title: A GPU-based calculation using the three-dimensional FDTD method for electromagnetic field analysis.
abstract: Numerical simulations with the numerical human model using the finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method have recently been performed frequently in a number of fields in biomedical engineering. However, the FDTD calculation runs too slowly. We focus, therefore, on general purpose programming on the graphics processing unit (GPGPU). The three-dimensional FDTD method was implemented on the GPU using Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA). In this study, we used the NVIDIA Tesla C1060 as a GPGPU board. The performance of the GPU is evaluated in comparison with the performance of a conventional CPU and a vector supercomputer. The results indicate that three-dimensional FDTD calculations using a GPU can significantly reduce run time in comparison with that using a conventional CPU, even a native GPU implementation of the three-dimensional FDTD method, while the GPU/CPU speed ratio varies with the calculation domain and thread block size.
authors.affiliation: Electromagnetic Compatibility Group, Applied Electromagnetic Research Center, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo 184-8795, Japan. nagaoka@nict.go.jp
authors.forename: Tomoaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagaoka
authors.forename: Soichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003196:Computer Graphics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003201:Computers; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008953:Models, Anatomic