October 15, 2013, Imagination Developers Connection, San Francisco—To help designers make better software designs, here are some golden rules. The main idea is to reduce bottlenecks to reduce CPU loading, minimize internal bandwidth, and keep the CPU and GPU in sync. Understand the target devices and any changes in the internal structures within the SoC….
August 26, 2013, Hot Chips Conference, Stanford, CA-Praveen Dongara from AMD described the changes and advances in the latest APU called Richland. This processor SoC addresses the needs for variable thermal profiles and performance in a client device. The performance in the CPU and GPU are improved through higher frequencies due to process improvements and…
August 26, 2013, Hot Chips Conference, Stanford, CA—John Sell described the basic internals of the Xbox main SoC. Although there are marketing issues associated with the console, the main chip includes an impressive collection of functional blocks. The main chip mates with the wireless control and the Kinect hardware plus the southbridge, which addresses 8GB…
June 11, 2013, E3, Los Angeles—AMD demonstrated their latest APUs and graphics cards for gaming as separate components and as fully assembled machines, desktops, laptops, and graphic accelerator cards. The booth was emphasizing their ability to produce faster and more realistic gaming platforms. They were also giving away A8 APUs and Superman capes. One part…
March 20, 2013, GPU Technology Conference, San Jose, CA—Sam Blackman from Elemental described the work involved that has changed sports content delivery. The evolution of hardware and software has enabled technology innovation. The major trends in video are towards proliferation of channels and platforms. The emergence of mobile platforms like phones and tablets draws more…
March 19, 2013, GPU Technology Conference, San Jose, CA— Jules Urbach from OTOY and LightStage described some tools that can be used for both cinema and game asset creation. The converging workflows and cloud-based rendering solutions enable designers to take advantage of the increased performance available in the latest hardware. Cloud services are changing the…
March 19, 2013, GPU Technology Conference, San Jose, CA– Gerhard Lang from Vizrt described how GPUs are enabling real-time compositing of 3-D graphics. This is an outlook on how GPUs can play an even more important role as content delivery shifts from traditional distribution to IP-based delivery. Data-driven graphics make images understandable and why the…
March 19, 2013, GPU Technology Conference, San Jose, CA— Mark Muench and Christopher Pond from ESPN described their development efforts that allows use of 4K video in telecasts. Some of the issues associated with this high resolution imagery include applying multiple GPU processing, theoretical vs. practical transfer rates, gpuDirect, bandwidth, bus speed, and playback, together…
March 19, 2013, GPU Technology Conference, San Jose, CA— Laurence Emms from Pixar Animation Studios discusses how Pixar employs General Purpose GPU software in its production pipeline. The creation of digital video content requires significant amounts of processing. Pixar has been using GPUs for real-time preview of assets for a long time. They have used…