Scientists from Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University have come to the conclusion that a personal computer can be used for quantum mechanics calculations, which are usually solved with the use of supercomputer, reports The ScienceNews Journal.
The new research shows that your desktop PC “can actually get the job done much faster”.
Vladimir Pomerantcev and Olga Rubtsova, senior researchers working under the guidance of Prof Vladimir Kukulin had been able to make use of an ordinary desktop personal computer with GPU to solve integral equations of a complex variety from quantum mechanics, which were previously solved by much more powerful and expensive supercomputers.
The time saved was massive, as a task that typically required 2 to 3 days for the supercomputer to complete took only 15 minutes for the desktop.
This isn’t top-of-the-line hardware either – the CPUs used could be bought in the $300–$500 price range and the graphics cards used were the same as those found in a modern gaming console.
The amazing thing from this research is that the desired quality of the graphics processors and a huge amount of software had been in circulation for over 10 years, but nobody made use of them for complex calculations, preference has always been given to supercomputers. The physicists from this university have surpassed and surprised their Western counterparts as well with such amazing results.
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It’s been possible for a while, lots of guys programming with OpenCL for physics calculations. The only problem with hardware in these calculations is accuracy, this is why Industrial GPU’s have some differences to handle precision calculation compared to the average consumer GPU. A cluster of GPU’s or PHi coprocessors would outperform a cpu based cluster any day. A cluster of AMD AM2 systems could also perform quite well because of the Jaguar architecture.