The Official NVIDIA Blog

A couple of years ago, we at NVIDIA announced that the world was entering the Visual Computing era. We saw this coming as a result of the community's work with general purpose computation on graphics processing units or GPGPU. That is when we also began pushing for the Optimized PC, one that has the correct balance of CPU and GPU horsepower.

A small group of creative engineers began using the massively parallel architecture of the graphics processing unit (GPU) as a computational engine, to create GPGPU. The sequential part of the application runs on the CPU (ie: running an OS where a user is unpredictable and moving a mouse, going from application to application) and the computationally-intensive part of the application (large, more predictable, amounts of data) runs on the GPU. From the user’s perspective, the application just runs faster because it is using the high-performance of the GPU to boost performance. We have seen application performance jump from twice as fast to 300 or 400 times faster when the GPU is used for processing.

GPU computing began to explode when it got easier to program. The pioneer for this was NVIDIA’s CUDA C, a small set of extensions developers use to specify which functions will be executed on the GPU and how the parallel processing capabilities of the GPU will be used by an application. Now developers have even more options from programming for the GPU, with Microsoft’s DirectCompute and Open CL APIs. Today the GPU is used to accelerate consumer applications for changing video file formats, video enhancement, video editing, photo editing, face recognition, audio mixing and in-game physics.

Microsoft has always been a leader in visual computing. They were the first to make a visual computing application everyone would use when they released Windows Vista. This was the first time an operating system was accelerated by a GPU. They expanded on that with Windows 7 and the introduction of the Direct Compute API.

Today, with introduction of Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft gives us another milestone for visual computing. Internet Explorer 9 includes a new JavaScript engine, support for HTML5 and hardware accelerated graphics and text. Internet Explorer 9 is the first browser designed to take advantage of modern hardware, resulting in graphics and performance improvements throughout the browser including the first to deliver hardware accelerated scalable vector graphics( SVG); the first to enhance JavaScript engine performance with the benefit of shifting from the CPU to the GPU; and the first to deliver GPU-Powered HTML5.

If you are the proud owner of an Optimus notebook we have a surprise for you. Your notebook is more up to date today than it was a few days ago. How so? Well, a few days ago we sent out the first profile updates for Optimus with over 30 new Optimus profiles, including some for upcoming games that haven’t even been released, like StarCraft II and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. (Note: To ensure the updates are working properly be sure to grab the latest Optimus driver from nvidia.com/optimus, it helps correct a profile merging issue some early systems were having)

The new profile updates are another facet of Optimus that make its technology ‘just work.’ A profile tips off the system to the kind of application being used and which GPU makes the most sense for that application. Most types of applications are automatically detected by Optimus and do not need a profile. However certain applications rely on profiles to help determine the right graphics system.

Profiles are updated frequently to ensure new applications are leveraging the NVIDIA GPU. Optimus notebooks receive updates automatically, silently, and in the background – no annoying prompts or notifications to deal with. The update process works similarly to how virus software keeps their database of virus definitions up-to-date. This week the first Optimus update happened. And we’re going to keep making updates to help make your notebook keep getting better and better. All automatically and in the background.

We’re wrapping up another great GDC after seeing a lot of traffic at the NVIDIA booth all weekend. Friday and Saturday featured Developer Talks at our Game Technology Theater where developers from NVIDIA, Emergent Game Technologies, Geomerics, Unity, Natural Motion, Trinigy, Unigine, Autodesk, Graphic Remedy, and CryENGINE spoke on a variety of topics. We also hosted sessions in our booth that were really well received--even folks from the booth across the way were impressed!

One of the biggest draws at our booth was Metro 2033. This game features every piece of technology NVIDIA is throwing at game developers today. We're talking PhysX, 3D Vision and DirectX 11 Tesselation. Running on the GeForce GTX 480, Metro 2033 has incredibly detailed environments, cloth animation and particle effects, sick 3D visuals, and ultra smooth character models.

