Las Vegas, November 9, 2008 - ffA, a world leader in 3D seismic analysis software and services, and Mercury Computer Systems (NASDAQ: MRCY), Visualization Sciences Group, have signed a R&D collaboration agreement, to develop a visual computing software solution for the Oil and Gas industry.
ffA’s seismic analysis technology is commercially available through its SVI Pro and SEA 3D Pro applications, which combine advanced processing capabilities with state-of-the-art 3D visualization powered by Mercury’s Open Inventor® and VolumeViz LDM 3D Graphics Software Development Kits.
The collaboration will see ffA and Mercury Visualization Sciences Group coordinating development of their respective technologies to effectively harness the High Performance Computing possibilities provided by Graphics Processing Unit (“GPU”)-based computation. This functionality will dramatically increase the performance of interactive and automatic identification of faults, horizons and geo-bodies through GPU-computed seismic analysis, and GPU-based surface extraction.
Mercury Visualization Sciences Group plans to integrate GPU-based geometry and volume processing capabilities into Open Inventor by Mercury during 2008 and 2009. Open Inventor by Mercury will provide a high-level framework, enabling seamless integration between GPU visualization and GPU computation. Open Inventor visualization components will be directly linked to GPU-computed data, avoiding transfer between CPU and GPU.
The results of collaboration will be incorporated into SVI Pro through 2009. SVI Pro equipped with GPU high performance computation capabilities will provide the ability to analyse interactively unprecedented volumes of data supporting a new paradigm in seismic volume interpretation.
Commenting on the collaboration, Steve Purves, ffA’s Technical Director said,"The advent of GPU-based High Performance Computing will allow us to deliver a new wave of highly interactive data driven interpretation tools that utilize both the Graphics and Compute capabilities of the GPU. These highly interactive analysis tools will dramatically increase the speed at which interpreters can analyse large amounts of 3D data, ultimately contributing to an overall reduction in E & P cycle times and improved understanding of exploration risk."
"Understanding complex data drives the need for advanced visualisation and computing techniques, and today’s GPU architectures deliver simultaneous high performance in both domains" said Jean Bernard Cazeaux, Vice President, Visualization Sciences at Mercury Computer Systems."By leveraging this new level of core performance, and through our strategic partnership with ffA, we harness an unprecedented technology to offer effective solutions for understanding always more complex seismic data."
About ffA
ffA provides world-leading 3D seismic analysis Software and Services to the oil and gas industry.
ffA’s unique 3D workflow’s are designed to reveal and extract geological features from 3D seismic data, objectively and more accurately than is possible with conventional seismic techniques so that geoscientists and engineers can make better decisions in less time, with higher confidence.
ffA’s Services operation applies ffA software to help its clients improve E & P success and has worked on over 150 operational projects worldwide. Projects include characterisation of deep water channels offshore Angola, close focus fault imaging in the North Sea and delineation of complex salt bodies in the Gulf of Mexico.
ffA is an independent UK company with offices in Aberdeen, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and London. For further information visit www.ffa.co.uk.
About the Visualization Sciences Group of Mercury Computer Systems
Mercury Visualization Sciences Group is the leading provider of advanced 3D visualization software tools and technologies for the most demanding industrial and scientific applications.
For more information on Mercury Visualization Sciences Group, visit 3dviz.mc.com.
For more information on Open Inventor by Mercury, visit www.open-inventor.com.
Open Inventor is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries worldwide, used under license from Silicon Graphics, Inc. SeisWare is a trademark of Zokero, Inc. All other company and/or product names may be trade names, trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated.
Copyright © 2008 Foster Findlay Associates Limited (“ffA”) and Mercury Computer Systems. All rights reserved.
