Organic reefs, the targets of deep-water petro- leum exploration, developed widely in Xisha area. However, there are concealed igneous rocks undersea, to which organic rocks have nearly equal wave impedance. So the ig...Organic reefs, the targets of deep-water petro- leum exploration, developed widely in Xisha area. However, there are concealed igneous rocks undersea, to which organic rocks have nearly equal wave impedance. So the igneous rocks have become interference for future explo- ration by having similar seismic reflection characteristics. Yet, the density and magnetism of organic reefs are very different from igneous rocks. It has obvious advantages to identify organic reefs and igneous rocks by gravity and magnetic data. At first, frequency decomposition was applied to the free-air gravity anomaly in Xisha area to obtain the 2D subdivision of the gravity anomaly and magnetic anomaly in the vertical direction. Thus, the dis- tribution of igneous rocks in the horizontal direction can be acquired according to high-frequency field, low-frequency field, and its physical properties. Then, 3D forward model- ing of gravitational field was carried out to establish the density model of this area by reference to physical properties of rocks based on former researches. Furthermore, 3D inversion of gravity anomaly by genetic algorithm method of the graphic processing unit (GPU) parallel processing in Xisha target area was applied, and 3D density structure of this area was obtained. By this way, we can confine the igneous rocks to the certain depth according to the density of the igneous rocks. The frequency decomposition and 3D inversion of gravity anomaly by genetic algorithm method of the GPU parallel processing proved to be a useful method for recognizing igneous rocks to its 3D geological position. So organic reefs and igneous rocks can be identified, which provide a prescient information for further exploration.展开更多
A graphic processing unit (GPU)-accelerated biological species recognition method using partially connected neural evolutionary network model is introduced in this paper. The partial connected neural evolutionary netw...A graphic processing unit (GPU)-accelerated biological species recognition method using partially connected neural evolutionary network model is introduced in this paper. The partial connected neural evolutionary network adopted in the paper can overcome the disadvantage of traditional neural network with small inputs. The whole image is considered as the input of the neural network, so the maximal features can be kept for recognition. To speed up the recognition process of the neural network, a fast implementation of the partially connected neural network was conducted on NVIDIA Tesla C1060 using the NVIDIA compute unified device architecture (CUDA) framework. Image sets of eight biological species were obtained to test the GPU implementation and counterpart serial CPU implementation, and experiment results showed GPU implementation works effectively on both recognition rate and speed, and gained 343 speedup over its counterpart CPU implementation. Comparing to feature-based recognition method on the same recognition task, the method also achieved an acceptable correct rate of 84.6% when testing on eight biological species.展开更多
Mutual information (MI)-based image registration is effective in registering medical images, but it is computationally expensive. This paper accelerates MI-based image registration by dividing computation of mutual ...Mutual information (MI)-based image registration is effective in registering medical images, but it is computationally expensive. This paper accelerates MI-based image registration by dividing computation of mutual information into spatial transformation and histogram-based calculation, and performing 3D spatial transformation and trilinear interpolation on graphic processing unit (GPU). The 3D floating image is downloaded to GPU as flat 3D texture, and then fetched and interpolated for each new voxel location in fragment shader. The transformed resuits are rendered to textures by using frame buffer object (FBO) extension, and then read to the main memory used for the remaining computation on CPU. Experimental results show that GPU-accelerated method can achieve speedup about an order of magnitude with better registration result compared with the software implementation on a single-core CPU.展开更多
