Transputer-based simulations of image recording in silver-halide materials

Monte Carlo simulations are used to study the photophysics and photochemistry of the image-recording process in silver-halide microcrystals in a film coating. Because the microcrystals are independent of each other during exposure to light, the simulation is ideally suited to a parallel processor in which each processor represents a microcrystal in the film coating. This paper describes the hardware and software of a 64-node transputer-based parallel processor. Emphasis is placed on the occam code used to distribute the simulation software over the transputer array and on how communications and computations are balanced in a multiprocessor system. Benchmarking results and preliminary data are also included.