The SPPARKS "version" is the date when it was released, such as 1 May 2010. SPPARKS is updated continuously. Whenever we fix a bug or add a feature, we release it immediately, and post a notice on this page of the WWW site. Each dated copy of SPPARKS contains all the features and bug-fixes up to and including that version date. The version date is printed to the screen and logfile every time you run SPPARKS. It is also in the file src/version.h and in the SPPARKS directory name created when you unpack a tarball.
SPPARKS stands for Stochastic Parallel PARticle Kinetic Simulator.
SPPARKS is a kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) code designed to run efficiently on parallel computers using both KMC and Metropolis Monte Carlo algorithms. It was developed at Sandia National Laboratories, a US Department of Energy facility, with funding from the DOE. It is an open-source code, distributed freely under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL), or sometimes by request under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
The developers of SPPARKS are Steve Plimpton, Aidan Thompson, and Alex Slepoy. They can be contacted at sjplimp@sandia.gov, athomps@sandia.gov, and alexander.slepoy@nnsa.doe.gov. The SPPARKS WWW Site at http://spparks.sandia.gov has more information about the code and its uses.
The SPPARKS documentation is organized into the following sections. If you find errors or omissions in this manual or have suggestions for useful information to add, please send an email to the developers so we can improve the SPPARKS documentation.
Once you are familiar with SPPARKS, you may want to bookmark this page at Section_commands.html#comm since it gives quick access to documentation for all SPPARKS commands.