NVIDIA Tesla Graphics to Enable Cloud-Based Applications

While most of you are probably waiting for NVIDIA's next-generation GeForce graphics cards, namely those high-end, Fermi-based products, the Santa Clara, California-based graphics chip maker continues to expand its product portfolio with new solutions that are designed to leverage the company's expertise in the world of graphics. On that note, NVIDIA and mental images, a company it acquired back in 2007, have jointly announced the introduction of the new NVIDIA RealityServer platform for cloud computing. The new product has been designed as a new solution that combines the power of its GPUs with high-end software to deliver interactive, photorealistic, 3D applications to any web-connected PC, laptop, netbook or smartphone.

“This is one giant leap closer to the goal of real-time photorealistic visual computing for the masses,” Dan Vivoli, senior vice president, NVIDIA, said. “mental images fully embraced the concept of GPU co-processing to enable Interactive photorealism anywhere, any time – something that was science fiction just yesterday.”

The new technology combines an NVIDIA Tesla RS GPU-based server, running on the RealityServer software application, developed by mental images to create photorealistic imagery and stream high-quality images at rates approaching an interactive gaming experience, according to NVIDIA.

“Everyone should experience the web the way they experience the world, in 3D,” Rolf Herken, CEO and CTO of mental images, added. “RealityServer offers extraordinary opportunities and far-reaching implications for businesses and consumers, enabling us to interact with 3D content in the form and manner that our brains expect.”

The RealityServer software application has been developed with the help of mental images' iray technology, a physically ray-tracing renderer that takes advantage of the CUDA architecture to create photorealistic images by simulating the physics of light when interacting with matter. This technology is different from the one employed by NVIDIA for its traditional GeForce graphics cards, namely that of rasterization.