The First Dedicated Visual Computing System

Aug 2, 2006 08:58 GMT  ·  By

It appears that Nvidia waited for ATI to be acquired in order to launch as many services and products as one can handle. It's just a wild guess, but it has been a while since I haven't seen so many products released by just one manufacturer in just a few days.

So, Nvidia has just launched another product- the Quadro Plex 1000, what is considered to be the world's first dedicated Visual Computing System (VCS) which provides advanced scalability in both desktop or 3U rackmount configurations for demanding professional applications such as those powering multiple streams of 4K high-definition video, 3D styling and design, scientific and medical visualization, oil and gas exploration, or visual simulation and training.

What is more important is that Nvidia's Quadro Plex 1000 is compliant with several x86 32- and 64-bit Intel and AMD processors running Windows and Linux operating systems.

"Seeing the new NVIDIA Quadro Plex running Google Earth is an astounding visual experience," said Michael Jones, chief technologist, Google Earth, Maps and Local. "This extreme level of performance and resolution takes the viewer from visual simulation to emotional reality, showing the Earth in its full detail and glory. Google Earth and the NVIDIA Quadro Plex are a perfect pair -- powering a new world of imagination."

More precisely, the Quadro Plex is an external visual compute system that features the manufacturer's SLI multi-GPU technology, as everyone expected, but also a massive density of up to 20x when compared to traditional GPU solutions, performance of up to 80-billion pixels/sec and seven billion vertices per second, and a really enhanced resolution as high as 148 megapixels on 16 synchronized digital-output channels and eight HD SDI channels.

Nvidia Quadro Plex is planned to be certified on several applications and it will be available in September 2006, with prices starting at $17,500.

Nvidia also launched today the latest version (3.2) of the successful Nvidia Scene Graph Software Development Kit (NVSG SDK), which enables developers to optimize applications and exploit the professional graphics processing hardware. The NVSG operates on top of the OpenGL application programming interfaces (API) in both 32-and 64-bit Microsoft Windows or Linux operating system environments.