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Graphics processing unit‐based triangulations of Blinn molecular surfaces
Author(s) -
Dias Sérgio E.D.,
Gomes Abel J.P.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
concurrency and computation: practice and experience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.309
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1532-0634
pISSN - 1532-0626
DOI - 10.1002/cpe.1783
Subject(s) - cuda , marching cubes , computer science , graphics processing unit , triangulation , computational science , computation , graphics , computer graphics (images) , general purpose computing on graphics processing units , folding (dsp implementation) , central processing unit , computer graphics , molecular graphics , parallel computing , algorithm , visualization , artificial intelligence , computer hardware , mathematics , geometry , engineering , electrical engineering
SUMMARY Computing the surface of a molecule (e.g., a protein) plays an important role in the analysis of its geometric structure as needed in the study of interactions between proteins, protein folding, protein docking, and so forth. There are a number of algorithms for the computation of molecular surfaces and their triangulations, but only a few take advantage of graphics processing unit computing. This paper describes a graphics processing unit‐based marching cubes algorithm to triangulate molecular surfaces. In the end of the paper, a performance analysis of three implementations (i.e., serial CPU, CUDA, and OpenCL) of the marching cubes‐based triangulation algorithm takes place as a way to realize beforehand how molecular surfaces can be rendered in real‐time in the future. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.