In recent years, the widespread adoption of parallel computing, especially in multi-core processors and high-performance computing environments, ushered in a new era of efficiency and speed. This trend was particularl...In recent years, the widespread adoption of parallel computing, especially in multi-core processors and high-performance computing environments, ushered in a new era of efficiency and speed. This trend was particularly noteworthy in the field of image processing, which witnessed significant advancements. This parallel computing project explored the field of parallel image processing, with a focus on the grayscale conversion of colorful images. Our approach involved integrating OpenMP into our framework for parallelization to execute a critical image processing task: grayscale conversion. By using OpenMP, we strategically enhanced the overall performance of the conversion process by distributing the workload across multiple threads. The primary objectives of our project revolved around optimizing computation time and improving overall efficiency, particularly in the task of grayscale conversion of colorful images. Utilizing OpenMP for concurrent processing across multiple cores significantly reduced execution times through the effective distribution of tasks among these cores. The speedup values for various image sizes highlighted the efficacy of parallel processing, especially for large images. However, a detailed examination revealed a potential decline in parallelization efficiency with an increasing number of cores. This underscored the importance of a carefully optimized parallelization strategy, considering factors like load balancing and minimizing communication overhead. Despite challenges, the overall scalability and efficiency achieved with parallel image processing underscored OpenMP’s effectiveness in accelerating image manipulation tasks.展开更多
General purpose graphic processing unit (GPU) calculation technology is gradually widely used in various fields. Its mode of single instruction, multiple threads is capable of seismic numerical simulation which has ...General purpose graphic processing unit (GPU) calculation technology is gradually widely used in various fields. Its mode of single instruction, multiple threads is capable of seismic numerical simulation which has a huge quantity of data and calculation steps. In this study, we introduce a GPU-based parallel calculation method of a precise integration method (PIM) for seismic forward modeling. Compared with CPU single-core calculation, GPU parallel calculating perfectly keeps the features of PIM, which has small bandwidth, high accuracy and capability of modeling complex substructures, and GPU calculation brings high computational efficiency, which means that high-performing GPU parallel calculation can make seismic forward modeling closer to real seismic records.展开更多
The signal processing speed of spectral domain optical coherence tomography(SD-OCT)has become a bottleneck in a lot of medical applications.Recently,a time-domain interpolation method was proposed.This method can get ...The signal processing speed of spectral domain optical coherence tomography(SD-OCT)has become a bottleneck in a lot of medical applications.Recently,a time-domain interpolation method was proposed.This method can get better signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)but much-reduced signal processing time in SD-OCT data processing as compared with the commonly used zeropadding interpolation method.Additionally,the resampled data can be obtained by a few data and coefficients in the cutoff window.Thus,a lot of interpolations can be performed simultaneously.So,this interpolation method is suitable for parallel computing.By using graphics processing unit(GPU)and the compute unified device architecture(CUDA)program model,time-domain interpolation can be accelerated significantly.The computing capability can be achieved more than 250,000 A-lines,200,000 A-lines,and 160,000 A-lines in a second for 2,048 pixel OCT when the cutoff length is L=11,L=21,and L=31,respectively.A frame SD-OCT data(400A-lines×2,048 pixel per line)is acquired and processed on GPU in real time.The results show that signal processing time of SD-OCT can befinished in 6.223 ms when the cutoff length L=21,which is much faster than that on central processing unit(CPU).Real-time signal processing of acquired data can be realized.展开更多
Personal desktop platform with teraflops peak performance of thousands of cores is realized at the price of conventional workstations using the programmable graphics processing units(GPUs).A GPU-based parallel Euler/N...Personal desktop platform with teraflops peak performance of thousands of cores is realized at the price of conventional workstations using the programmable graphics processing units(GPUs).A GPU-based parallel Euler/Navier-Stokes solver is developed for 2-D compressible flows by using NVIDIA′s Compute Unified Device Architecture(CUDA)programming model in CUDA Fortran programming language.The techniques of implementation of CUDA kernels,double-layered thread hierarchy and variety memory hierarchy are presented to form the GPU-based algorithm of Euler/Navier-Stokes equations.The resulting parallel solver is validated by a set of typical test flow cases.The numerical results show that dozens of times speedup relative to a serial CPU implementation can be achieved using a single GPU desktop platform,which demonstrates that a GPU desktop can serve as a costeffective parallel computing platform to accelerate computational fluid dynamics(CFD)simulations substantially.展开更多
