NVIDIA announces cost, energy-saving Tesla Personal Supercomputer

AMD has already outlined its plans to harness the power of its GPUs for some added computing muscle, and it looks like NVIDIA is now taking things one step further by announcing its new GPU-based Tesla Personal Supercomputer, which promises to deliver the power of a traditional supercomputer cluster at 1/100th of the price. That "personal supercomputer" is actually a platform based on NVIDIA's new Tesla C1060 GPU Computing Processor, which itself is based on NVIDIA's CUDA parallel computing architecture. The supercomputers themselves will come from a whole host of manufacturers that have already partnered with NVIDIA, including ASUS, Dell, Lenovo, and a number of more specialized computer makers. While complete details on those systems are still a bit light at the moment, they'll apparently be "priced like a conventional PC workstation," and the first few out of the gate should be available starting today.

Resource - Engadget

Toshiba launches two notebooks featuring three NVIDIA GPUs

Toshiba has introduced the first gaming laptops that use a trio of NVIDIA GPUs. Two models of the X305 now offer three GPUs from NVIDIA, among other features gamers will be interested in.

Toshiba's Qosmio X305-Q708 and X305-Q706 both feature a single integrated 9400M GPU and a pair of NVIDIA 9800M GTS graphics cards in an SLI configuration. Why three GPUs you ask? The design of the system allows the user to decide if they want the power-sipping 9400M for general computing and long battery life, or go for all-out gaming performance.

When it comes time to play something demanding like Crysis or Far Cry 2, the system can be turned to performance mode where the power of the SLI 9800M GTS video cards will provide smoother graphics at higher detail settings than most other gaming notebooks can dream of.

The two machines differ when it comes to storage and CPU. The X305-Q706 uses an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 and a 320GB HDD; its MSRP is $1,999.99. Considering the performance the machine should offer, that price isn't all that bad.

The X305-Q708 is the high-end model and carries a high-end price of $4,199.99. The difference is that the Q708 uses an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 CPU and adds a 128GB SSD alongside the 320GB HDD. Both machines use a 17-inch 1680 x 1050 resolution TruBrite LCD. The Q708 should have a higher resolution screen at that price—something along the lines of 1920 x 1200—in my opinion.

Considering the miniscule impact the CPU has for PC gaming, I'd forgo the high-end model and get the Q706. You will likely get 98% of the gaming performance and save several thousand bucks at the same time.

Resource - Ars Technica

NVIDIA unveils first graphics card to use 4GB of RAM

NVIDIA announced its latest Quadro graphics card today, called the FX 5800. The card goes into the Quadro line, which features some of the most expensive graphics cards to roll off big green's assembly lines.

The FX 5800 keeps up that tradition, coming in with an MSRP of $3,499. That much loot buys you the industry's first graphics card to use 4GB of graphics memory. In addition to sporting more RAM than any two of NVIDIA's gamer-oriented graphics cards, the FX 5800 offers up to 240 CUDA programmable parallel processing cores.

The folks in Santa Clara say that the card is capable of interactive 4D modeling with time lapses. It has a memory bandwidth of up to 102 GB per second, and fill rates for the beastie exceed 52 billion texels per second. NVIDIA claims a geometry performance of 300 million triangles per second.

You might wonder where this sort of performance would be needed. The card is aimed at those involved in oil and gas exploration, medical imaging, and styling/design fields. Thilaka Sumanaweera, CTO of CyberHeart, gives a good example of how the power of the FX 5800 can be used. Sumanaweera said in a statement, "The advanced textured graphics capabilities of the Quadro FX 5800 are enabling CyberHeart to provide 3D radiosurgical target visualization and definition tools for the purpose of treating cardiac arrhythmias. Our applications are processing very large data sets acquired by the state-of-the-art 64-slice CT scanners using respiratory- and cardiac-gating. The Quadro FX cards provide us with the extreme bandwidth necessary to support our cutting-edge technology, and essentially, save lives."

Resource - ArsTechnica