Indian PC Magazine has a good interview with the Sales Manager of NVidia’s South-east Asia division about the Tesla.
INDIAN PC Magazine (Leella Rani Dondapati) spoke with the NVIDIA executive, Mr Nishant Goyal, Sales Manager- South East Asia , NVIDIA to get a more sense on the Tesla Super Computing and its functionality. Excerpts of the interaction…
Specifically they talk about the EKA computer and how Tesla will provide a more scalable solution that a direct build-out, in both physical terms (wiring, floor space) and performance terms (power consumption, TeraFlops of processing).
Q3. How is Tesla super computer distinct from the EKA super computer from the CRL? Ans: NVIDIA Tesla Computing Solution can and will complement EKA supercomputer which currently uses 1800 CPU computing nodes, 25 km of wiring, needs 2 MW of power and delivers 132.8 TeraFLOPs of power. This would mean that scaling up would cost $200 million, the installation of 20,000 CPUs and 20 MW of power plant. That is why a team of CRL is now looking forward to having Tesla Supercomputing solution deployed. It has the potential to reduce the power requirements and cost of a scaled-up installation without compromising on computing power.
NVidia has shipped out Ion Demo units to various lucky reviewers for benchmarking and evaluation.
The Atom’s antiquated chipset is clearly limiting the processor’s appeal for some devices, but help has arrived from Nvidia in the form of the Ion reference design. More a new application than fresh silicon, the Ion platform pairs the Atom with the very same GeForce 9400 integrated graphics chipset you’ll find on motherboards designed for Core 2 processors—except instead of arriving on a Micro ATX or Mini-ITX form factor, the Ion reference platform is about the size of a deck of cards.
So what does The Tech Report think?
One thing is abundantly clear about Nvidia’s Ion reference design: it’s much, much better than the 945G-series chipset and GMA 950 graphics that Intel typically pairs with the Atom processor. But that’s sort of like saying Jessica Alba is hotter than Susan Sarandon. The real question is whether the Ion platform actually makes for a more capable system without spoiling the Atom processor’s existing appeal. And the answer is yes.
They admit that the performance isn’t really up to gaming standards, but it’s more than adequate for Multimedia applications, capable of HD decoding easily.
Jon Peddie Research has published some numbers on Graphics Chip shipment data for the Q3/Q4 of 2008. Unsurprisingly, there was a drop in Q4 shipments compared to Q3. The first drop since 2008, but like they mention:
“While the quarterly results for Q4 08 are obviously unusual it is perhaps slightly less surprising considering that Q3 was also a surprise in the other direction ” Jon Peddie commented. “Shipments for Q3 08 were unusually high even for the traditionally high third quarter. In talking to vendors in related industries we have seen the same scenario playing out – a robust third quarter and a much slower fourth quarter.”
So what does this mean for us? Well, NVidia gained some ground on AMD/ATI in this quarter. Desktops are still the majority of sales due to things like CrossFire & SLI, but with the new mobile processors coming out that may shift in 2009.
The US Pentagon has selected the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to develop a “a critical, one-of-a-kind futuristic training program in which warfighters would train here at home in preparation for the types of small, urban and borderless conflicts”.
The program, officially launched through a directive from the Under Secretary of Defense, Advanced Systems and Concepts, John J. Kubricky, is a two-year, $36 million initiative sponsored by the United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM). Other defense organizations set to participate in the program include: the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Advanced Systems and Concepts (DUSD/AS&C), and the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy.
Called the Future Immersive Training Environment (FITE) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) program is supposed to emphasize the “human dimension of warfare”. ONR has already developed a similar system for Marines & Sailors called the “Immersive Infantry Trainer”.
Google Japan has released a cute stop-motion video to advertise the Google Chrome browser. While not particularly ground-breaking, it’s good to see old techniques (stop-motion) being used in new ways.
Skew Matrix Software & Blue Newt Software are teaming up to run an OSG Training class in Washington DB march 9-12.
OpenSceneGraph (OSG) is an OpenGL-based, high-performance, 3D graphics toolkit for visual simulation, games, virtual reality, scientific visualization, and modeling. OSG is completely open source and runs on all major computing platforms. OSG and OpenGL experts Bob Kuehne (Blue Newt Software) and Paul Martz (Skew Matrix Software) guide you through OSG’s API in this intense 4-day course designed to give you the knowledge to develop high-end OSG applications. Please register early to take advantage of special pricing.
Just got a tip about a free online magazine showcasing the work of several graphic artists (ranging from CG, Paint, Photography, and all others). The magazine is free and all art is submitted for free, so it’s a nice way to get your work out there if you’re new or unknown. Some of the work is really mindblowing, and they’ve already got several issues online.
VizWorld.com 
Comments