AN EFFICIENT PARALLEL ALGORITHM FOR SOLVING N-NEPHRON MODELS OF THE RENAL INNER MEDULLA

A parallel algorithm for solving the multinephron model of the renal i nner medulla is developed. The intrinsic nature of this problem suppli es sufficient symmetry for a high-level parallelism on distributed-mem ory parallel machines such as the iPSC/860, Paragon, and CM-5. Paralle lization makes it feasible to study interesting models such as the rat kidney with 30, 000 nephrons. On a high-end work station, one can stu dy systems with 100 nephrons, while on a 32-node iPSC/860 or Paragon w e can handle more than 1000 nephrons. A nearly perfect speedup is achi eved by even distribution of load and minimizing the cost of communica tion.