Large eddy simulation (LES) using the Smagorinsky eddy viscosity model is added to the two-dimensional nine velocity components (D2Q9) lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) with multi-relaxation-time (MRT) to simul...Large eddy simulation (LES) using the Smagorinsky eddy viscosity model is added to the two-dimensional nine velocity components (D2Q9) lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) with multi-relaxation-time (MRT) to simulate incompressible turbulent cavity flows with the Reynolds numbers up to 1 × 10^7. To improve the computation efficiency of LBM on the numerical simulations of turbulent flows, the massively parallel computing power from a graphic processing unit (GPU) with a computing unified device architecture (CUDA) is introduced into the MRT-LBE-LES model. The model performs well, compared with the results from others, with an increase of 76 times in computation efficiency. It appears that the higher the Reynolds numbers is, the smaller the Smagorinsky constant should be, if the lattice number is fixed. Also, for a selected high Reynolds number and a selected proper Smagorinsky constant, there is a minimum requirement for the lattice number so that the Smagorinsky eddy viscosity will not be excessively large.展开更多
Porous materials present significant advantages for absorbing radioactive isotopes in nuclear waste streams.To improve absorption efficiency in nuclear waste treatment,a thorough understanding of the diffusion-advecti...Porous materials present significant advantages for absorbing radioactive isotopes in nuclear waste streams.To improve absorption efficiency in nuclear waste treatment,a thorough understanding of the diffusion-advection process within porous structures is essential for material design.In this study,we present advancements in the volumetric lattice Boltzmann method(VLBM)for modeling and simulating pore-scale diffusion-advection of radioactive isotopes within geopolymer porous structures.These structures are created using the phase field method(PFM)to precisely control pore architectures.In our VLBM approach,we introduce a concentration field of an isotope seamlessly coupled with the velocity field and solve it by the time evolution of its particle population function.To address the computational intensity inherent in the coupled lattice Boltzmann equations for velocity and concentration fields,we implement graphics processing unit(GPU)parallelization.Validation of the developed model involves examining the flow and diffusion fields in porous structures.Remarkably,good agreement is observed for both the velocity field from VLBM and multiphysics object-oriented simulation environment(MOOSE),and the concentration field from VLBM and the finite difference method(FDM).Furthermore,we investigate the effects of background flow,species diffusivity,and porosity on the diffusion-advection behavior by varying the background flow velocity,diffusion coefficient,and pore volume fraction,respectively.Notably,all three parameters exert an influence on the diffusion-advection process.Increased background flow and diffusivity markedly accelerate the process due to increased advection intensity and enhanced diffusion capability,respectively.Conversely,increasing the porosity has a less significant effect,causing a slight slowdown of the diffusion-advection process due to the expanded pore volume.This comprehensive parametric study provides valuable insights into the kinetics of isotope uptake in porous structures,facilitating the development of porous materials for nuclear waste treatment applications.展开更多
在图形处理器(GPU)上实现对角稀疏矩阵向量乘法(SpMV)可以充分利用GPU的并行计算能力,并加速矩阵向量乘法;然而,相关主流算法存在零元填充数据多、计算效率低的问题。针对上述问题,提出一种对角SpMV算法DIA-Dynamic(DIAgonal-Dynamic)...在图形处理器(GPU)上实现对角稀疏矩阵向量乘法(SpMV)可以充分利用GPU的并行计算能力,并加速矩阵向量乘法;然而,相关主流算法存在零元填充数据多、计算效率低的问题。针对上述问题,提出一种对角SpMV算法DIA-Dynamic(DIAgonal-Dynamic)。首先,设计一种全新的动态划分策略,根据矩阵的不同特征进行分块,在保证GPU高计算效率的同时大幅减少零元填充,去除冗余计算量;其次,提出一种对角稀疏矩阵存储格式BDIA(Block DIAgonal)存储分块数据,并调整数据布局,提高GPU上的访存性能;最后,基于GPU的底层进行条件分支优化,以减少分支判断,并使用动态共享内存解决向量的不规则访问问题。DIA-Dynamic与前沿Tile SpMV算法相比,平均加速比达到了1.88;与前沿BRCSD(Diagonal Compressed Storage based on Row-Blocks)-Ⅱ算法相比,平均零元填充减少了43%,平均加速比达到了1.70。实验结果表明,DIA-Dynamic能够有效提高GPU上对角SpMV的计算效率,缩短计算时间,提升程序性能。展开更多
