data processing & interpretation 39
store these back on disk, just like normal processing in
SVI Pro would do.
Purves says ffA has released a bunch of GPU enabled
tools already for SVI Pro, the Windows version of the
software. The Linux version, where the product is known
under the name SEA 3D Pro, was also released in June
this year.
It has a lot of the functionality in it, including the IFC
workflow, and everything will be synchronized by the end
of the year, says Purves.
“We now have GPU accelerated volume processing,
where we have taken all our algorithms, for calculating
dip, azimuth, noise cancellation on seismic reflectivity,
even the standard trace attributes like envelope and
instantaneous phase.”
“They were multi-threaded within our standard
toolkit, and they would run on multiple core, multi-CPU
systems. They have now been ported across to run on the
NVIDIA CUDA platform. So far we’ve got about a third of
Fig. 2. The Opacity and Colour Blend capabilities of SEA 3D Pro 2009
our processes GPU enabled.”
provide a powerful way to analyse seismic reflectivity data.
SEA 3D Pro also incorporates an interactive link with
Data is courtesy of StatoilHydro.
Landmark’s GeoProbe 3D Volume Interpretation software,
providing GeoProbe users with a range of stratigraphic interactively slice through the volume to select a specific
and structural analysis workflows, directly integrated seed point on different slices (inline, crossline, timeslice
within their current 3D interpretation platform. or horizon slice) or to check the classification which is
There is about a 50-50 split between Windows updated on the fly at each parameter alteration.
and Linux amongst ffA’s users, with a lot of the bigger “Often seismic classification takes something of
companies still using legacy systems that were run on a black box approach, especially if you are applying
Unix and now Linux. neural networks or statistical classifiers,” says Purves.
Another aspect of the latest release is the addition “By using GPUs to perform classifications on demand,
of interactive colour blending capabilities. This allows it’s like stepping into the black box, allowing the user
users to combine different attributes and blend the results to change classification parameters and see the results
together by controlling the colour and opacity of each immediately.”
aspect interactively (Fig. 2).
This can help users identify structures within the data
Gas chimney classification
and pick out the formations of interest, where oil and gas To understand the distribution of the high amplitude
might be found. peaks and troughs in relation to a gas chimney, the IFC
“We’ve done a lot to enable the co-rendering of tool was applied to a Terrace Amplitude volume along
multiple attributes, to compute and work interactively with an Envelope (instantaneous amplitude) and a Chaos
with them and start extracting geological bodies out of (amplitude independent structural variability) volume
them. That was a big theme behind the Spring release. (Fig. 3).
Of course we can do this much more quickly than before The IFC is performed essentially in three stages, all of
with GPU processing,” says Purves. which take advantage of the GPU enhanced capabilities.
A typical workflow, on a 100 km
2
dataset, can be achieved
The facies classification workflow
in less than two hours from initial data loading to final
FfA’s Interactive Facies Classification (IFC) is a 3D classification, says Purves, while the classification by
interpreter driven seismic classification module that itself can be realised in a matter of minutes.
enables detailed results to be extracted from an entire First, the source attribute data is loaded and there is
dataset in real time. With the GPU enabled processes a pre-processing step to calculate the volumes that is
users are able to see the results of every modification they accelerated using CUDA using the parallel processing
make instantaneously. capabilities of all the GPUs available in the system.
The interpreter can work with any set of seismic This is followed by the main interactive step where
attributes or inverted volumes loaded within SVI Pro, facies classification is performed, using a single
over the entire dataset or within user selected regions of visualisation GPU connected to a display. This step uses
interest, including previously isolated geological anomalies. a graphics programming library called GLSL, which is a
They can define classes by selecting individual forerunner of CUDA.
seeds, merged seeds, regions of particular character FfA is working with a company called Mercury that
or groupings of existing classes. The interpreter can provides the Open Inventor visualisation package used in
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