Home » Archives for June 2009
Pics are floating around of a new AMD Radeon HD4770 card from Asus that, I have to admit, looks pretty kewl.
If you want a pretty design as well as the cost-effective performance, just look at the Asus Formula series HD 4770. With model number of EAH4770FML, the card features 750MHz GPU clock while the memory operates at 800MHz with 128bit memory bus. According to HKEPC, it also sports DVI, D-Sub and HDMI outputs.
And that cool looking formula one spoiler does more than just look nice, it’s got a full heatsink integrated into it. See more pics after the break.
Read more…
Hardware amd, asus, ati
The statistical environment ‘R’ is used widely in biomechanical research. The University of Michigan has managed to implement GPGPU acceleration into the toolkit in such a way that it’s nearly transparent to the user and offering some amazing speedups of frequently used algorithms.
If an algorithm involves computing the elements of a large matrix, we can often merely assign each thread executing on the GPU a portion of a row and/or column. Algorithms for which we have implemented GPU enabled versions include the calculations of distances between sets of points (R dist function), hierarchical clustering (R hclust function). Pearson and Kendall correlation coefficients (similar to R cor function), and the Granger test (‘granger.test’ in the R MSBVAR package).
The graph on the right shows the negligible impact on scaling a Granger test from 200 to 1000 random variables as the blue-line (the GPU version) remains almost flat and the red line (CPU version) rises exponentially to 5000seconds .
via R GPGPU.
Science algorithms, gpgpu, statistics
Sorry folks, no podcast this week. I’m currently traveling to attend SciDAC2009 and UGC2009, so I don’t have the time or energy to get a podcast out on the usual schedule. If time allows, I might pull one together later this week.
So, if you really just want a recap, here’s some of the big items this week: (This week was a light news week)
Be sure to tune in next week for our regularly scheduled podcast..
Podcast
A new CUDA programming tool is online at Sourceforge that adapts the algorithms used in the popular memtest86 suite to GPU memory structures.
A memory test utility for NVIDIA GPU memory using well established patterns from memtest86/memtest86+ as well as additional stress tests. The tests are designed to find hardware and soft errors. The code is written in CUDA.
Could be a great diagnostic tool.
via SourceForge.net: CUDA GPU memtest.
Hardware cuda, diagnostic, nvidia, software
Computers get faster and faster, but we’re stuck with our old ways of files & folders for managing information. As we aggregate and collect data from hundreds or thousands of sources, it just becomes a giant unorganized pile for most of us. Tools like OneNote or EverNote help, but what we truly need is a more visual approach that better utilizes the powers of the computer. Eric Blue takes a look as 15 different tools that attempt to do just that.
Many tools exist that offer the ability to discover, save, organize, search, and retrieve information. However, I’ve noticed a trend in recent years, and some newer applications are focusing more on the visual representation and relationship of knowledge. I believe this is in part due to the wider adoption of mind mapping (and concept mapping), and leveraging concepts and advances in the semantic web community.
via Eric Blue’s Blog » Blog Archive » 15 Effective Tools for Visual Knowledge Management.
Science infovis, list, organization, software
Gigapan.org is hosting an impressive 0.29 gigapixel (290 MegaPixel) image of an ant (presumably dead).
This is a 136 images of a whole ant (the head of which was imaged before by Jay) taken using the nanogigapn unit. It is magnified 800x using a Scanning Electron Microscope. The Antennas were not part of the original gigapan, and were taken by hand, they are made of 16 pictures and were put together in photoshop and added to the ant which was stitched by the gigapan stitcher.
Hit their website for the full resolution image.
via gigapan: Ant.
Science extreme, gigapixel, panorama, photography
ELXSI, Louisiana Tech University, and Beyond Vision are collaborating on a new government project called the “Sensor System for Critical Infrastructure Defect Recognition, Visualization and Failure Prediction”.
The general area of Sensory System’s planned activity is to develop a novel deep-penetrating scanning system based on ultrawideband radar for inspecting buried infrastructure such as pipelines tunnels and culverts that can detect fractures quantify corrosion and determine the presence of voids in the surrounding soil to “see” beyond the structure to prevent accidents.
The project is being funded through a grant from the Technology Innovation Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
via ELXS Notice Pursuant to the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993–Sensory System for Critical Infrastructure Defect Recognition, Visualization and Failure Prediction.
Science beyond vision, elxsi, government, lousiana, university
If you’re near Kolkata City in India sometime in the near future, you might want to check out the Science City Bypass address. They are in the process of installing an immersive “edutainment” system to create immersive environment recreations of such spectacles as Mt Everest, the moon, and the Amazon Rainforest.
It is in this hall that the 3D Immersive Visualization Facility will be installed. “This is a technology that makes a virtual situation feel real. For instance in the Mt Everest programme the situation around you will be set in such a mode that you will actually feel you are standing on top of the world s tallest peak “
via Trip to the moon at Science City – Kolkata – Cities – The Times of India.
Hardware education, edutainment, immersive, india, virtual environment
A new short from Imaginary Forces answers the question: What would the internet look like as a 3D object?
Imaginary Forces was invited to participate in the Google Chrome Shorts project. The resulting short film answers the question: What would the internet look like if represented as a 3-Dimensional object? Observed as if in a museum, the object comes to life revealing the ins and outs of what Google Chrome has to offer.
Imaginary Forces was just one company to create a short film for this undertaking. See their video after the break..
Read more…
Graphics commercial, google, imaginary forces, vfx
Lukas Veverka and Petr Skala collaborated to create this 20sec spot for the Brno University of Technology. It’s a short but beautiful piece, fun to look at.
Design by Timur Akhmetov, 3D animation: Vlada Rehak, Music: Martin Jedlicka
via Brno University of Technology Spot | Motionographer | Motion graphics, design, animation, filmmaking and visual effects.
Graphics commercial, university, vfx
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