This live demo from SolidWorks World 2011 shows manipulating a complex 17,000,000 triangle model in SolidWorks 2011 on a WYSE thin client. The remote Dell workstation host machine sports an ATI FirePro RG220 graphics card.
In other words, it is a demo of CAD cloud computing - including support for DX11 & OpenGL 4.1.
This card uses display compression and IP transmission. It compresses dual-display graphic data at the host and outputs it over a regular IP network to a remote thin client device. Also of note: it offers direct support for multiple virtual machines with multiple FirePro RG220 cards from a single system (i.e. running VMware or Parallels workstation).
At SolidWorks World 2011, Allen Bourgoyne, AMD’s FirePro graphics guru discusses the difference between consumer vs professional graphics (including some side-by-side comparisons), remote graphics for SolidWorks (i.e. cloud computing) and using multi-display technologies in SolidWorks, and . If you couldn’t attend the show, this is a video capture of his full 30 min presentation. It as captured from the side and form a distance, so make sure your volume is turned up and you are in a quiet space.
Below is a shot of AMD’s booth in the Partner Pavillion.
In advance of the actual show, we got a sneak preview of the SolidWorks 2011 Ultimate CAD Chair - an ergonomic Eyefinity 3-display system powered by an AMD ATI FirePro V8800. The system was assembled by Jeremy Luchini and the Let’s Go Design team.
SolidWorks World 2011 is coming up Jan 23-26 and of course AMD will be there showing off the performance of the FirePro line (Partner Pavilion booth #606).
In advance of the event, the SolidWorks blog folks interviewed Bahman Dara, Senior Manager of Product Marketing for the FirePro workstation graphics line. The key points of that interview:
How can FirePro help make a SolidWorks user’s life easier?
- Improve productivity and reduce design cycles with cards that are engineered, tested and certified to ensure reliability, and exceptional 3D performance.
- AMD Eyefinity technology lets you run up to six monitors at full HD resolution, simultaneously on a single graphics card. Expand your view and multitask with ease.
Check out the Eyefinity video below which is featured in the blog post.
upFront ezine is an independent newsletter and great resource for anyone in the CAD industry. The latest issue is filled with news and interviews from SolidWorks World 2010 including an interview with AMD’s World Wide Senior Product Marketing Manager for Workstation Graphics, Bahman Dara. I’m going to repeat several of the Q&As here, but check out the newsletter for the full scoop.
“How do you distinguish yourselves from nVidia,” was my first question.
For one, AMD focuses on workstation and DCC graphics only. (DCC is digital content creation, those guys who create graphics for games and TV commercials.) For another, their graphics boards cost less than those from nVidia, when measured by performance per dollar. (nVidia skipped this show; in their place was retail proxy PNY.) AMD has just two product names: Radeon for consumers and FirePro for professionals. FirePro is divided into:
- FirePro V-series for CAD and DCC.
- FirePro Multi-View for multimonitor “text” users like financial traders.
And then both are available in desktop and notebook (“mobile”) versions.
“And what about the future?” I wondered.
Mr Dara told me that AMD is working on remote graphics, using compression to deliver graphics from a central server through a cable to desktops via Ethernet or USB.
See the issue to learn more about the SolidWorks World keynotes, future plans for SolidWorks, as well more on AMD plans.
I go to presentations to learn about what the speaker has to say, but it never hurts that there are random drawings for cool prizes at the end . At SolidWorks World 2010, the AMD crew were giving out FirePro cards at several of the presentations. In the pics below the winners from the talks on “Creating Great Images Easily With RealView and PhotoView 360”, “SolidWorks Graphics Performance Analysis & Tuning”, and a winner just for showing up at the AMD booth at the right time of day!
A short video from first night at SolidWorks World 2010. It was an open cocktail evening and people came over to the AMD booth with the Eyefinity display and just had fun!
AMD has a strong presence at SolidWorks World 2010 (hence the timing of last week's news that the entire FirePro family is certified for SolidWorks 2010 running Windows 7).
The 3 Eyefinity screens look pretty amazing as you can see in the photos below from the AMD booth.
The research section at SolidWorks World has some pretty cool things showing.
Two things really stood out:
The Microsoft Surfaces touch table – more advanced than last year
The Infinite Z immersive virtual-holographic display. It offers interactive experience through direct interaction with virtual holographic models using a stylus and 3D glasses. This demo was really impressive - full color, full motion, 100% in space. Tony Stark's design lab in Ironman anyone?
The entire family of ATI FirePro professional graphics has been certified by Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corp for SolidWorks 2010 on Microsoft Windows 7.1 SolidWorks software is optimized to work in tandem with ATI FirePro professional graphics and Windows 7 to deliver fast performance and advanced stability for professionals working with mechanical designs.
FireUser.com is a community resource for CAD, visualization, 3D, video and engineering professionals to learn about the latest acceleration and display technologies and news with a focus on the AMD FirePro workstation graphics line.
