Multi-channel IIR filtering of audio signals using a GPU

In the audio signal processing field, multiple IIR filters are required in many applications. As an example, equalizing a Wave Field Synthesis system requires massive filter processing in real time. Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are well known for their potential in highly parallel data processing. Up to now, the use of the GPUs for implementing IIR filters has not been clearly tackled in audio processing because of its feedback loop that prevents its total parallelization. However, using the Parallel form of IIR filters, this feedback is reduced, since every single sample is computed in a parallel way. This paper analyzes the performance of multiple IIR filters using GPUs and compares it with a powerful multi-core computer. The proposed GPU implementation can run up to 1256 concurrent IIR filters of order 256th in real time, which means 321,536 total filter order, with a latency time of 0.72 ms (sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz). This demonstrates that GPUs are well suited for computing massive IIR filtering.