We pulled 3D Vision Product Manager Andrew Fear aside to chat about NVIDIA's latest offering, 3D Vision Surround. With 3D Vision Surround, gamers can now play games in full panoramic view and in 3D. Throw in 5760x1280 resolution, and our feelings can best be expressed by Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures: “Woah!”

3D technology is driving advances in storytelling and visual experiences as we have seen from the successes of movies like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland. And while the 3D in your local movie theater is one thing, bringing it home to your living room is another. Over the past year or so, NVIDIA has been a major player in 3D digital entertainment technology, through our large ecosystem of display, content, and hardware partners.

Today we announced the latest addition to our 3D solutions, a software technology called 3DTV Play. It lets you connect your compatible GeForce-based desktop or notebook PC to a full HD 3D TV. 3DTV Play also lets you use the active-shutter (or passive) glasses supplied with new 3D TVs, with the synchronization between the TV and the PC happening over the HDMI 1.4 interface. And, because 3DTV Play is based largely on what we do on the 3D Vision software side, you will be able to play your entire library of 3D games on the big screen. You’ll also be able to take advantage of our other 3D Vision technology benefits, including watching 3D Blu-ray movies, viewing videos, photographs in 3D, or browse the Web in 3D or stream 3D content.

Seeing is believing, especially with 3DTV Play so, starting today we're kicking off a 15 city road trip with Panasonic. If you're in one of the destination cities across the US you'll be able to see 3DTV Play in action, running on the brand new Panasonic VIERA full HD 3D TVs.  Full tour details can be found here and on our Facebook Fan Page events tab.

3DTV Play will be released later this spring with an anticipated retail price of $39.99 USD. It will also be available for free for current NVIDIA 3D Vision customers.

Happy 3D gaming, and we hope to see you on the road!

Below is a snapshot of what’s hot in CUDA, GPU computing and GPGPU news around the web this week. You can read the full stories here.

Bringing GPU Power to Engineering Computations
A new tool called AccelerEyes Jacket provides a way for MATLAB users to easily tap into the power of CUDA GPUs for advanced computations. 

CUDA for Optical Character Recognition
Russia-based Cognitive Technologies released new software that leverages CUDA for processing documents like passports and ID cards.

GPUs, Open Source, and Finance
Professor Mark Joshi launched a new open source project called Kooderive. His objective is to utilize CUDA-enabled GPUs to produce fast Monte Carlo pricing models for financial derivatives.

We at NVIDIA today launched a new portal where we will be bringing together information related to the anti-trust litigation that has been brought against Intel around the world.

Called “The Case For Innovation,” the site is a one-stop resource for those looking to get up to speed on actions being brought against Intel for impeding competition, stifling innovation and for not living up to its agreements which were filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the New York Attorney General, as well as NVIDIA itself. The site also provides background about cases brought by the European Commission, Japan and Korea.

The site describes the technology at stake in these cases. It describes the legal arguments. It collects key media coverage on the topic. And it contains key legal filings against Intel, which include lots of colorful detail. If you don’t have time to read them, feel free to listen to them via podcasts, which are also available there.

Yesterday we gave you a brief overview of the NVIDIA booth and our developer talks. Today, we were finally able to walk the floor to see what other games and technologies were being shown at GDC 2010.

One of the booths we checked out belongs to Beverly Hills based, 360VirtualVentures. They're hoping to bring a unique form of virtual reality to the masses – the VirtuSphere. We chatted with a spokesperson for the company, who explained that, unlike virtual reality simulators in the past which have the user wear a head mounted display (HMD), the VirtuSphere adds another layer immersion by placing the user in a 10-foot hollow sphere allowing complete freedom of movement in any direction.

Next, we walked over to the Independent Games Festival where we had a chance to speak with Ichiro Lambe, founder and president of Boston, Massachusetts based Dejobaan Games. Their game, uniquely titled “AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity” is nominated for a IGF 2010 Excellence in Design Award, and it’s easy to see why. What started off as a base jumping simulator, eventually morphed into a free-falling action game where gamers jump off skyscrapers, weave around buildings, earn style points, and flip off haters. Sound like fun? It is! Best of all… Ichiro is a huge supporter of NVIDIA and developed the game on NVIDIA hardware!

