REMD with AMBER

To run REMD with AMBER you need sander.MPI. You can either copy it (clust:~bs360/bin/sander.MPI) or create your own. To do so you have to copy the directory clust:~bs360/MPIAMBER/ and follow the instructions on http://wwmm.ch.cam.ac.uk/wikis/ucc/index.php/Notes_on_dove#64-bit_AMBER9 to create the config.h (or take the existing one in the MPIAMBER/src/ directory and change the path names accordingly). After producing the config.h file you can compile the MPI version by make parallel. You should have loaded the pgi64 and mpi/lam/64/pgi/7.1.1 modules.

To run REMD with AMBER you need following input files:

-> numreplicas

  (number of repilcas)

-> groupfile

   -A -i mdin.rep1 -o mdout.rep1 -c inpcrd.rep1 -p ./ala2.prmtop -r restrt.rep1 -x mdcrd.rep1 -inf mdinfo.rep1
   -A -i mdin.rep2 -o mdout.rep2 -c inpcrd.rep2 -p ./ala2.prmtop -r restrt.rep2 -x mdcrd.rep2 -inf mdinfo.rep2
   ...

The names of 'numreplicas' and 'groupfile' can not be changed! All other files you can name as you like.

mdin.rep*, inpcrd.rep* and ala2.prmtop define the other input files; all other files are for output.

The inpcrd.rep* and ala2.prmtop are the usual coordinate and topology files, and mdin.rep* define the input for the MD for each replica:

REMD run 1

&cntrl
       imin = 0, nstlim = 500, dt = 0.002,
       tempi = 0, temp0 = 100.0,
       ntt = 3, tol = 0.000001, gamma_ln = 5.0,
       ntc = 2, ntf = 1, ntb = 0, ntx = 5,
       ntwx = 500, ntwe = 0, ntwr =500, ntpr = 500,
       cut = 99.0, igb = 0, saltcon=0.0,
       nscm = 500, irest=1,
       ntave = 0, numexchg=100000
&end

An exchange is attempted after each cycle. The cycle lenth is determined by (ntslim)x(dt), i.e. (MD steps)x(step) length. ntwx determines after how many MD steps the coordinats are written to mdcrd.rep*. ntpr determines after how many MD steps the energy is written to mdinfo.rep*. ntwr determines after now many MD steps the restart files mdinfo.rep* is updated. The temperatures for each replica you have to determine yourself, i.e, they are not automatically exponentially distributed between T_min and T_max as in the MMTSB protocol. Note that with irest=1, each MD cycle will restart the trajectory from the relevant restart file. This is why you can have tempi=0, as AMBER reads the temperature from that file and ignores the MD input.

The input.crd files

As you have irest=1 and ntx=5, you need to have velocity information in your input.crd file to start the REMD simulation. This is done by first running a 1 step CTMD run with the original input, and then copying the velocities from the restart file created. Input for this is below:

 Velocity randomisation
 &cntrl
        imin = 0, nstlim = 1, dt = 0.0015,
        tempi = 0, temp0 = 250.0,
        ntt = 3, gamma_ln = 5.0, ntx = 1,
        ntc = 1, ntf = 1, ntb = 0,
        ntwx = 100, ntwe = 0, ntwr =100, ntpr = 100,
        cut = 99.0, igb = 5, saltcon=0.1,
 &end

In this case you want to run Sander with a command like this:

$AMBERHOME/exe/sander -O -i md.in -o md.out -c 1LE1.inpcrd -p ./1LE1_ff03.prmtop -r restrt -x mdcrd -inf mdinfo

Comparing restrt to the original inpcrd file, you'll notice that it is almost twice as long as before! This is because the velocities for each atom are now appended to the bottom of the file. Simply copy them into your inpcrd file and you're good to start the simulation.

Comparing the restart file produced with

You can find an example for REMD with AMBER in clust:/sharedscratch/bs360/amberrex_test/