This paper proposes a new Graphics Processing Unit(GPU)-accelerated storage format to speed up Sparse Matrix Vector Products(SMVPs) for Finite Element Method(FEM) analysis of electromagnetic problems.A new format call...This paper proposes a new Graphics Processing Unit(GPU)-accelerated storage format to speed up Sparse Matrix Vector Products(SMVPs) for Finite Element Method(FEM) analysis of electromagnetic problems.A new format called Modified Compile Time Optimization(MCTO) format is used to reduce much execution time and design for hastening the iterative solution of FEM equations especially when rows have uneven lengths.The MCTO-applied FEM is about 10 times faster than conventional FEM on a CPU,and faster than other row-major ordering formats on a GPU.Numerical results show that the proposed GPU-accelerated storage format turns out to be an excellent accelerator.展开更多
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.41174085)
文摘Organic reefs, the targets of deep-water petro- leum exploration, developed widely in Xisha area. However, there are concealed igneous rocks undersea, to which organic rocks have nearly equal wave impedance. So the igneous rocks have become interference for future explo- ration by having similar seismic reflection characteristics. Yet, the density and magnetism of organic reefs are very different from igneous rocks. It has obvious advantages to identify organic reefs and igneous rocks by gravity and magnetic data. At first, frequency decomposition was applied to the free-air gravity anomaly in Xisha area to obtain the 2D subdivision of the gravity anomaly and magnetic anomaly in the vertical direction. Thus, the dis- tribution of igneous rocks in the horizontal direction can be acquired according to high-frequency field, low-frequency field, and its physical properties. Then, 3D forward model- ing of gravitational field was carried out to establish the density model of this area by reference to physical properties of rocks based on former researches. Furthermore, 3D inversion of gravity anomaly by genetic algorithm method of the graphic processing unit (GPU) parallel processing in Xisha target area was applied, and 3D density structure of this area was obtained. By this way, we can confine the igneous rocks to the certain depth according to the density of the igneous rocks. The frequency decomposition and 3D inversion of gravity anomaly by genetic algorithm method of the GPU parallel processing proved to be a useful method for recognizing igneous rocks to its 3D geological position. So organic reefs and igneous rocks can be identified, which provide a prescient information for further exploration.
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 60975084)Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province,China (No.2011J05159)
文摘A graphic processing unit (GPU)-accelerated biological species recognition method using partially connected neural evolutionary network model is introduced in this paper. The partial connected neural evolutionary network adopted in the paper can overcome the disadvantage of traditional neural network with small inputs. The whole image is considered as the input of the neural network, so the maximal features can be kept for recognition. To speed up the recognition process of the neural network, a fast implementation of the partially connected neural network was conducted on NVIDIA Tesla C1060 using the NVIDIA compute unified device architecture (CUDA) framework. Image sets of eight biological species were obtained to test the GPU implementation and counterpart serial CPU implementation, and experiment results showed GPU implementation works effectively on both recognition rate and speed, and gained 343 speedup over its counterpart CPU implementation. Comparing to feature-based recognition method on the same recognition task, the method also achieved an acceptable correct rate of 84.6% when testing on eight biological species.
基金Supported by National High Technology Research and Development Program("863"Program)of China(No.863-306-ZD13-03-06)
文摘Mutual information (MI)-based image registration is effective in registering medical images, but it is computationally expensive. This paper accelerates MI-based image registration by dividing computation of mutual information into spatial transformation and histogram-based calculation, and performing 3D spatial transformation and trilinear interpolation on graphic processing unit (GPU). The 3D floating image is downloaded to GPU as flat 3D texture, and then fetched and interpolated for each new voxel location in fragment shader. The transformed resuits are rendered to textures by using frame buffer object (FBO) extension, and then read to the main memory used for the remaining computation on CPU. Experimental results show that GPU-accelerated method can achieve speedup about an order of magnitude with better registration result compared with the software implementation on a single-core CPU.
