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GPU Club: Share your ideas and experience of using GPUs in research

08 Nov 2010

Inaugural meeting on 26 November in University Place

2pm, Friday 26 November
Room 1.219, University Place

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are fast becoming an option for undertaking intensive computation tasks without having to buy expensive compute nodes with fast interconnects.

If one is to believe the sales pitches from the main vendors, NVIDIA and AMD/ATi, it’s possible to have your own personal supercomputer with 448 cores capable of peak performances of a teraflop for just £3,5781* ‐ about half the total performance of the University’ old “orace”service.

But there are many questions:

  • Is this peak performance achievable for real life codes?
  • What programming methods are best supported by these cards?
  • How much effort is involved in porting?
  • CUDA or OpenCL? NVIDIA or AMD/ATi? Or does it matter?
  • Where can I get my hands on one to see if it is for me?

There is a lot of interest across all faculties on campus concerning GPUs. Many people are seriously considering their use for their future research. Several groups have already, or are in the process of, writing and running models on GPUs.

The GPU Club is an initiative to bring people together to share ideas and experiences in order to more effectively overcome any barriers to getting their research done.

The inaugural meeting is on Friday 26 November, in Room 1.219 in University Place. We have a few short talks to set the scene and to inspire discussion:

  • 2pm      Intro (IT Services)
  • 2.05pm  Dr. Andrew Almond (MIB/FLS) title TBC
  • 2.25pm  Dr. Ben Rogers (MACE): “GPUs for the Particle Method SPH: Issues and Challenges”
  • 2.45pm  Dr. Xuefei He (MBS): “GPU Monte Carlo Simulation for VaR Calculation”
  • 2.55pm  Dr. Nick Dingle (Maths): "GPU‐enabled Steady‐State Solution of Large Markov Models"
  • 2.50pm  Open floor to discuss ways forward
  • 3.30pm  Close

For more information:

  • Go online to GPU Club
    or
  • Contact Michael Bane, IT Services, on 0161 306 6652

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* Online ex-VAT price for Amari 7046GT-TRF with a single NVIDIA C2050 card. Single precision performance.