Numerical Simulation for NewSpace and Beyond
Graham Orr
Xplicit Computing, Mountain View, CA

Recent advances in computer architecture are fueling dramatic innovations in data science, machine learning, virtual reality, and autonomous driving. The graphics processing unit (GPU) which once fueled 3D games has also become the physics engine for new methods in computational science and engineering (CSE). And yet, engineering teams have had constrained access to advanced structural and fluid dynamic computing tools.

Simulation software has tended to evolve incrementally with advances in hardware. Codes like NASTRAN or SPICE that were developed on uniprocessor machines have matured incrementally as larger and larger multiprocessor machines became available. By contrast, specialized vector machines could perform certain computations much faster, but at a much higher cost. Then, a little over a decade ago, GPUs started to fill roles in physical science computation, dramatically reducing cost and effectively superseding the specialized vector machines. The cost of a GPU-based physics engine is now roughly the same as an advanced multi-core CPU.

XCompute Firebird is a ground-up server-client architecture integrates systems, geometry, physics, and graphics - providing an extensible platform for parallel computation of finite element, finite volume, Lattice Boltzmann, and other methods. It arose from the need to model the dynamics of a regeneratively cooled rocket engine, including one of the most complex physical phenomena, the combustion process itself.

This talk discusses past and current methods of computation in physical sciences, along with the origins and situation that led to the XCompute Firebird platform.

Graham Orr is a propulsion engineer and systems architect for the XCompute platform. His experience includes developing cryogenic rocket engine infrastructure and technologies for Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and other NewSpace start-ups, where he identified an industrial problem and set out to fix it.

Agenda

6:30 – Check-in, networking
6:50 – Welcome, annoucements from SVSC and rLoop
7:00 – Numerical Simulation for NewSpace and Beyond, Graham Orr
8:00 – Networking, extended Q&A
8:30 – Wrap-up

This talk is part of the SVSC TechTalks series (http://www.svsc.org), with co-sponsorship from rLoop (http://www.rloop.org).

We thank rLoop for helping underwrite this TechTalk, and thus making it available to a wider audience.

rLoop

Additional Resources:

Xplicit Computing - https://www.xplicitcomputing.com/
XCompute - https://www.xplicitcomputing.com/xcompute