文摘In recent years, the widespread adoption of parallel computing, especially in multi-core processors and high-performance computing environments, ushered in a new era of efficiency and speed. This trend was particularly noteworthy in the field of image processing, which witnessed significant advancements. This parallel computing project explored the field of parallel image processing, with a focus on the grayscale conversion of colorful images. Our approach involved integrating OpenMP into our framework for parallelization to execute a critical image processing task: grayscale conversion. By using OpenMP, we strategically enhanced the overall performance of the conversion process by distributing the workload across multiple threads. The primary objectives of our project revolved around optimizing computation time and improving overall efficiency, particularly in the task of grayscale conversion of colorful images. Utilizing OpenMP for concurrent processing across multiple cores significantly reduced execution times through the effective distribution of tasks among these cores. The speedup values for various image sizes highlighted the efficacy of parallel processing, especially for large images. However, a detailed examination revealed a potential decline in parallelization efficiency with an increasing number of cores. This underscored the importance of a carefully optimized parallelization strategy, considering factors like load balancing and minimizing communication overhead. Despite challenges, the overall scalability and efficiency achieved with parallel image processing underscored OpenMP’s effectiveness in accelerating image manipulation tasks.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos 40974066 and 40821062)National Basic Research Program of China (No 2007CB209602)
文摘General purpose graphic processing unit (GPU) calculation technology is gradually widely used in various fields. Its mode of single instruction, multiple threads is capable of seismic numerical simulation which has a huge quantity of data and calculation steps. In this study, we introduce a GPU-based parallel calculation method of a precise integration method (PIM) for seismic forward modeling. Compared with CPU single-core calculation, GPU parallel calculating perfectly keeps the features of PIM, which has small bandwidth, high accuracy and capability of modeling complex substructures, and GPU calculation brings high computational efficiency, which means that high-performing GPU parallel calculation can make seismic forward modeling closer to real seismic records.
基金supported by National High Technology R&D project of China(2008AA02Z422)The Instrument Developing Project of The Chinese Academy of Sciences,Institute of Optics and Electronic,Chinese Academy of Sciences.
文摘The signal processing speed of spectral domain optical coherence tomography(SD-OCT)has become a bottleneck in a lot of medical applications.Recently,a time-domain interpolation method was proposed.This method can get better signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)but much-reduced signal processing time in SD-OCT data processing as compared with the commonly used zeropadding interpolation method.Additionally,the resampled data can be obtained by a few data and coefficients in the cutoff window.Thus,a lot of interpolations can be performed simultaneously.So,this interpolation method is suitable for parallel computing.By using graphics processing unit(GPU)and the compute unified device architecture(CUDA)program model,time-domain interpolation can be accelerated significantly.The computing capability can be achieved more than 250,000 A-lines,200,000 A-lines,and 160,000 A-lines in a second for 2,048 pixel OCT when the cutoff length is L=11,L=21,and L=31,respectively.A frame SD-OCT data(400A-lines×2,048 pixel per line)is acquired and processed on GPU in real time.The results show that signal processing time of SD-OCT can befinished in 6.223 ms when the cutoff length L=21,which is much faster than that on central processing unit(CPU).Real-time signal processing of acquired data can be realized.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.11172134)the Funding of Jiangsu Innovation Program for Graduate Education (No.CXLX13_132)
文摘Personal desktop platform with teraflops peak performance of thousands of cores is realized at the price of conventional workstations using the programmable graphics processing units(GPUs).A GPU-based parallel Euler/Navier-Stokes solver is developed for 2-D compressible flows by using NVIDIA′s Compute Unified Device Architecture(CUDA)programming model in CUDA Fortran programming language.The techniques of implementation of CUDA kernels,double-layered thread hierarchy and variety memory hierarchy are presented to form the GPU-based algorithm of Euler/Navier-Stokes equations.The resulting parallel solver is validated by a set of typical test flow cases.The numerical results show that dozens of times speedup relative to a serial CPU implementation can be achieved using a single GPU desktop platform,which demonstrates that a GPU desktop can serve as a costeffective parallel computing platform to accelerate computational fluid dynamics(CFD)simulations substantially.
基金supported by College of William and Mary,Virginia Institute of Marine Science for the study environment
文摘Large eddy simulation (LES) using the Smagorinsky eddy viscosity model is added to the two-dimensional nine velocity components (D2Q9) lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) with multi-relaxation-time (MRT) to simulate incompressible turbulent cavity flows with the Reynolds numbers up to 1 × 10^7. To improve the computation efficiency of LBM on the numerical simulations of turbulent flows, the massively parallel computing power from a graphic processing unit (GPU) with a computing unified device architecture (CUDA) is introduced into the MRT-LBE-LES model. The model performs well, compared with the results from others, with an increase of 76 times in computation efficiency. It appears that the higher the Reynolds numbers is, the smaller the Smagorinsky constant should be, if the lattice number is fixed. Also, for a selected high Reynolds number and a selected proper Smagorinsky constant, there is a minimum requirement for the lattice number so that the Smagorinsky eddy viscosity will not be excessively large.
