What are GPUs and how can they help FAH?

GPUs are Graphics Processing Units — chips used in the graphics cards of today’s PCs to help speed high performance graphics, such as 3D games or 3D scientific visualization. GPUs have the possibility to perform an enormous number of Floating Point OPerations (FLOPs). We have been able to write a highly optimized molecular dynamics code for GPUs, achieving a 30x to 40x speed increase over comparable CPU code. As a major part of the scientific benefit is dependent on rapid turnaround of Work Units, this means that we will be able to make an enormous advance over what we could do only just a few years ago.