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Nvidia Unveils New 64x SLI GPU Rig
The Register has an answer for the problem of what to get the graphics buff who has everything, Nvidia's new 64x SLI GPU rig. While it doesn't come cheap, a mere $17,500, it will offer rendering at around 80 billion pixels every second and a combined resolution of around 148 megapixels. The new hardware is being targeted at content creators and people doing scientific modeling, and is due to ship in September.
But does it run Linux?
Lots of jokes about something that can finally run Doom3 at max detail or similar, I suppose that's to be expected. But on the serious side, graphics processors being used as ad-hoc physics processors and tasked with a compute-intensive job that is inherently parallel is the perfect job for something like this. Compared to what it would probably cost to assemble a cluster of general-purpose CPUs to do the same thing, $17,000 is dirt cheap.
Another task that this would be great for is high-fidelity image generation, say for flight or vehicle simulation. Sure, you can hook up a couple projectors, but until you get full surround projection at eye-limited resolution, it still looks somewhat pixellated. Drive a set of laser-scan planetarium projectors with this (ok, so they cost tens of thousands of dollars each) and you're good to go.
Now, of course, I have to say it...
Just imagine what a beowulf cluster of these could do!
I was thinking the same thing and was utterly confused after reading the article. I looked at the phone and thought that's pretty damn cool. 64 graphics cards in their own case... I wonder how they power it... then I read... then I'm like WTF Mate?!?!?! It's only 2 cards! What the hell happened to the other 62? It's like marketing said build us a unit with 64 and production sent out a unit with only 2 but forgot to tell marketing.
If you were to connect 64 off the shelf $400 cards it's run you $25,600 but you'd expect a quantity discount so I could see it going for $17,500. But two cards with two gpu's each for $17,500? That's nuts.
How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
A good portion of the folks who did the work at SGI are now working for NVidia.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "