A new era in scientific computing: Domain decomposition methods in hybrid CPU–GPU architectures

Recent advances in graphics processing units (GPUs) technology open a new era in high performance computing. Applications of GPUs to scientific computations are attracting a lot of attention due to their low cost in conjunction with their inherently remarkable performance features and the recently enhanced computational precision and improved programming tools. Domain decomposition methods (DDM) constitute today an important category of methods for the solution of highly demanding problems in simulation-based applied science and engineering. Among them, dual domain decomposition methods have been successfully applied in a variety of problems in both sequential as well as in parallel/distributed processing systems. In this work, we demonstrate the implementation of the FETI method to a hybrid CPU–GPU computing environment. Parametric tests on implicit finite element structural mechanics benchmark problems revealed the tremendous potential of this type of hybrid computing environment as a result of the full exploitation of multi-core CPU hardware resources and the intrinsic software and hardware features of the GPUs as well as the numerical properties of the solution method.