Parallel Solution of ODE’ s by Multiblock Methods

The notion of linear multi-step methods for solving ordinary differential equations is generalized to a class of multi-block methods. In a multi-block method step values are all obtained together in a single block advance which is accomplished by allocating the parallel tasks on separate processors. The expected benefit of multi-block methods is the speedup in the computation of solutions. The basic formulation is described. Examples are given to demonstrate the existence of such schemes. The predictor-corrector type combination is formed and the resulting stability problem is considered. Test results of one of these multi-block methods on the Denelcor HEP machine are reported.