant4 itself.
– Use it if you have such an environment.
For parallelism inside Geant4, we can qualitatively say :
Run parallelism
Event parallelism
Track parallelism
Network traffic
+ (less traffic)
- (more traffic)
--- (much more traffic)
Load
distribution
-
+
???
Advantage for
Simpler geometry
Lower energy
Complicated geometry
Higher energy
Ultra-high energy ???
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An issue for multi-threading
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One of advantages of multi-thread / multi-core is efficient memory consumption.
– MPI approach basically requires full copy of memory space for each slave.
– For example, large x-section tables and complicated geometry could be
shared by threads.
X-section table in Geant4 has a caching mechanism.
– Once a track accesses to the x-section for a certain particle in a certain
material at a certain energy, the next access is likely for the same particle in
the same material and at the nearby energy.
– This caching mechanism never works if a table is shared by threads.
Geant4 geometry is “dynamic”.
– To reduce the memory size required for complicated geometry, Geant4 has a
concept of “parameterized volume”. A volume returns its position, rotation,
material, shape, size, etc. as a function of the “copy number”. And the copy
number and some of these attributes are cashed.
– This caching mechanism never works if geometry is shared by threads.
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Geant4 approach
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Making cashes thread-local using TOP-C shared memory model.
TLS (Thread-local-storage)
– static/global variables to thread-local with “__thread” (gcc)
– Automatic TLS conversions with patched C++ parser.
For non-thread-safe variables
– Lock with mutex (mutual exclusion) : potential performance bottle neck
Development of semi-automatic conversion tool.
The first Geant4MT beta-release (based on Geant4 version 9.4) is foreseen within
a couple of months.
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Medium/longer term developments
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Year 2011
– More automatised conversion of Geant4  Geant4MT
– More thread-safety check of STL and CLHEP
– Expecting (caching mechanism of) x-section tables and geometry to be fully
multi-threaded
• By splitting class data members so that R/W data members to be thread
local
Year 2012-2013 (-2014?)
– Major architectural revision
• Moving “dynamic” components of x-section tables and geometry to track
object
– Planning all the x-section tables and geometry to be fully shared by threads
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General purpose GPU?
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Though the new Fermi Architecture supports C++,
it supports only for the data processing. It does not
yet support object instantiation/deletion in GPU.
– It may/will support at PTX 2.0.
– But what do we do for secondary tracks?
Size of L1 cach (16/48 KB) and L2 cache (768 KB)
are too small. Accessing to the main memory is too
costly (>>100 Cycles).
– Calculating x-section for every step is faster
than accessing to x-section tables. How do we do for date-driven tables?
– Sharing complicated geometry in main memory does not offer any benefit.
Could our user live with just replicated boxes?
GPU seems not to be feasible, at least for the near future, to a particle-transport
type Monte Carlo simulation like Geant4.
– “Density- or probability-transport” calculation with simplest geometry may fit to
GPGPU.
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Geant4 v9.4
Tips for
computing performance
Some tips to consider - 1
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We are making our best effort to improve the speed of Geant4 toolkit. But, since
it is a toolkit, a user may also make the simulation unnecessarily slow.
For general applications
– Check methods which are invoked frequently, e.g. UserSteppingAction(),
ProcessHits(), ComputeTransformation(), GetField() etc.
– In such methods, avoid string manipulation, file access or cout, unnecessary
object instantiation or deletion, or unnecessary massive polynomial
calculation such as sin(), cos(), log(), exp().
For relatively complex geometry or high energy applications
– Kill unnecessary secondary particles as soon as possible.
– Use stacking action wisely. Abort unnecessary events at the earliest stage.
– Utilize G4Region for regional cut-offs, user limits.
– For geometry, consider replica rather than parameterized volume as much
as possible. Also consider nested parameterization.
– Do not keep too many trajectories.
For relatively simple geometry or low energy applications
– Do not store the random number engine status for each event.
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Some tips to consider - 2
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Chop out unnecessary objects in memory. This is not only the issue of memory
size of your CPU, but also the matter of cache-hit rate.
– By default cross-section tables of EM processes are built for the energy range
of 0.1 keV to 10 TeV. If your simulation does not require higher energies, cut
higher part out.
• Do not change the granularity of sampling bins (7 bins per decade).
– Delete unnecessary materials.
– Limit size (number of bins) of scoring meshes.
If you believe your simulation is unnecessarily slow, your application may have:
– Memory leak
– Geometry overlap
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