Utilizing massively parallel co-processors in the AarhusInv 1D forward and inverse AEM modelling code

Abstract

While the forefront of AEM research is focusing on the challenges of 3D modelling, the wide AEM community still rely on less sophisticated computational techniques for their calculations. Inversion of large time domain AEM surveys still prove a computational challenge within a 1D formulation, and require much more computational resources than can be delivered by an office workstation. Emerging Monte-Carlo based 1D Bayesian inversion schemes provide another example of applications that are currently limited by the 1D forward modelling rate. In this abstract we describe our research in modifying the AarhusInv AEM inversion code to utilize next generation massively parallel co-processors. While our results are early and based on very little optimization, we still achieve comparable levels of performance (>80%) from a single co-processor and a 48 cpu core server. We estimate that performance on the co-processor can be speeded up by approximately another 4x with a limited amount of code restructuring/rewriting.