ABINIT Discussion Forums

Dear All,

New binary packages for Abinit 6.4.3 and V_Sim 3.5.2 for Windows (32 bit) have been posted on the ETSF software repository at http://www.etsf.eu/resources/software/etsf_software_repository

Abinit 6.4.3 is the latest production release as of 15/02/2011 . This Windows version comes with all advertised plugins and required libraries. It passes the full testsuite (tested in Windows XP SP3). AMD users haven't been forgotten this time: a separate package optimized for this processor is also provided.
The binaries have been prepared with MPI functions activated i.e. they can use all available cores on SMP systems when invoked with the provided mpiexec launcher. For example, will launch two Abinit parallel processes running commands from the input.files and producing the output.log file.

V_Sim 3.5.2 is the latest version of this atomic visualisation application. It comes ready to use with all GTK2 dependencies.

Installation HOWTO. Download the .zip file from the repository. Unzip it wherever you would like it. The Abinit program and utilities reside in abinit-6.4.3\bin directory; launch them from a CMD prompt. Some MPI binaries require Windows firewall to unblock socket communications. From an Explorer window, launch the V_Sim structure visualisation application from the V_Sim\bin directory. The package comes with some extra goodies: WinVI (Unix friendly graphical text editor), a few GNU applications ports to Windows to parse text files (grep, awk, sed, ...), GnuPlot (2D/3D data plotting application).


Don't hesitate to post your personal experience on this forum.

Alain

Hi,

The Abinit 6.4.3 binaries for K8 can run on my AMD Pheonom II X6 1075 T + Win7(32bits) and finish the calculation "t_kpt+spin.files" with 6 cores.

Best regards.

Hello Alain,
When I try to run this version Abinit on my computer and I encountered a problem. The program was terminated automatically. The following information was given by system. Could you please have a look and give me some suggestion? The same problem came up with the 6.2.3 version. Thanks.

F:\Software\abinit-6.4.3_core2\abinit-6.4.3\bin>mpiexec -np 2 ./abinit.exe < t1x.files >output.log
Exception: STATUS_ILLEGAL_INSTRUCTION at eip=00F8A417
eax=014EB660 ebx=015B60D0 ecx=00000002 edx=00000682 esi=00000001 edi=035A91D8
ebp=0022BB28 esp=0022B6E0 program=F:\Software\abinit-6.4.3_core2\abinit-6.4.3\bin\abinit.exe, pid 2964, thread main
cs=001B ds=0023 es=0023 fs=003B gs=0000 ss=0023
Stack trace:
Frame Function Args
0022BB28 00F8A417 (014EB65C, 0022C9B8, 0022CCFC, 014EB660)
0022CD28 00401386 (00000001, 6123B964, 00000000, 0022CD60)
0022CD48 014DE83E (6123C531, 61179FC7, 0022CD88, 61006CD3)
0022CD88 61006CD3 (00000000, 0022CDC4, 61006570, 7FFDE000)
End of stack trace
[0]0:Return code = 0, signaled with Illegal instruction
[0]1:Return code = 0, signaled with Illegal instruction

Hello Zjuer,

Illegal instruction means that the binary uses opcodes not recognized by your hardware, probably SSSE3 instructions.
What kind of CPU do you have in your Windows box - try to be quite specific? The binary you've downloaded has been prepared for Intel Core2 cpus (and later)?

Kind regards,

Alain

Hello Alian，
Thank you for your help. The following is the parameter of CPU on my system. The operation system is XP SP3. Thank you again.

Type CPU / Microprocessor
Market segment Mobile
Family Intel Pentium Dual-Core Mobile
Model number T2130
CPU part number LF80539GE0361M (Q1CN, SL9VZ)
Frequency (MHz) 1867
Bus speed (MHz) 533
Clock multiplier 14
Package 478-pin micro FC-PGA
1.38" x 1.38" (3.5 cm x 3.5 cm)
Socket Socket M

Processor core Yonah
Core stepping D0 (SL9VZ)
Manufacturing process 0.065 micron
Data width 32 bit
Number of cores 2
Floating Point Unit Integrated
Level 1 cache size 2 x 32 KB instruction caches
2 x 32 KB data caches
Level 2 cache size shared 1 MB
Features MMX instruction set
SSE
SSE2
SSE3
Execute Disable Bit technology

Hello Zjuer,

I have extended the processor coverage for Intel. The binaries should work now for Prescott cpus (and up) i.e. at least SSE3 capable. Please go back to the ETSF download page and get the new Windows 32 bit Intel package - or directly at http://www.etsf.be/downloads/ETSF_softlib/Windows_binaries/abinit-6.4.3_prescottSSE3.zip

Kind regards,

Alain

Hello Alain,
Thank you very much. The program works smoothly on my computer now.

Best regards,
zjuer

Hello, Alain,

In a different discussion, you mentioned that you usually build two kinds of binaries, "parallel Abinit releases with sequential FFT and linear algebra libs" and "sequential Abinit releases with multithreaded FFT and linalg libs". Have you done the same for abinit for widnows? In addition, are there reasons not to go parallel for both?

Thanks for your effort to get Abinit running on Windows.

The problem with MPI parallelism + multithreaded linalg is that both compete for available cores. Some multithreaded libs allow to limit the number of cores so it's possible to avoid overloading penalty but it requires to set environment variables, a kind of exercise that most Windows users are not very used to. I think the most efficient and trouble free combination is MPI + sequential linalg; simply don't forget to launch Abinit with the provided mpiexec forker to benefit from SMP systems.

Kind regards,

Alain

Hello, Alian,

Thanks for the explanation.

When I work on systems, such as clusters, of which the energy dispersion is small, I should perform the calculation with "sequential Abinit releases with multithreaded FFT and linalg libs" to get better efficiency. Do I understand it correctly?

I would say to use k point MPI parallelism if possible (or a mixture of others) and sequential Abinit with multithreaded linalg when confronted with large memory constraints (especially considering that a 32bit binary accesses only 2GB RAM).

Alint