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GPU-Powered Planetarium Renders 64MP Projection

Posted by timothy on from the how-quaint-an-ancient-star-dome dept.

MojoKid writes "The Adler Planetarium has finished a major two-year upgrade project that's replaced the facility's forty year-old Zeiss Mark VI projector with a 'Digital Starball' system designed by Global Immersion Ltd. The new digital system is powered by an array of NVIDIA Quadro GPUs. The specs behind the system are impressive. The 71-foot dome of the Grainger Sky Theater now contains a score of military-grade projectors with an 8kx8k resolution. The final 64 megapixel image is generated by an array of 42 NVIDIA Quadro GPUs and offers an unprecedented degree of real-time modeling horsepower. The planetarium's model of the universe was created in part from high-definition photos captured around the world and via the Hubble telescope."

11 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Military grade? by ultranova · · Score: 2

    What's with everything being "military grade" nowadays, from motherboards to video projectors? Is it some kind of fashion, or did US army have a huge sale?

    Or do these components actually refer to North Korea's high standards?

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    1. Re:Military grade? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Military grade = So expensive that we sell these to the military (and they are silly enough to pay this much for fancily rebadged off-the-shelf hardware)

    2. Re:Military grade? by lexcyber · · Score: 2

      Military Grade is the same as ridiculously expensive items that is hard to maintain and requires special training to operate. Usually only available at universities, military or other government function where money is not an issue when you buy hardware only when talking labor cost. So basically the exact opposite of "Commercial grade".

      -L

      --
      - To understand recursion, we must first understand recursion -
    3. Re:Military grade? by mikael_j · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It works for geeks, too - have you never gotten excited over "carrier-grade networking equipment" or so?

      I don't think I have ever seen any product marketed at "prosumers" with the description "carrier-grade". That said, there is definitely a tendency among geeks to want their home switch to be a 24-port rack-mountable layer 3 switch instead of some random unmanaged 8-port desk switch marketed at regular consumers. But this can't just be explained by the "geeks are just as big idiots as Joe Sixpack" argument.

      If you're a professional who works with the "pro gear" every day and you also have an interest in the same things as a hobby there is a very real chance you want to have equipment at home which is, if not as good as the equipment you use at work, at least approaching the quality of feature-richness of the expensive gear you use at work.

      In college I knew a chemical engineering major who was obsessive about chemistry the way many computer geeks are obsessive about computers and electronics and while his "home lab" wasn't on-par with the university's labs he still had thousands of dollars worth of lab equipment and chemical compounds that he had either scavenged and repaired or purchased with his own hard-earned money. By your logic he should've been using the pots and pans he had in his kitchen to not be an idiot...

      --
      Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
    4. Re:Military grade? by vlm · · Score: 3, Insightful

      requires special training to operate

      Clearly you were not in the military. Military Grade means "GI proof" as in simple and indestructible. That also means its incredibly heavy. So these projectors probably weigh about 500 pounds each and have no controls other than a power switch and no indicators other than"call civilian contractor for service" and possibly a power light.

      The only people harder on equipment than GIs, are the oil field roughnecks. Give those guys a screwdriver, they'll work all day to return a metal pretzel. Its a miracle any oil gets pumped at all.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    5. Re:Military grade? by AlienIntelligence · · Score: 3, Informative

      What's with everything being "military grade" nowadays, from motherboards to video projectors? Is it some kind of fashion, or did US army have a huge sale?

      I have two items that touted military grade components. A radar detector and an amp.

      The radar detector has handled the punishing heat of a car window in the desert
      for nearly 9 years now.

      The amp I bought 25 years ago. Still working to spec even though it has seen
      thousands of heat cycles.

      So, maybe nowadays military grade is crap. But at one time, you were assured
      that whatever that item was, it could go to the Antarctica or Death Valley and
      work to spec and not become too brittle to use or melt.

      Electrical specs are also held to greater tolerances. That amp, while every other
      amp's THD varied wildly, held a very respectable number across their lineup.

      It's sad if military grade doesn't mean that any more.

      -AI

      --
      For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
    6. Re:Military grade? by gman003 · · Score: 2

      Do we have to bring them back down afterwards?

    7. Re:Military grade? by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      And what about the continuously recurring "GPU" articles.

      I think the news here is that someone is using them to actually render and display graphics, rather than to compute bitcoins.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    8. Re:Military grade? by LWATCDR · · Score: 2

      I wonder if Military Grade is the same as what we called MilSpec. The US military did a lot of work back in the day to create specifications so what they actually bought wasn't crap. I have not read up on the history but my best guess is that the Army and Navy got into it right after the civil war. During the Civil war a lot of crooks tried to get rich selling junk to the military. Combine that with the rise of things like Steam powered iron clad and later steel warships and it all makes sense. Even today people that build homebuilt aircraft out of wood will reference US Army service manuals and specifications published in the 1920s and 1930s.
      Milspec in electronics usually means smaller tolerances, greater enviromental range, more resistance to shock, and higher MTBF. Usually with a higher cost.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  2. Re:Zeiss by chill · · Score: 2

    Even cooler if you link to the correct Wikipedia page!

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  3. Just an "Overhead Projector" by necro81 · · Score: 2

    For what it is worth, I think this is the "overhead projector" that John McCain cited in a presidential debate as a $3 million example of government earmark abuse by Obama. Gosh, it's amazing what ordinary office equipment is capable of these days! It's nice to know the government has absolutely no interest in inspiring and educating children, advancing technology, and attracting tourism.

    (By the way, that earmark, and the bill it was attached to, never became law)