Lots of researchers who do computationally intense work could use more processing power. Many of them actually have that power available on their computers, but haven’t found a way to take advantage of it. The computational clout is in the multiple processor cores of the computer’s graphics system, where it is not easily accessible.

A tool like NVIDIA’s CUDA parallel computing model makes the GPU cores, up to 240 of them on the latest NVIDIA Tesla GPUs, available to programs. But to take maximum advantage of it, you have to be a skilled C or C++ programmer. The problem is that many of the people who would benefit most from high-performance computing are not software developers by profession. They write customized code out of necessity, but their primary work is in chemistry, geology, astronomy, physics or biology.

Tech-X Corp., a Boulder, CO, software and consulting company specializing in high-performance scientific computing, is working to change that. Its GPUlib is a tool that brings GPU-based computing into the high-level tools used by researchers, including ITT Visual Information Solutions’ IDL, Mathworks’ MATLAB, and that trusty old laboratory standby, Fortran.

“Parallel computing used to be a very elite field,” says Peter Messmer, vice president for space applications at Tech-X. “Few applications are designed to take advantage of it. GPU processing makes it much more mainstream.” Until GPU processing came along, the cheapest way to get very high performance in the lab was by building a cluster of relatively inexpensive PCs, but this took skills that researchers who weren’t computer scientists or electrical engineers often lacked. “The GPU makes it much more mainstream,” says Messmer.

We’re here at GDC 2010 and this year’s show looks like it’s gonna be another great one. At the NVIDIA booth we’re featuring technologies like 3D Vision Surround, PhysX, Tegra and DirectX 11. We’re hosting developer talks in our NVIDIA Game Technology Theater, an art contest for artists and art students, and a prize wheel featuring prizes from hardware partners like ASUS and EVGA. Just to name a few…

We also have pods dedicated to 3D Vision, 3D Vision Surround, PhysX, Tegra, DirectX 11, CUDA, NVIDIA Optix, and GPU Computing, along with killer content from our partners. If you’re at the show, swing by to get a glimpse.

If you’ve ever visited us at past GDC’s you may remember the art contest—well, we’re bringing it back. This year’s contest is called Sketch Match And we’re asking artists to put their creative talents to the test for a chance to win prizes from Adobe and Autodesk. The contest goes like this: Using old school materials like charcoal, pastels and chalk, 8 artists must draw whatever comes to mind given a theme that we provide them, while also including the NVIDIA logo. They have 20 minutes to complete their piece. The audience will help judge who best matched the theme and the top 3 will move on to the next round. The top 3 winners from each session battle it out against each other to move on to the final round where they compete for the grand prize.

Sketch Match contest is Thursday, March 11 only. Artists and art students only please. The competition is fierce, so bring your “A” game!

It’s a busy week for us at the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.  Today we announced that 3D Vision Support will be integrated into Epic Games’ popular Unreal Engine 3 (UE3)- UE3 was used to make BioShock 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, and Borderlands.  Even Epic’s free version of UE3,  Unreal Development Kit (UDK) will get in on the 3D Vision action.  So, if you’re one of the 200,000 current UE3 or UDK users worldwide, you’re in for some 3D theater-quality goodness

For developers, this support means they  can now implement stereoscopic 3D effects into their PC games and know that their upcoming titles will look great when played in 3D. For gamers with NVIDIA GPUs, it means they they continue to have the best gaming experiences, regardless of whether they are playing in flat 2D, 3D, or even 3D spanning across multiple platforms.

Both Epic Games and NVIDIA are committed to advancing the state of PC gaming, and this announcement is another step in that direction.

If you are at GDC this week, please visit us in the South Hall in booth #1701 for some on-hands demo time. Or, you can check out Epic Games in booth #202 and learn more about the Unreal Engine development platform.

Happy 3D Gaming!