Parallel operation of Monte Carlo simulations on a diverse network of computers.

Monte Carlo simulation methods are frequently used to determine light propagation in tissue and x-ray propagation as well as for solving other non-medically related problems. Such techniques are computationally slow, with the signal to noise ratio improving only as the square root of computation time. We present a method for the design of a Monte Carlo program that is capable of running on up to 24 computers simultaneously, with there being very few restrictions on the computer types as long as they run on a common network. This parallel operation is useful when the run time is expected to be long. A mixture of PCs and Sun workstations have been successfully used. The program as described was designed for the simulation of light transport in tissue, but the technique of achieving simple simultaneous execution on a number of different computers could be used wherever Monte Carlo techniques are used.