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Using the GRAPE Interface

A GRAPE is a special-purpose supercomputer designed to perform astrophysical calculations of self-gravitating systems at speeds greatly exceeding those of conventional general-purpose supercomputers. Since the first GRAPE was built, by a small group of astrophysicists at Tokyo University in 1989, a dozen different versions have appeared. In 1995 and 1996, the GRAPE-4 was recognized as the fastest computer in the world, with a speed of 1 Tflops. The GRAPE-6, completed in the 2000, has demonstrated sustained speeds exceeding 30 Tflops.

For a full description of current and planned GRAPE systems, see the GRAPE Web page, or look on Jun Makino's home page. A recent article on the GRAPE project in the popular science magazine Discover 18, No. 6, 76-83 (1997) may be found here.

Starlab is designed to make full use of the GRAPE series of special-purpose computers. As of version 4.0, GRAPE is used by default if detected at run time. To disable it, use the "-0" option. For details on configuring the package for GRAPE use, see the installation section.