Acceleware

Acceleware Ltd. (abbreviated AXE) is a Canadian software development company, producing software that enables software vendors to utilize parallel processing, multi-core hardware environments without having to modify their applications.

Acceleware is part of a larger computing industry trend towards parallel processing via multi-core and massively-parallel GPU hardware and software architectures.^[1]

Acceleware solutions can be found in software servicing the following industries: electromagnetics, oil and gas, medical imaging, security imaging, industrial product design, consumer product design, financial research, and academic research.

History

Acceleware was founded in 2004, in Calgary, Alberta Canada. Extensive research on special-purpose hardware was conducted, and Acceleware developed competence-accelerating scientific computing software applications. Graphics processing units (GPUs) became the main hardware focus, as their parallel processing capabilities and extremely high memory bandwidth made them superior for accelerating scientific applications.^[2]

GPU Computing (using a graphics processing unit to compute mathematical algorithms), parallelizes complex tasks so that many equations may be calculated at one time, as opposed to CPU computing which requires that these tasks be done in sequence. This parallelization results in a reduction of the time and costs required for highly complex and intensive simulations.^[3]

In January 2008, Acceleware entered into the seismic market, providing hardware acceleration for seismic migrations, a logical progression as they are based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada one of the world’s hubs for oil and gas activity.^[4]

In March 2008, Acceleware also entered into the imaging reconstruction market to provide fast CT image reconstruction. The technology utilizes accelerated algorithms, such as filtered back-projection image reconstruction, to increase the speed of operations and the quality of their end results.

In July 2008, market conditions and lack of available venture capital forced Acceleware to scale back its growth plans and reduce staff. Today, the company remains focused on the electromagnetics, seismic, and engineering simulation markets. It has also adopted a more software-oriented process now that GPU computing technology has become more accepted and generally available.^[5]

In June 2009, Acceleware published their company's web-log at acceleware.com/blog.^[6]

Milestones

2013

• Acceleware Reaches Milestone with 100th HPC Programming Course^[7]

2012

• Acceleware releases high-performance TTI AxRTM. A 2.5x improvement in speed over previous TTI AxRTM^[8]
• Acceleware introduces C++ AMP training courses in partnership with Microsoft
• Acceleware surpasses 90 training classes held, to over 1000 students

2010

• Appointment of Geoff Clark as CEO^[9]
• Acceleware partners with Crosslight^[10]
• Acceleware partners with Paradigm^[11]

2009

• Acceleware offers professional code-porting and training services.^[12]

2008

• July–Acceleware undergoes a management restructuring and a major downsizing due to poor market conditions ^[13]
• March–Acceleware enters the image reconstruction market.
• January–Acceleware enters the seismic migration market.

2007

• January–Nvidia invests $3 million in Accelware.^[14]

2006

• January–Acceleware goes public on the TSX Venture Exchange (Symbol: AXE)

2005

• Accelerator V1.0 is launched at IEEE MTT-S IMS for the electromagnetic simulation market

Acceleware Products

Acceleware products are software libraries created to utilize the parallel processing capabilities of Nvidia GPUs to allow consumers to process difficult simulations, migrations, and other engineering tasks. They are offered as an SDK/API to software integrators or as a plug-in option to end users.

References