New High-Performance Computing Solution Renders Massive Amounts of Visualization Data in Seconds, Transforming Oil & Gas Exploration Software Applications
AMSTERDAM — (BUSINESS WIRE) — June 17, 2014 — Today, at the 76th EAGE Conference & Exhibition 2014, Lenovo (booth #3236) announced its collaboration with NVIDIA, Magma and Hue to develop a new visualization technology solution for exploration geophysics.
The combined solution leverages Lenovo ThinkStation D30 workstations, NVIDIA® Tesla® K40 GPU accelerators and Magma GPU expansion technology to power Hue’s visualization technology for exploration and production application development, providing the ability to render massive amounts of geophysical visualization data in seconds.
Exploration geophysics is the key to oil and natural gas discovery, but the industry continues to be hindered by the inability to process the increasing amounts of seismic data required to render and visualize complex earth models. While innovative companies like Hue develop technology that promises to exponentially improve geophysicists’ discovery capabilities, underperforming computing technology continues to slow these applications, extending exploration projects by hours, days and even weeks.
For the first time, this new, combined visualization solution brings high-performance computing (HPC) to the Hue software development toolkit, minimizing delays and transforming the way geophysicists process seismic data. Delivering a 64-bit optimized environment, the solution analyzes terabytes and even petabytes of data in seconds, enabling geophysicists to execute complex algorithms quickly in a seamless workflow.
“In exploration, data normally arrives late, and decision schedules often shift forward, squeezing the time available for analysis,” said Dr. Ron Masters, Geoscience advisor at Headwave. “New opportunities always require bigger data volumes, more sophisticated imaging and new interpretation concepts. Our need for speed has never been greater.”
The foundation of the combined solution is the Lenovo ThinkStation D30 workstation, the highest performing, most reliable and most user-friendly workstation technology available. It includes multiple NVIDIA Tesla K40 GPU accelerators connected via Magma’s ExpressBox 3600 GPU expansion system to deliver HPC-class computing capabilities. Hue’s innovative HueSpace software toolkit uses NVIDIA Tesla GPUs to combine lightning-fast computation with state-of-the-art domain-oriented, multi-dimensional visualization and intelligent handling of exploration and production data in a single, easy-to-use toolkit.
Lenovo ThinkStation, Hue and Magma will be demonstrating the combined solution at the 76th Annual EAGE Conference & Exhibition 2014 in booth #3236. To schedule a demonstration, please contact Mark Van Hook, Capstrat for Lenovo ThinkStation at mvanhook@capstrat.com or by calling 919.745.3689.
Quotes:
“Our Lenovo ThinkStation D30 workstations are the best performing workstations on the market, the kind needed by geophysicists to meet their most pressing computing challenges,” said Chris McCoy, vertical solutions, energy, oil and gas, Lenovo. “With this effort, we have partnered with the best technology providers in the industry to deliver a solution enabling new workflows that can provide valuable new insights in exploration geophysics.”
“We’ve built our business on creating innovative software applications that allow geophysicists to execute incredibly complex algorithms in a fraction of the time of other applications,” said Marius Storm-Olsen, VP Technology, Strategic Alliances, Hue. “We’re proud to have taken part in this effort to create a solution that promises to have a major impact in the oil and gas industry in the years to come.”
“High-performance computing solutions are critical in the oil and gas industry, and we are excited at the opportunity to drive adoption where it counts – in the field,” said Jim Medeiros, strategic business development, Magma. “Adding our GPU expansion technology to workstation solutions effectively brings the kind of high-performance computing found in the data center to the field. It’s an extraordinary accomplishment, and we are excited to see the industry’s reaction to what we’ve done.”
“Accelerating interactive 3D rendering applications with HueSpace and CUDA GPUs will allow geoscientists to manipulate huge data volumes, while performing complex calculations on the fly as they roam though the data with intelligent probes,” said Ty McKercher, principal solutions architect at NVIDIA. “This technology lays the foundation for greater confidence in exploration projects, enabling geoscientists to identify prospects that were previously hidden, and ultimately discover more hydrocarbon reserves.”
About Lenovo
Lenovo (SEHK:0992) (Pink Sheets:LNVGY) is a US$39 billion personal technology company, the largest PC company in the world, serving customers in more than 160 countries. Dedicated to building exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile internet devices, Lenovo’s business is built on product innovation, a highly-efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services. Its product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile internet devices, including tablets and smartphones. As a global Fortune 500 company, Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com.
About Hue
Hue provides unique and tailored software and services to solve the most complex visualization and compute challenges in the oil and gas upstream industry. Since its early days Hue has maintained the technology lead in visualization, and now also maintains a similar advantage as a provider of accelerated computational technology. Hue serves its clients globally from its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and its development and sales office in Houston, Texas. For more information about Hue, visit www.hue.no.
About Magma
Magma develops and manufactures expansion computing solutions using Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), and Thunderbolt™ for servers, desktops and portable computing platforms. Magma’s line of products includes enclosed and non-enclosed solutions ranging from single slot expansion products to fault-tolerant, Reliable Available Serviceable (RAS) systems specifically designed for mission critical environments. Magma products are platform independent and are used in a variety of industries including audio and video production, test and measurement, medical imaging, surveillance, aerospace and defense, telecommunications, data acquisition and high-performance computing. Magma’s team of experienced engineers has been developing expansion and connectivity solutions since 1987 and holds more than a dozen technology patents, making them a pioneer and leader in the market space. All Magma products are designed and assembled in the United States. For more information about Magma visit www.magma.com.
Contact:
Capstrat for Lenovo ThinkStation
Mark Van Hook, 919-745-3689
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