%0 Journal Article
%K Daylighting simulation
%K Graphics processing unit
%K Multicore central processing unit
%K OpenCL
%K Parallel computing
%A Wangda Zuo
%A Andrew McNeil
%A Michael Wetter
%A Eleanor S Lee
%B Journal of Building Performance Simulation
%D 2013
%R 10.1080/19401493.2013.795193
%T Acceleration of the matrix multiplication of Radiance three phase daylighting simulations with parallel computing on heterogeneous hardware of personal computer
%2 LBNL-6461E
%X <p>Building designers are increasingly relying on complex fenestration systems to reduce energy consumed for lighting and HVAC in low energy buildings. Radiance, a lighting simulation program, has been used to conduct daylighting simulations for complex fenestration systems. Depending on the configurations, the simulation can take hours or even days using a personal computer. This paper describes how to accelerate the matrix multiplication portion of a Radiance three-phase daylight simulation by conducting parallel computing on heterogeneous hardware of a personal computer. The algorithm was optimized and the computational part was implemented in parallel using OpenCL. The speed of new approach was evaluated using various daylighting simulation cases on a multicore central processing unit and a graphics processing unit. Based on the measurements and analysis of the time usage for the Radiance daylighting simulation, further speedups can be achieved by using fast I/O devices and storing the data in a binary format.</p>