This week NVIDIA introduces what it describes as “the world’s first dedicated Visual Computing System (VCS)” in the NVIDIA Quadro Plex 1000. From the description, it’s hard to call it just a new video card. “By delivering an order-of-magnitude increase in levels of productivity and capability for advanced visualization,” the NVIDIA announcement states, “the NVIDIA Quadro Plex offers advanced scalability … for demanding professional applications.”
This is a shot across the bow not only toward ATI (recently acquired by AMD) but also toward SGI, which has been staking its future on delivering proprietary visual computing solutions for scientific and technical applications. By comparison, the NVIDIA Quadro Plex 1000 works with “an officially certified set of x86 32- and 64-bit Intel and AMD processors running Windows and Linux operating systems.”
“Seeing the new NVIDIA Quadro Plex running Google Earth is an astounding visual experience,” says Michael Jones, chief technologist, Google Earth, Maps and Local, in a prepared statement. “This extreme level of performance and resolution takes the viewer from visual simulation to emotional reality, showing the Earth in its full detail and glory. Google Earth and the NVIDIA Quadro Plex are a perfect pair—powering a new world of imagination.”
Here are NVIDIA’s key hype/specs:
- Massive density of up to 20x when compared to traditional GPU solutions
- Performance of up to 80-billion pixels/sec and seven billion vertices/sec
- Resolutions as high as 148 megapixels on 16 synchronized digital-output channels and eight HD SDI channels
- Scalability beyond current solutions, offering multiple configurations ranging from a single system to a cluster to further scale system ability
- Ships in September with prices starting at $17,500 (US)
More information at www.nvidia.com/quadroplex
--RSN
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