In recent years, the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) has emerged as a low-cost alternative for high performance computing, enabling impressive speed-ups for a range of scientific computing applications. Early adopters in astronomy are already benefiting in adapting their codes to take advantage of the GPU's massively parallel processing paradigm. I give an introduction to, and overview of, the use of GPUs in astronomy to date, highlighting the adoption and application trends from the first ~100 GPU-related publications in astronomy. I discuss the opportunities and challenges of utilising GPU computing clusters, such as the new Australian GPU supercomputer, gSTAR, for accelerating the rate of astronomical discovery.
@article{arxiv.1111.5081,
title = {Accelerating the Rate of Astronomical Discovery with GPU-Powered Clusters},
author = {Christopher J. Fluke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1111.5081},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
To appear in the proceedings of ADASS XXI, ed. P.Ballester and D.Egret, ASP Conf. Ser