The role of High-performance computing and seismic imaging and interpretation

Progresses in seismic-imaging technology are driven by advancements in data acquisition and<br>high-performance computing. Wide-azimuth acquisition geometries of both marine and land<br>data are dramatically changing the data we image. The commoditization of multi-core<br>processors and the availability of ultra-fast hardware accelerators (FPGAs, GPUs, Cells, …)<br>will change the way that we image and interpret those new data sets. These hardware<br>improvements will enable the application of imaging operators that are more accurate in both<br>the modeling of the underlying physical phenomena (e.g. wave propagation vs. ray-tracing)<br>and the approximation of the actual inversion of the recorded data. The future availability of<br>workstation with multi-core CPUs will enable the exploitation of expensive numerical<br>algorithms to support interpretation. This should lead to dramatic improvements in the<br>structural and stratigraphic interpretation in areas where the complexity of the velocity model<br>requires a tight loop between interpretation and processing