VizWorld.com

[H]ard|OCP has taken delivery of the MSI Big Bang motherboard which has the Lucid Hydra. Lucid is a chip designer company with funding from Intel. The Hydra chip is an independent solution to allow multiple GPUs to render scenes in games. This means that you are no longer dependent on SLI from NVidia or Crossfire from ATI. If you are using Windows 7, you can use both NVidia and ATI in a multiple GPU configuration, although there are caveats with that. Hit the link below to read more about it.

via: MSI Big Bang’in with Lucid Hydra

Hardware ati, hydra, lucidlogic, multigpu, nvidia, video game

Both NVidia and MSI have responded to recent rumors that MSI delayed their Hydra-powered motherboard, the Fuzion, due to guidance from NVidia and rumors that NVidia plans to disable Hydra at the driver level.  They claim they fully support the Hydra product, and it’s just regular product delays getting in the way.

The second product in our Big Bang line will be the MSI Fuzion motherboard featuring Lucid Hydra technology. Although we had planned to release this product by now, we decided to postpone it until early next year to make sure it delivers the best possible experience for our customers. We are continuing to work closely with Lucid to bring this exciting product to market.

We want to be clear that the reason for the delay has to do with software, and not external pressure from others. NVIDIA did not delay or impede the production of Fuzion in any way.

via NVIDIA Denies Involvement in the Fuzion’s Delay – Expreview.com.

Hardware hydra, lucidlogic, msi, nvidia

LucidLogix’s Hydra system, the vendor-agnostic multi-GPU hardware system discussed previously, is finally coming to market in a new motherboard from MSI.

There are three versions of the Hydra 200: the LT22114, the LT22102 and the LT22114. The only difference between the chips are the number of PCIe lanes. The lowest end chip has a x8 connection to the CPU/PCIe controller and two x8 connections to GPUs. The midrange LT22102 has a x16 connection to the CPU and two x16 connections for GPUs. And the highest end solution, the one being used on the MSI board, has a x16 to the CPU and then a configurable pair of x16s to GPUs. You can operate this controller in 4 x8 mode, 1 x16 + 2 x8 or 2 x16. It’s all auto sensing and auto-configurable. The high end product will be launching in October, with the other two versions shipping into mainstream and potentially mobile systems some time later.

It’s an interestingly priced addition as well, running about $1.50 per PCIe lane, which means each x16 slot on the system adds an extra $24.  The high end Hydra chip support 48 lanes (3 PCIe x16 slots) for about $72.

via AnandTech: Lucid Hydra 200: Vendor Agnostic Multi-GPU, Available in 30 Days.

Hardware hydra, lucidlogic, msi, multigpu

LucidLogix is back in the news with a new chipset called ‘Hydra’ which offers a completely new way to support multi-GPU’s in systems.  What makes it different than SLI and CrossFire you may ask?  Well, first you need to understand one of the major drawbacks of those technologies:

Nvidia’s SLI and ATI’s Crossfire run in alternative frame rendering (AFR) mode where each card renders one frame. Problem is, there are inter-frame dependencies, and for each GPU one always renders more than one frame ahead – often two – to make the GPU more efficient.

So when users run triple or quad SLIs (or Crossfires), they are actually rendering at least eight if not more threads ahead. If a user is running a game at 30fps, eight frames is a big deal: he would experience either an eight-frame delay or skipped frames and lowered performance.

The “Hydra” system works by dividing the scene into discrete objects, such as segmenting a scene into floor, walls, characters, weapons, particle effects, etc.  These objects can be distributed among the various GPU’s, and then re-composited by the Hydra chipset.  It’s a far more scalable solution than SLI or Crossfire, but puts additional load on the software to properly segment the scene.

Will it take-off? Who knows.  As multi-GPU becomes more commonplace as an alternative to higher-end video cards (Moore’s law in action, if you can’t make `em faster, just make more of `em) solutions like this will keep popping up.

via Multi gpu tech lucid to take on graphics giants – The Inquirer.

Hardware gpu, lucidlogic, lucidlogix, multigpu, sli, xfire

At the upcoming 17th Industrial Virtual Reality Expo at Tokyo Big-Sight (June 24-26), ELSA will be demonstrating a new External PCI-Express Remote 3D Graphic Solution.  The demo uses the ELSA Vridge X100 Quad 8 PCI-Express extension system powered by Lucid’s Hydra 100 to enable high-quality 3D graphics and HD video to be streamed remotely through an IP network using Teradici’s PC-over-IP technology.  In a single Vridge system you can install two NVidia Quadro fX5800′s and 2 ELSA VIXEL H200 remote host cards.  Ironically, the demo will be in the SGI Japan Booth (23-14).

The goal is to create super-powered workstations that can be centrally located in  single datacenter, with displays remotely provided over LAN or high-latency WAN links to users.

Read the full press release after the break.

Read more…

Hardware conference, elsa, lucidlogic, nvidia, pcoip, remotedisplay, teradici