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Getting Started

SPONGE (Simulation Package Toward Next GEneration of molecular modelling) is a GPU-accelerated molecular dynamics simulation engine supporting CUDA, HIP (AMD GPU / Hygon DCU), and various CPU SIMD backends.

Install pixi

SPONGE uses pixi to manage dependencies and build workflows.

Linux / macOS

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | bash

China mirror:

curl -fsSL https://conda.spongemm.cn/pixi/install.sh | bash

Windows

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://pixi.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

China mirror:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://conda.spongemm.cn/pixi/install.ps1 | iex"

Install from binary distributions

If you want to use a prebuilt SPONGE binary, install one of the published packages instead of building from source.

Choose a package

Package Hardware Platforms
sponge-cuda13 NVIDIA GPU (driver >= 570) Linux x86_64, Windows x64
sponge-cuda12 NVIDIA GPU (driver >= 525) Linux x86_64, Windows x64
sponge-cpu CPU only Linux x86_64 / aarch64, Windows x64, macOS ARM64
sponge-cpu-mpi CPU + MPI Linux x86_64 / aarch64

The commands below use sponge-cpu as an example. Replace it with another package from the table when appropriate.

Install in a Pixi project

Create a Pixi project, add the SPONGE channel, and install the package into the project environment:

pixi init sponge-project
cd sponge-project
pixi project channel add https://conda.spongemm.cn
pixi add sponge-cpu
pixi run SPONGE -v

If you are already in a Pixi project that uses conda-forge, only the last three commands are needed.

Install globally with Pixi

Install SPONGE into a Pixi-managed global environment when you want to run it outside a project:

pixi global install \
  --channel https://conda.spongemm.cn \
  --channel conda-forge \
  sponge-cpu
SPONGE -v

Optional: Build SPONGE from source

Most users should install a binary distribution above. To compile SPONGE from source or set up a development environment, follow the Build Guide.

Run a simulation

Prepare a TOML input file mdin.spg.toml:

md_name = "NVT water"
mode = "nvt"
step_limit = 50000
dt = 0.002
cutoff = 8.0
default_in_file_prefix = "WAT"
constrain_mode = "SHAKE"
target_temperature = 300.0
write_information_interval = 1000

[thermostat]
mode = "middle_langevin"
tau = 0.1
seed = 2026

Use the command that matches how SPONGE was installed.

For a global installation:

SPONGE -mdin mdin.spg.toml

For an installation in a Pixi project:

pixi run SPONGE -mdin mdin.spg.toml

For an optional source build in a development environment:

pixi run -e dev-cuda13 SPONGE -mdin mdin.spg.toml

You can also enter that development environment first:

pixi shell -e dev-cuda13
SPONGE -mdin mdin.spg.toml

Run benchmarks

The benchmark tasks are available from a source checkout with a development environment installed:

pixi run -e dev-cuda13 perf-amber       # AMBER force field performance
pixi run -e dev-cuda13 perf-nonortho    # non-orthogonal box
pixi run -e dev-cuda13 vali-thermostat  # thermostat validation
pixi run -e dev-cuda13 vali-barostat    # barostat validation

Next steps