General-Purpose Graphics Processing Units in Service-Oriented Architectures

Over the last decades, graphics processing units have developed from special-purpose graphics accelerators to general-purpose massively parallel co-processors. In recent years they gained increased traction in high performance computing, as they provide superior computational performance in terms of runtime and energy consumption for a wide range of problems. In this survey, we review their employment in distributed computing for a broad range of application scenarios. Common characteristics and a classification of the most relevant use cases are described. Furthermore, we discuss possible future developments of the use of general purpose graphics processing units in the area of service-oriented architecture. The aim of this work is to inspire future research in this field and to give guidelines on when and how to incorporate this new hardware technology.