AMD announced that their Open Physics Initiative now offers game developers the free Bullet Physics as the default rigid body physics system combined with Pixelux’s DMM2 ( Digital Molecular Matter) material physics engine. Developers can now design and interact with rigid body systems familiar to them and easily add DMM objects incrementally enabling them to bend and break based on real physical properties.
The Free PC version of DMM2 has no license fee for development or production deployment and includes all the features of the premium version including GPU acceleration. Free PC DMM2 is expected to be made available shortly to interested developers. All of the Bullet Physics implementations described above can be run on any OpenCL- or DirectCompute-capable platform
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
I typically try to avoid propagating rumors of unannounced/unconfirmed products but since I have an iMac here on my desk, in need of a replacement, I was excited to read a rumor on BSN that Apple will be incorporating ATI Radeon HD 5750’s into an upcoming iMac refresh (the current Core i5/i7 iMacs use ATI Radeon HD 4850s).
What makes this particularly interesting: screaming OpenGL 3.2 support, screaming DirectX 11 support when running as a PC (or under virtualization?), and a great engine for OpenCL which is an integral part of the Mac OS.
“Avatar” and all of the hype about stereo 3D-enabled TVs aside, I still don’t get the impression that stereo 3D has really found it’s breakthrough application. CG generated films have a definite niche. But 3D micro-shutter glasses for you and your friends/family in your living room (fragile, costly and headache inducing)? I don’t think so.
3D visualization for CAD, design, architecture and mapping is a real market (check out the Infinite Z immersive, real-time virtual-holographic display, and Zebra Imaging plastic holograms for mapping and architectural design.). But it is still very limited in terms of market penetration and the ultimate value to most CAD/Design users is still untested.
But when it comes to something that is more pervasive and mainstream, I am wondering if it will be 3D digital signage that ends up the big breakthrough application. Last week was the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas and I noticed several press releases about companies planning to release auto-stereoscopic (no glasses needed) 3D digital signage that will be “popular with companies looking to reach consumers that have become desensitized to traditional media.”
As I wrote about previously, the upcoming Catalyst 10.3 driver for Radeons will introduce 3D stereo driver hooks - enabling third-party vendors to take advantage of more 3D stereoscopic options.
Barco has introduced a new graphics display controller, the MXRT-7300, specifically designed to speed up 3D imaging and digital mammography applications in radiology departments. It is powered by a FirePro workstation GPU with 1 GB memory. It supports 10-bit (1,024 simultaneous levels of gray and over 1 billion colors) display of up to 3,280 x 2,048 pixel images. This level of shading gradation and resolution is critical for accurate visual diagnosis using digital images,.
“With the brand-new MXRT-7300 graphics processor, our customers will enjoy an immediate performance improvement when manipulating large datasets in mammography, as well as an acceleration of OpenGL and DirectX functions increasingly common in high-end PACS (picture archiving and communication systems) environments”
AMD announced the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity6 Edition, which lets you drive six monitors from a single extreme GPU for a maximum resolution of 6 X 2560 X 1600 pixels, powered by a single extreme GPU. It provides six Mini DisplayPort connectors to directly drive the display or through adapters for single-link DVI and HDMI. Essentially the Radeon 5870 E6 is a 2GB version of the Radeon 5870 equipped with 6 mini-DisplayPorts for its output and 2GB of GDDR5 memory to accommodate the extremely large frame buffer needed by six HD displays.
No performance or pricing information has been set. Also no mention specifically of a CrossFireX option to offer additional power to drive the 6 displays without lag.
Since this is a Radeon card, everyone is talking about the 6 displays in terms of game play by the enthusiast. But where I see this as really relevant will be in productivity (multiple apps on multiple screens) and of course as it moves into professional CAD and VizSim for things like virtual prototyping and design.
gDEBugger is an OpenGL debugger and profiler which runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The new v5.5 release adds AMD GPU Performance Counters integration, displaying AMD (ATI) graphic hardware and driver performance counters inside gDEBugger’s Performance Graph and Performance Dashboard Views, allowing developers to optimize OpenGL application performance on ATI FirePro and Radeon graphics hardware.
- Game profiles - Per-game profiles are being moved out of the drivers, so they can be updated and downloaded to offer better performance to new games when they come out, rather than to wait for the next Catalyst update.
- CrossFireX + Eyefinity - Support for multi-GPU CrossFireX configurations to boost Eyefinity performance
- Ultra Low Power State - Lower-idling on CrossfireX secondary GPUs when not in high-performance gaming mode to significantly reduce power use and heat production
- DisplayPort Audio - If you have one of the new DisplayPort monitors that has speakers, the new driver will route the audio through that single audio/video connection
- Eyefinity customization wizard - an easy-to-use wizard that will allow users to easily adjust layout in order to compensate for monitor bezels, adjust brightness, color and contrast for each display
- 3D Stereo driver hooks - enabling “third-party middleware” vendors to bring more 3D stereoscopic gaming options to consumers by allowing for independent left and right images at 120 Hz
- Focus on mobile GPUs - Monthly stability, performance and feature enhancements notebooks with ATI mobility chips (obviously to appear in more notebooks)
AnandTech has an insightful and interesting article about the release of the RV870 chipset (a.k.a. Evergreen line, a.k.a. Radeon 5XXX) and how AMD’s graphics division has really begun to shine. Think VH1’s “Behind the Music” but for the tech world.
Actually the story of the risks ATI took to keep the GPU size down and keep power requirements low without sacrificing performance is pretty interesting. Then there is the whole Eyefinity project and how it came into being!
Intrique from the article: “Other than the obvious, there was one real problem with Carrell’s secrecy. In order for Eyefinity to work, it needed support from external companies.... For a feature like SunSpot (later to be named Eyefinity) to go completely unnoticed during the development of a GPU is unheard of. Carrell even developed a rating system. The gold standard is launch; if SunSpot could remain a secret until the launch, that’s gold. Silver is if they can keep it a secret until they get chips back. And the effort would get a bronze if they could keep it a secret up to tape out, at that point NVIDIA would be at least one full product cycle behind ATI.”
And in closing: “Carrell Killebrew helped turn ATI from a traditional GPU company with a poor track record, to one that could be known for its execution. The past three product generations have been executed extremely well. Regardless of whether you’re an AMD, Intel or NVIDIA fan, you must give credit where it’s due. The past couple of years have shown us a dramatic turn around from the graphics group at AMD. To go from the shakiness of the R500 and R600 GPUs to solidly executing on the RV670, 770 and 870 year after year is praiseworthy. I almost wonder if AMD’s CPU team could learn from the graphics group’s execution. I do hope that along with the ATI acquisition came the open mindedness to learn from one another.”
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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