Popular Science Recognizes NVIDIA CUDA With "Best Of What’s New" Award

Popular Science Recognizes NVIDIA CUDA With “Best Of What’s New” Award

Revolutionary New Development Environment for GPU Computing Earns NVIDIA Industry Acclaim

SUPERCOMPUTING 2007—RENO, NEVADA—NOVEMBER 13, 2007—Popular Science has announced that the NVIDIA CUDA C-compiler and software development kit (SDK) has been recognized as one of the Top 100 innovations of the year, winning the coveted “Best of What’s New” award. CUDA was selected for its ability to transform a graphics processing unit (GPU) into a supercomputer and to deliver the level of performance normally found in large and expensive clusters residing in datacenters to the desktop of scientists and engineers around the world.

“Running electromagnetic simulations using NVIDIA’s compute hardware and CUDA accelerate processing times by factors of 25 or more—applying a level of complexity to the analysis and optimization of medical products which nobody dreamed of, even two years ago,” said Ryan Schneider, CTO of Acceleware Corp.

“Many of the molecular structures we analyze are so large that they can take weeks of processing time to run the calculations required for their physical simulation,” said John Stone, senior research programmer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “GPUs have given us a 100-fold increase in some of our programs, and this is on desktop machines where previously we would have had to run these calculations on a cluster.

“For 20 years, Popular Science’s Best of What’s New awards has honored the innovations that make a positive impact on life today and change our views of the future,” says Mark Jannot, editor-in-chief of Popular Science. “Popular Science’s editors evaluate thousands of products each year to develop this thoughtful list, there’s no higher accolade Popular Science can give.”

About Best of What’s New
Each year, the editors of Popular Science review thousands of products in search of the top 100 tech innovations of the year; breakthrough products and technologies that represent a significant leap in their categories. The winners—the Best of What’s New—are awarded inclusion in the much-anticipated December issue of Popular Science, which has been the most widely read issue of the year since the debut of Best of What’s New in 1987. Best of What’s New awards are presented to 100 new products and technologies in 10 categories: Automotive, Aviation & Space, Computing, Engineering, Gadgets, Green Tech, Home Entertainment, Home Tech, Personal Health and Recreation.

About Popular Science
Founded in 1872, Popular Science is the world’s largest science and technology magazine; with a circulation of 1.3 million and 6.8 million monthly readers. Each month, Popular Science reports on the intersection of science and everyday life, with an eye toward what’s new and why it matters. Popular Science is published by Bonnier Active Media, a subsidiary of Bonnier Corporation.

NVIDIA Corporation
NVIDIA Corporation is the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies. The Company creates innovative, industry-changing products for computing, consumer electronics, and mobile devices. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. For more information, visit www.nvidia.com.

NVIDIA Smashes Visual Compute Density Record with New GPU Server

NVIDIA Smashes Visual Compute Density Record with New GPU Server

NVIDIA Quadro Plex VCS Server Combines Four Quadro GPUs in a Standard 1U Server Configuration for Remote Graphics and Offline Rendering Applications

NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) continues to smash through visual computing performance barriers with the introduction of NVIDIA Quadro Plex Visual Computing System (VCS) Model S4, a graphics server featuring a record number of graphics processing units (GPUs) in a standard 1U server form factor. The new server contains more Quadro graphics processing power in less space than has ever been achieved before, enabling interactive visualization of extremely large-scale data sets by multiple users with a minimal footprint.

Designed for data-centric applications such as off-line rendering, remote graphics applications and embedded visual computing, the Quadro Plex Model S4 server takes visual compute density to new extremes by incorporating four NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 professional GPUs in an industry-standard 1U rack configuration; dynamically allocating compute, geometry, shading and pixel processing power for optimized GPU performance. GPU computing for visualization solves programming functionality available in the NVIDIA CUDA tool suite.

The Quadro Plex Model S4 is designed to serve high-quality interactive visualization of large models to multiple users. Its 6 GB frame buffer (1.5 GB per GPU) can process large textures with full-screen antialiasing while Shader Model 4.0 vertex and pixel programmability delivers ultra-realistic effects for OpenGL and DirectX 10 applications. The server’s accelerated 3D texture performance provides greater interactivity for the visualization of large volumetric datasets often required in energy and scientific research.

The Quadro Plex Series
Until now, NVIDIA’s Quadro Plex product line has consisted of desk side units that can also be mounted side-by-side in a 3U rack space. The Model S4 server complements the rest of the product line by offering extreme compute density in 1U housing for solving the largest visualization and high-performance computing problems.

The Quadro Plex VCS Model II is intended primarily for powering large arrays of monitors. Featuring four Quadro FX 4500 GPUs with a 512 MB frame buffer per GPU, the Model II can power up to eight frame-synched, dual-link DVI displays.

The Quadro Plex Model III adds high-definition SDI output by replacing the GPUs in the Model II with two Quadro FX 5500s with a 1 GB frame buffer per GPU and dual HD SDI graphics-to-video output boards, powering two dual-link DVI displays plus two HD SDI outputs.

The Quadro Plex Model IV is intended primarily for processing and visualization of large data sets desk side, in a workbench environment. It features two Quadro FX 5600 GPUs with a 1.5 GB frame buffer per GPU for processing of larger textures and can power up to four frame-synched dual-link DVI displays.

The Quadro Plex Model S4 is an industry standard form factor optimized for large-scale server deployments. Featuring four Quadro GPUs in a high-density 1U chassis for high-performance remote graphics and offline rendering applications, the Quadro Plex Model S4 offers system monitoring, thermal control and fault notification for efficient integration into data centers.

NVIDIA Quadro Plex VCS Models I, II, III, and IV are currently available through NVIDIA and distribution partners worldwide, including PNY Technologies, Leadtek, and Elsa. The Quadro Plex VCS Model S4 will be available in the fourth quarter of 2007. Visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/www.nvidia.com for Quadro Plex system configurations.

Availability and Pricing
All NVIDIA products are available at Quest Network Services.

NVIDIA Corporation
NVIDIA Corporation is the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies. The company creates innovative, industry-changing products for computing, consumer electronics, and mobile devices. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. For more information, visit http://www.nvidia.com/.