基金supported as part of the Center for Hierarchical Waste Form Materials,an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S.Department of Energy,Office of Science,Basic Energy Sciences under Award No.DE-SC0016574.
文摘Porous materials present significant advantages for absorbing radioactive isotopes in nuclear waste streams.To improve absorption efficiency in nuclear waste treatment,a thorough understanding of the diffusion-advection process within porous structures is essential for material design.In this study,we present advancements in the volumetric lattice Boltzmann method(VLBM)for modeling and simulating pore-scale diffusion-advection of radioactive isotopes within geopolymer porous structures.These structures are created using the phase field method(PFM)to precisely control pore architectures.In our VLBM approach,we introduce a concentration field of an isotope seamlessly coupled with the velocity field and solve it by the time evolution of its particle population function.To address the computational intensity inherent in the coupled lattice Boltzmann equations for velocity and concentration fields,we implement graphics processing unit(GPU)parallelization.Validation of the developed model involves examining the flow and diffusion fields in porous structures.Remarkably,good agreement is observed for both the velocity field from VLBM and multiphysics object-oriented simulation environment(MOOSE),and the concentration field from VLBM and the finite difference method(FDM).Furthermore,we investigate the effects of background flow,species diffusivity,and porosity on the diffusion-advection behavior by varying the background flow velocity,diffusion coefficient,and pore volume fraction,respectively.Notably,all three parameters exert an influence on the diffusion-advection process.Increased background flow and diffusivity markedly accelerate the process due to increased advection intensity and enhanced diffusion capability,respectively.Conversely,increasing the porosity has a less significant effect,causing a slight slowdown of the diffusion-advection process due to the expanded pore volume.This comprehensive parametric study provides valuable insights into the kinetics of isotope uptake in porous structures,facilitating the development of porous materials for nuclear waste treatment applications.
文摘在图形处理器(GPU)上实现对角稀疏矩阵向量乘法(SpMV)可以充分利用GPU的并行计算能力,并加速矩阵向量乘法;然而,相关主流算法存在零元填充数据多、计算效率低的问题。针对上述问题,提出一种对角SpMV算法DIA-Dynamic(DIAgonal-Dynamic)。首先,设计一种全新的动态划分策略,根据矩阵的不同特征进行分块,在保证GPU高计算效率的同时大幅减少零元填充,去除冗余计算量;其次,提出一种对角稀疏矩阵存储格式BDIA(Block DIAgonal)存储分块数据,并调整数据布局,提高GPU上的访存性能;最后,基于GPU的底层进行条件分支优化,以减少分支判断,并使用动态共享内存解决向量的不规则访问问题。DIA-Dynamic与前沿Tile SpMV算法相比,平均加速比达到了1.88;与前沿BRCSD(Diagonal Compressed Storage based on Row-Blocks)-Ⅱ算法相比,平均零元填充减少了43%,平均加速比达到了1.70。实验结果表明,DIA-Dynamic能够有效提高GPU上对角SpMV的计算效率,缩短计算时间,提升程序性能。
基金Supported by the National Science Foundation of China(Nos.61272097,71203064,71103077)the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai(No.12ZR1443000)+2 种基金the Funding Research and Innovation Project of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission(No.12ZZ182)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universitiesand the Local Colleges and Universities "1025" Connotation Construction Project of Shanghai(No.nhky-2012-10)the Foundation of Shanghai University of Engineering Science(No.A-0501-13-012)
文摘This paper proposes a new Graphics Processing Unit(GPU)-accelerated storage format to speed up Sparse Matrix Vector Products(SMVPs) for Finite Element Method(FEM) analysis of electromagnetic problems.A new format called Modified Compile Time Optimization(MCTO) format is used to reduce much execution time and design for hastening the iterative solution of FEM equations especially when rows have uneven lengths.The MCTO-applied FEM is about 10 times faster than conventional FEM on a CPU,and faster than other row-major ordering formats on a GPU.Numerical results show that the proposed GPU-accelerated storage format turns out to be an excellent accelerator.