Open AccessApplying graphics processor units to Monte Carlo dose calculation in radiation therapy
Author(s) -
M. Bakhtiari,
H Malhotra,
; Jones,
Vipin Chaudhary,
J.L. Walters,
D Nazareth
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of medical physics/journal of medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.292
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1998-3913
pISSN - 0971-6203
DOI - 10.4103/0971-6203.62198
Subject(s) - monte carlo method , graphics processing unit , graphics , computer science , acceleration , computational science , central processing unit , general purpose computing on graphics processing units , parallel computing , computer graphics , computer graphics (images) , physics , computer hardware , mathematics , statistics , classical mechanics
We investigate the potential in using of using a graphics processor unit (GPU) for Monte-Carlo (MC)-based radiation dose calculations. The percent depth dose (PDD) of photons in a medium with known absorption and scattering coefficients is computed using a MC simulation running on both a standard CPU and a GPU. We demonstrate that the GPU's capability for massive parallel processing provides a significant acceleration in the MC calculation, and offers a significant advantage for distributed stochastic simulations on a single computer. Harnessing this potential of GPUs will help in the early adoption of MC for routine planning in a clinical environment.