PARALLELIZATION IN A SPATIALLY EXPLICIT INDIVIDUAL-BASED ECOLOGICAL MODEL .1. SPATIAL DATA INTERPOLATION

In this paper, we compare parallel implementations for spatial data in terpolation on two parallel computers, MasPar MP-2 and CM-5, with the sequential implementations on a serial computer, SUN SPARCStation 20/6 1. Performance statistics indicate that: (1) parallel implementations can attain significant speed improvements over sequential implementati ons in a long-term simulation (above 100 time steps); (2) a data paral lel algorithm using the local map method performs better than the part itioned map method on the MasPar MP-2, but there is no significant dif ference between them on the CM-5: and (3) for the particular problem o f spatial data interpolation, the SIMD parallel computer (the MasPar M P-2 with 4096 processor elements) performs better than the MIMD parall el computer (the CM-5 with 32 parallel processing nodes). (C) 1997 Els evier Science Ltd.