评估用于图形密集型天文学的虚拟托管桌面
Evaluating virtual hosted desktops for graphics-intensive astronomy
摘要：
数据可视化对于理解天文现象至关重要。今天，许多仪器产生的数据集太大，无法下载到本地计算机，但天文学家使用的许多可视化工具只能部署在台式计算机上。云计算越来越多地用于提供天文学中的计算和模拟平台，但它也提供了作为可视化平台的巨大潜力。具有图形处理单元（GPU）加速功能的虚拟托管桌面允许交互式图形密集型桌面应用程序与存储在远程数据中心的天文数据集协同运行。通过结合基准测试和用户体验测试，与20名天文学家的队列，我们调查的可行性取代物理桌面计算机与虚拟托管桌面。在我们的工作中，我们比较了两台Apple MacBook计算机（一台旧的和一台新的，代表硬件和使用寿命的两端）与两个虚拟托管桌面：一个商业（亚马逊网络服务）和一个私人研究云（澳大利亚Nectar Research Cloud）。对于基于二维图像的任务和图形密集型三维操作-典型的天文可视化工作流程-我们发现基准不一定提供最佳性能指标。与典型的笔记本电脑相比，虚拟托管桌面可以提供更好的用户体验，即使使用性能较低的显卡。我们还发现，虚拟托管桌面同样易于使用，在选择配置方面提供了更大的灵活性，并且实际上可能是典型使用配置文件的更具成本效益的选项。
英文摘要：
Visualisation of data is critical to understanding astronomical phenomena. Today, many instruments produce datasets that are too big to be downloaded to a local computer, yet many of the visualisation tools used by astronomers are deployed only on desktop computers. Cloud computing is increasingly used to provide a computation and simulation platform in astronomy, but it also offers great potential as a visualisation platform. Virtual hosted desktops, with graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration, allow interactive, graphics-intensive desktop applications to operate co-located with astronomy datasets stored in remote data centres. By combining benchmarking and user experience testing, with a cohort of 20 astronomers, we investigate the viability of replacing physical desktop computers with virtual hosted desktops. In our work, we compare two Apple MacBook computers (one old and one new, representing hardware and opposite ends of the useful lifetime) with two virtual hosted desktops: one commercial (Amazon Web Services) and one in a private research cloud (the Australian Nectar Research Cloud). For two-dimensional image-based tasks and graphics-intensive three-dimensional operations -- typical of astronomy visualisation workflows -- we found that benchmarks do not necessarily provide the best indication of performance. When compared to typical laptop computers, virtual hosted desktops can provide a better user experience, even with lower performing graphics cards. We also found that virtual hosted desktops are equally simple to use, provide greater flexibility in choice of configuration, and may actually be a more cost-effective option for typical usage profiles.
机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来，可能存在错误，请以论文正文为准。
