Slashdot Mirror
AMD Preps For Server Graphics Push
Nerval's Lobster writes "AMD named John Gustafson as senior fellow and chief product architect of AMD's Graphics Business Unit, the former ATI graphics business unit. Gustafson, known for developing a key axiom governing parallel processing, will apply that knowledge to AMD's more traditional graphics units and GPGPUs, co-processors that have begun appearing in high-performance computing (HPC) systems to add more computational oomph via parallel processing. At the Hot Chips conference, AMD's chief technical officer, Mark Papermaster, also provided a more comprehensive look at AMD's future in the data center, claiming that APUs were the keystone of the 'surround computing era,' where a wealth of data — through sensors, gestures, voice, augmented reality, metadata, and HD video and graphics — will need to be contextualized, analyzed, and either encrypted or assigned privacy policies. That, of course, means the cloud must shoulder the computational burden."
Nvidia could really use some competition in the server space. The render farms and most GPGPU (or CUDA) are pretty much completely dependent on Nvidia.
You mean, all that stuff from surveillance cameras, etc? Yeah, we're gonna need LOTS of processing power for the Total Surveillance State!
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
They want a co-processor, so build one, or add extensive FPGA capabilities. Don't just put in a GPU and disconnect the monitor, make something more specifically applicable to the task at hand.
Nullius in verba
Geez, didn't we have this stuff years ago, only it was called mainframes and minicomputers?
Someone refresh my memory as to why we fled those for PC's? Oh yeah, it cost too much to centralize, the 'one size fits all' solutions actually fit no one, and it took too long to wait for someone to fix things or come up with new tools.
Same problem with "the cloud". Good luck with it.
If they really want to go after hpc market, an fpga on the apu would be really nice, if the gate count was high enough.
Of course for normal users, it may not be too useful unless AMD shipped some cores with it that could put it to use when not running custom stuff.
I have had no fun with their software on Linux or Windows. Then again, Nvidia is not much better.
"... through sensors, gestures, voice, augmented reality, metadata, and HD video and graphics — will need to be contextualized, analyzed, and either encrypted or assigned privacy policies. That, of course, means the cloud must shoulder the computational burden".
Great idea. Capture raw and potentially sensitive information, send it elsewhere for stripping/classification. Whose privacy policy was that again? And which entity might be required to log all data coming and going.
It makes about as much sense as having a remote (I'm sorry, I mean "cloud-based") plaintext-to-encryption gateway.
There's a big problem, however: http://developer.amd.com/sdks/AMDAPPSDK/assets/App_Note-Running_AMD_APP_Apps_Remotely.pdf
To run apps that use AMD's GPU's remotely (ie. not from a local X11 session - and I mean "Local X11 session"), you have to open a security hole so big you can fit Rush Limbaugh's ego through it.
* Log into the system as root. /dev/ati/card*
* Add "Xhost +" to your X11 startup config (so every X session allows anybody to access it... with root permissions)
* chmod ugo+rw
I asked a group of devs from X.org how stupid it was... the short answer is "how stupid is giving root access to everybody?"
So, I asked AMD when they were planning on fixing the problem.
Short answer: Not for the foreseeable future.
I seem to recall a similar issue where CERT told users not to use AMD drivers for Windows, because it forces Windows to disable many of its security features.
I'm sensing a trend...
Do you want this kind of irresponsibility in the datacenter? EVER?
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
What do you think Slashdot runs on? A PC sitting on someone's desk? Large, centralized computing never stopped being the solution for applications that need more power than one PC can provide.
I have waited patiently for Intel's offering 'Knights Corner' now rebranded as "Xeon Phi". We have been tempted with 64+ cores and 4 threads per core. We have been tempted with 'run existing software'. But I don' see anything available in stores. That they aren't pushing product into stores means the thing will be gawd-awful expensive, production is limited, and they don't want people to spend a grand or two, and create amazing software around the hardware. Instead, the word 'Xeon' means in general 'not for you'. I wanted this to be widely available, but intel is going the wrong way. I suspect for most, it will be much cheaper and easier for most to recompile, add CUDA to what's available. Intel does not seem to be interested in bringing high performance computing to the masses. Cost, availability, attitude. Get an Nvidia card *today*. Add software today, and use it today. The cost per performance is likely better, and you don't need to join intel's billionaires club.