High-Performance Seismic Modeling with Finite-Difference Using Spatial and Temporal Cache Blocking

The time-domain finite-difference method (TD-FDM) has been used in geophysics for decades for modeling and imaging. It is used intensively for applications that require accurate solutions for the wave equation such as reverse time migration (RTM) or full waveform inversion (FWI). In this study, we investigate how spatial and temporal cache blocking techniques can speed up computation in TD-FDM on multi-core architectures. We conducted our analysis on the Shaheen II supercomputer at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and present the current and achievable performances by using a Cache Aware Roofline Model (CARM). We briefly discuss the implementations and the benefits of spatial and temporal cache blocking techniques individually, and we provide preliminary results, which pave the way for achieving the TD-FDM’s maximum efficiency.