Just saw this in my RSS feed from Vizworld. If you’re a designer, recent graduate, student or talented young gun in Italy, now is your chance to shine and bring your work to a wider audience. To enter the Autodesk-sponsored contest post a link to your 3D visualization or design visualization showreel in any format, along with a description under 140 characters as to why you think you’re the hottest design visualization talent around.
The grand prize winner receives a high-end ATI FirePro graphics card with the two runners up receiving mid-range FirePro cards. The contest will run from September 1st to October 1st.
The very cool 92 million pixel video wall that blew people away at SIGGRAPH 2010, will be making an appearance at IBC 2010 in the AMD booth #7.J30, according to Vizrt.
If you haven’t already heard about the wall, hi-resolution, complex 3D animations play across 40 displays, powered by 10 ATI FirePro V8800s with Eyefinity and Viz Video Wall ER. Each display in the wall has a resolution of 1920x1200, giving a total resolution of 19200 x 4800 pixels or 92 megapixels.
The Viz Engine processes are synchronized via the ATI FirePro S400 Synchronization module (Genlock and Framelock), distributing a unique frame counter to all Viz Engines, in order to guarantee the same animation progress on all 40 displays.
I’m a fan of clever videos and this is no exception. It shows a law enforcement swat team giving a briefing about an unusual heat signature and power consumption coming from a house (this is often a sign of indoor marijuana cultivation). After the commandos break into the house and shout at the two occupants to get on the floor, they see a glowing green box. As they leave the room one commando then announces: “Fermi again, it is the third time this week.” Great humor making light of Nvidia Fermi’s intrinsic heat and power issues.
AMD’s Charlie Boswell was with Robert Rodriguez and Troublemaker Studios at the 7.7.2010 world premiere of the film “Predators” in Austin, Texas. Robert and Elizabeth explain how AMD technology played a role enabling ultra-fast and ultra-realistic previz using a six-person production team each using an AMD 6-core Istanbul CPU workstation powered by an ATI FirePro V8800 GPU.
Rob Rodriguez of Troublemaker Studios is behind the new movie Predators, coming tomorrow July 9. Predators was made by a six-person production team each using an AMD 6-core Istanbul CPU workstation powered by an ATI FirePro V8800 GPU. TroubleMaker Studios has a history of using ATI FirePro cards to develop their work including Spy Kids sequels, Planet Terror and Sin City.
In this latest film of the Predator franchise, a group of elite warriors are brought together on an alien planet… as prey, for a new breed of alien Predators. See the trailer below.
I just read an AMD blog on the growth of cloud computing and just how fast the explosion in digital data really is. This revolution dramatically change the demands on servers. They need to balance:
- cost
- performance
- I/O capabilities
- low energy consumption
- hardware-assisted virtualization
From the blog: “The explosion of digital data is fundamentally changing the dynamics of how servers are built, bought and deployed. The days of just throwing “raw” performance at the problem are long gone and the era of efficient computing with servers that balance price, performance and power is officially upon us. AMD’s answer to this challenge – the AMD Opteron 4000 and 6000 Series platforms.”
AMD has also created a little video which details out just how fast cloud growth is and how you measure it. It is actually pretty interesting and worth a watch.
3D printers are primarily intended for rapid prototyping, bypassing the traditional workflow of sending a CAD model to a machinist and waiting for a product to materialize. Instead you get direct printing of a 3D part.
ReadWriteWeb has posted a listing of the top ten videos about 3D printing. These videos are from FormZ, ProtoPulsion, Z Corp, Print2 3D, and Thing Labs. There is also a clip of the Star Trek Replicator thrown in for fun. While there are certainly more 3D printers out there like the HP 3D Designjet, this set of videos gives a nice overview of the technology.
I’m also including an 11th video of the new ZBuilder Ultra, which uses a DLP projector to “project” UV light onto each layers of UV-light curable polymers. The result is a smooth-finished prototype part that can be used immediately and withstand high-end functional testing. Develop3D has a good overview article on the Zbuilder Ultra.
The AMD ”What would you do with 48 cores?” contest asks you to write an essay/blog or video describing what you would do with a 48 core system to make the world a better place. The winner receives an $8,100 setup including a TYAN 4S board and four 12-core Opteron Magny Cours processors.
Hopefully, there will be some interesting entries and the winner will be someone who can really take advantage of what is essentially a supercomputer setup. In particular I was thinking that some OpenCL-savvy developer would describe a compelling new solution since OpenCL can take advantage of all 48 CPU cores (as well as the more traditional GPU cores).
The actual prize is:
Four new AMD Opteron processors Model 6174, 12-core (2.2 GHz)
TYAN S8812 motherboard: the motherboard is a Tyan S8812 that features 4 processor sockets with the capacity for you to install up to 8 DIMMs per socket
Industrial design students are invited to create home appliances that take into consideration, the shrinking domestic spaces. Your ideas will shape how people prepare and store food, wash clothes, and do dishes in the homes of 2050 when 74%* of the world’s population are predicted to live in an urban environment. Growing populations living in concentrated areas dictate a need for greater space efficiency. This year, special consideration will be given to designers that submit a design within the context of a range or suite of solutions/appliances. The design ideas should address key consumer requirements; being green, adaptive to time and space, and allowing for individualization.
Deadline: 1 May, 2010
Prizes:
1st prize: €5,000 + 6 months’ paid internship at an Electrolux global design center.
2nd prize: €3,000
3rd prize: €2,000
The video below gives more details. So industrial design students, use your FirePro (or other) cards and win the challenge!
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