Kohn–Sham time-dependent density functional theory with Tamm–Dancoff approximation on massively parallel GPUs

Abstract

We report a high-performance multi graphics processing unit (GPU) implementation of the Kohn–Sham time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) within the Tamm–Dancoff approximation. Our algorithm on massively parallel computing systems using multiple parallel models in tandem scales optimally with material size, considerably reducing the computational wall time. A benchmark TDDFT study was performed on a green fluorescent protein complex composed of 4353 atoms with 40,518 atomic orbitals represented by Gaussian-type functions, demonstrating the effect of distant protein residues on the excitation. As the largest molecule attempted to date to the best of our knowledge, the proposed strategy demonstrated reasonably high efficiencies up to 256 GPUs on a custom-built state-of-the-art GPU computing system with Nvidia A100 GPUs. We believe that our GPU-oriented algorithms, which empower first-principles simulation for very large-scale applications, may render deeper understanding of the molecular basis of material behaviors, eventually revealing new possibilities for breakthrough designs on new material systems.