2011/11/22 by Christopher J. Fluke, Fluke, Christopher J.
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1111.5081
To appear in the proceedings of ADASS XXI, ed. P.Ballester and D.Egret, ASP Conf. Ser
arxiv created 2011/11/22 · arxiv updated 2011/11/23
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.