NVIDIA Unveils 'Fermi' CUDA GPU Architecture
 SANTA
CLARA, CA, Oct 2, 2009 - NVIDIA Corp. today introduced its next generation
CUDA GPU architecture, codenamed “Fermi”. An entirely new ground-up design,
the “Fermi” architecture is the foundation for the world’s first
computational graphics processing units (GPUs), delivering breakthroughs in
both graphics and GPU computing.
“NVIDIA and the Fermi team have taken a giant step towards making GPUs
attractive for a broader class of programs,” said Dave Patterson, director
Parallel Computing Research Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley and co-author of
Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach. “I believe history will
record Fermi as a significant milestone.”
Presented at the company’s inaugural GPU Technology Conference, in San Jose,
California, “Fermi” delivers a feature set that accelerates performance on a
wider array of computational applications than ever before. Joining NVIDIA’s
press conference was Oak Ridge National Laboratory who announced plans for a
new supercomputer that will use NVIDIA GPUs based on the “Fermi”
architecture. “Fermi” also garnered the support of leading organizations
including Bloomberg, Cray, Dell, HP, IBM and Microsoft.
“It is completely clear that GPUs are now general purpose parallel computing
processors with amazing graphics, and not just graphics chips anymore,” said
Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “The Fermi architecture, the
integrated tools, libraries and engines are the direct results of the
insights we have gained from working with thousands of CUDA developers
around the world. We will look back in the coming years and see that Fermi
started the new GPU industry.”
As the foundation for NVIDIA’s family of next generation GPUs namely GeForce,
Quadro and Tesla − “Fermi” features a host of new technologies that are
“must-have” features for the computing space, including:
- C++, complementing existing support for C, Fortran, Java, Python,
OpenCL and DirectCompute.
- ECC, a critical requirement for datacenters and supercomputing
centers deploying GPUs on a large scale
- 512 CUDA Cores featuring the new IEEE 754-2008 floating-point
standard, surpassing even the most advanced CPUs
- 8x the peak double precision arithmetic performance over NVIDIA’s
last generation GPU. Double precision is critical for high-performance
computing (HPC) applications such as linear algebra, numerical
simulation, and quantum chemistry
- NVIDIA Parallel DataCache - the world’s first true cache hierarchy
in a GPU that speeds up algorithms such as physics solvers, ray tracing,
and sparse matrix multiplication where data addresses are not known
beforehand
- NVIDIA GigaThread engine with support for concurrent kernel
execution, where different kernels of the same application context can
execute on the GPU at the same time (eg: PhysX fluid and rigid body
solvers)
- Nexus – the world’s first fully integrated heterogeneous computing
application development environment within Microsoft Visual Studio
NVIDIA Nexus integrated development environment
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) awakened the world to the power of computer graphics
when it invented the graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999. Since then, it
has consistently set new standards in visual computing with breathtaking,
interactive graphics available on devices ranging from portable media
players to notebooks to workstations. NVIDIA’s expertise in programmable
GPUs has led to breakthroughs in parallel processing which make
supercomputing inexpensive and widely accessible. Fortune magazine has
ranked NVIDIA #1 in innovation in the semiconductor industry for two years
in a row. For more information, see
www.nvidia.com.
-----------
If news like this is important to you,
sign up for TenLinks Daily, our free
newsletter.
-----------
See Also
NVIDIA
website
Computer Hardware - Graphics Cards - by TenLinks.com
Graphics Cards - reviews by CADdigest.com
Additional News
Oct 21 - NVIDIA, mental images Launch RealityServer for 3D Clouds
Oct 12 - MSC Picks NVIDIA Tesla CUDA Architecture for Simulation
Oct 2 - NVIDIA Unveils 'Fermi' CUDA GPU Architecture
Oct 2 - NVIDIA Unveils Nexus for Parallel Computing
Oct 2 - ORNL to Use NVIDIA Fermi Architecture for Supercomputer
Aug 04 - NVIDIA Launches Interactive Ray Tracing Engine
Jul 15 - NVIDIA Offers Optimized Quadro Drivers for AutoCAD 2010
May 12 - NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit 2.2 Released
May 7 - NVIDIA Tesla GPUs Available in Dell Workstations
Apr 21 - NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 GPU Supports Mac
Apr 3 - NVIDIA Names Harvard University 'CUDA Center Of Excellence'
Mar 31 - NVIDIA Introduces Quadro Pro GPU Product Line
Mar 31 - NVIDIA SLI Multi-OS Available for Graphics Workstation
Mar 3 - NVIDIA Releases GeForce Graphics Drivers for Windows 7 Beta
Feb 27 - NVIDIA Names Bob Sherbin to Head Corporate Communications
Jan 29 - Stanford's Bill Dally Joins NVIDIA as VP Research
Jan 14 - NVIDIA Expects Q4 Revenue Down 40-50%
Dec 3 - NVIDIA Releases Quadro FX 4800 Graphics Card for MCAD
Nov 11 - NVIDIA Unveils Quadro Plex 2200 S4 VCS 3D Accelerator
Sep 16 - NVIDIA Founder Huang to Donate $30M to Stanford University
Aug 26 - NVIDIA, CGSociety Announces 3rd NVArt Contest Winners
Aug 15 - NVIDIA Offers Free OpenGL 3.0 Beta Drivers for 3D Graphics
Aug 7 - NVIDIA Announces NVISION 08 Keynote Lineup
Jul 30 - Dassault CEO Bernard Charles to Present at NVISION 08
Source: Material used in press releases is often supplied by external
sources and used as is. |
