NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: A photo of Arthur Weglein,
director of the Mission-Oriented Seismic Research Program at UH,
with IBM’s Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.) system
is available on the Web at http://www.uh.edu/admin/media/nr/2007/09sept/awegleinph.html.
A high-resolution photo is available by contacting Lisa Merkl.
USING VIDEO-GAME TECHNOLOGY TO FIND OIL
& GAS
IBM Supercomputer Supports Seismic Research at University of Houston
HOUSTON, Sept. 19, 2007 – What do video games and seismic
explorations have in common? Both require very demanding computer
applications that call for the ability to process massive quantities
of data rapidly. Using computer technology originally co-designed
by IBM for video-game consoles, University of Houston seismic researchers
are employing this extremely fast technology to more effectively
target oil reserves.
IBM is supporting the UH Mission-Oriented Seismic Research Program
(M-OSRP) and its petroleum industry sponsors with a Cell Broadband
Engine™ (Cell/B.E.) system that represents a new generation
of powerful supercomputers with substantial parallelism built in
at the core level. Such highly parallel computing technology is
characterized by multiple processors executing and analyzing different
types of data at once.
Originally designed for use in consumer-based computer entertainment
products such as the Sony PlayStation3™, the Cell/B.E. processor
is not limited to game systems and delivers supercomputing performance
on a single chip through the architecture of the Cell Synergistic
Processor Unit (SPU) for data-intensive processing like that found
in cryptography, media, matrix operations and certain scientific
applications. Current Cell/B.E. processors have up to nine individual
core units per chip and future plans envisage having 34 core units.
This design has a great advantage in running programs that require
the same algorithm – a repetitive, problem-solving computational
procedure – to be run independently on a common data set.
In seismic exploration, algorithms are used to process seismic
data to remove coherent noise and to locate and produce hydrocarbons.
Seismic methods are successful when the assumptions behind processing
algorithms are satisfied, and they fail when those assumptions are
violated. The latter breakdown of seismic efficacy is the source
of challenges faced by seismic exploration and production.
There are several types or categories of assumptions made by seismic
algorithms, such as collecting enough surface data to make reliable
subsurface inferences and having computers with adequate speed and
memory to allow realistic turnaround time. Additionally, there are
innate algorithmic assumptions or limitations whose violation cannot
be addressed by collecting more data or inventing and purchasing
faster computers. There are many cases when collecting more complete
data and having faster computers with greater memory will match
the challenge, but there are other cases when the issue is innate
algorithmic failure and a different response is required.
Many significant and challenging exploration targets, such as sub-salt
and sub-basalt exploration and production, represent intrinsic algorithmic
breakdown and failure. A fundamental new seismic concept and capability
is required to address such an innate algorithmic failure, and that
new algorithm often has a concomitant requirement for increased
computing power. An effective and comprehensive response needs to
begin by first recognizing and then responding to each of these
different types of challenges. IBM’s Cell/B.E. processor has
the potential to significantly contribute to several different aspects
and initiatives within that campaign.
One of the algorithms developed within M-OSRP to suppress a form
of coherent noise called internal multiples places a high bar on
seismic data collection and a very high bar on computing speed and
memory. To allow the petroleum industry to use this very effective
methodology for 3-D data will require a new computing vision and
capability.
IBM researchers working in cooperation with M-OSRP have recoded
this M-OSRP algorithm for the Cell/B.E. processor at UH and are
running comparisons with industry-standard computer architectures
and other novel architectures including Cell/B.E. The IBM research
team is managed and directed by Tom McClure, leader of IBM’s
Worldwide Petroleum Industry and Deep Computing Visualization Team;
Michael Perrone, IBM Master Inventor and manager of the Cell/B.E.
Applications Group; and Earl Dodd, Deep Computing strategist. On
the UH side, Cullen Distinguished Professor of Physics Arthur Weglein
is the director of M-OSRP.
IBM and M-OSRP have a special relationship involving cooperative,
collaborative and sponsor support, and while IBM sells this machine,
it does not lease it. The Cell/B.E. is on loan to UH’s M-OSRP
as part of a very exclusive program with academic and research institutions.
“The IBM team’s astute technical vision, impressive
capability and business acumen not only recognize the breadth and
depth of the E&P challenge, but also that partnering and collaborating
with M-OSRP and its petroleum industry sponsors provides a reasonable
chance of contributing toward an effective and comprehensive response,”
Weglein said. “The key responsibility of our group is to educate
and mentor graduate students to become the next generation of scientific
research leaders while addressing innate seismic algorithmic assumption
violation and failure. Our research purpose is to provide new, high-impact
seismic capability, methods and algorithms – the ‘what
to compute.’ However, many of our algorithms are extremely
computer intensive and their new level of effectiveness requires
a matching new computing vision and capability.”
The two issues of “what to compute” and “how to
compute” must be simultaneously progressed for M-OSRP’s
new seismic concepts and capabilities to be relevant. That fact,
Weglein said, is behind the collaboration and cooperation between
IBM and M-OSRP and its petroleum-industry sponsors.
A broader and central objective in making this IBM technology available
to M-OSRP is to see how the Cell/B.E. supercomputer functions in
a real-time atmosphere and how to design the optimal machine for
seismic activities. The M-OSRP sponsors have a High-Performance
Computing Committee that manages and guides that activity in cooperation
with IBM and M-OSRP.
“We are very fortunate to have the trust and confidence of
our industry sponsors to pursue high-impact, fundamental, game-changing
research designed to make the currently inaccessible target accessible
and the accessible better defined,” Weglein said. “Our
partnership with IBM contributes to an effective and comprehensive
response to the pressing challenges faced by the petroleum industry
in locating and producing hydrocarbons. Located in Houston, the
center of the petroleum universe, UH is the ideal place for this
partnership to flourish. The success of this initiative has important
implications for both our nation’s and the world’s energy
and security interests.”
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
To receive UH science news via e-mail, visit http://www.uh.edu/admin/media/sciencelist.html.
For more information on M-OSRP, visit http://www.mosrp.uh.edu.
For more information about IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com.
For more information about UH visit the universitys Newsroom
at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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