Extending access to HPC manufacturability feedback software through hardware-accelerated virtualized workstations

Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is essential to the everyday operations of many manufacturing facilities. CAM software is used to aid in the manufacturing of a part by converting a computer model into instructions for a machine tool. Most frequently, CAM is used to generate G-Code, which is the standard programming language of CNC turning and milling machines. While CAM software greatly simplifies the process of converting a part model to G-Code, it still requires experience to learn to use properly. Additionally, a powerful workstation is required to run the CAM software, which can be inconvenient due to its cost and size. Many organizations have been turning to virtualization as an alternative to multiple standalone workstations; virtualization allows for many users to access desktop environments that are hosted from a remote server. This has the benefit of isolating the user from both OS and hardware requirements for certain software, and also allows them to run the applications they need from anywhere. This research explores the emerging area of virtualized general purpose computation on graphics processing units (GPGPU); this technique is used to support the use of a novel and easy-to-use CAM package that leverages the parallel computation capability of a GPU. Virtualization can allow for both lower implementation costs for a large number of users and lowered support requirements, as the GPUs and other computing hardware are consolidated in one location. Preliminary results show performance losses due to hardware abstraction inherent in virtualization. However, these losses are overshadowed by the ease of deployment of the CAM system to users.