ATI Announces Stream Computing Technology

[Pinnacle]

Stream Computing accelerates enterprise computing tasks using ATI’s Radeon X1900 graphics processor. Scientific research, homeland security, financial forecasting, oil and gas, database searching, consumer applications and video games are expected to benefit from ATI’s Stream Computing technology. Scientific research such as Folding@Home benefits from ATI’s Stream Computing

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4285

[Kanavit]

i will believe it when i see it.

[wa77ss]

i will believe it when i see it.

Whats so hard to believe about this ?

GPU + CPU working together more efficiently, if anything, its about time ....

[Kanavit]

it just sounds too good to be true.

[illmatik]

it just sounds too good to be true.

Why? GPUs are basically executing mathematical operations when they draw and shade, etc. As long as you stay within the bounds and capabilities of the chip, you have a very powerful and very fast number cruncher at your disposal.

[cky2k6]

this is really nothing radical, a gpu at its heart is a vector processor, which is useless for home computing since not all tasks are linear, but in servers or folding rigs that just have to crunch numbers, a gpu is perfectly suitable as long as it has the software. in older gpus, it was difficult, but in the r580, ati included whatever was lacking on the hardware side.

[Serra]

ATI may have just announced this, but it's hardly breaking news. People have been doing some homebrew on graphics cards for a long time and managing to do that basic thing (mind you in a likely more limited capacity).

[Kanavit]

was this 'ATI streaming ' technology co-developed with AMD? i didn't see it in the link. if it is , then this is more believable.

[cky2k6]

ati would need to consult amd on the type of processing it specializes in? amd and ati are probably not worknig together yet, as the deal isnt finalized.

[Kanavit]

ati would need to consult amd on the type of processing it specializes in? amd and ati are probably not worknig together yet, as the deal isnt finalized.
well, it's saying that ATI gpu can make your computer run faster is almost like saying that intel cpu can make internet run faster.

[[XC] leviathan18]

i want this for my WCG cruncher NOW

[diablomonic]

kanavit, what are you smoking? people have been using gpu's to massively accelerate certain suitable tasks for years now, and as the shader models become more general purpose (ie sm3 and especially 4) a lot more useful tasks can be accelerated. Now ATI is (I assume) going to expose more of the low level hardware functions to be even MORE useful, so even MORE tasks will be able to be accelerated. Go to gpgpu.org and have a read, stop just posting silly comments

[[XC] Lead Head]

well, it's saying that ATI gpu can make your computer run faster is almost like saying that intel cpu can make internet run faster.

No its not..Not at all...

I have no idea where you are getting this:stick:..

F@H already has closed testing on the x1900 GPUs, and plans to release a public beta seomtime soon:stick: And you've got some part of it wrong. It doesnt make you computer run faster, it will speed up applications that are coded for it. Simple as that. Like if an app is coded for ageia physics, it will untilize the ageia processor if its avaible, with this, if the app is programmed for it, it will utilize the GPU's if its there

[Kanavit]

kanavit, what are you smoking? people have been using gpu's to massively accelerate certain suitable tasks for years now, and as the shader models become more general purpose (ie sm3 and especially 4) a lot more useful tasks can be accelerated. Now ATI is (I assume) going to expose more of the low level hardware functions to be even MORE useful, so even MORE tasks will be able to be accelerated. Go to gpgpu.org and have a read, stop just posting silly comments
K, it's just 'stream' sounds like steam to me. but to each their own. lol:slapass: nvidia probably has their own marketing team working on their own SLi memory accelerator too. but i hope for homeland security sake, you are right.:)

[turtle]

F@H already has closed testing on the x1900 GPUs, and plans to release a public beta seomtime soon:stick:

Soon as in 3 days. :)




Getting involved with Folding@home:

To get involved with Stanford's University's Folding@home program and take advantage of the accelerated research capabilities of ATI processors, a Radeon X1900 GT, Radeon X1900 XT, Radeon X1900 XTX, Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition, Radeon X1950 XTX, or Radeon X1950 CrossFire Edition is necessary along with the new Folding@home (graphics processing unit) GPU client and the ATI Catalyst 6.10 driver from ATI. Both the Folding@home GPU client and ATI Catalyst 6.10 driver are expected to be available Monday, October 2nd. For more information, visit http://www.ati.com or http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html.

[perkam]

I've been telling you about this for more than a year... I also remember many people, including fugger, telling me this is BS...I'm afraid you're not in a position to represent fugger's view in this...if anything, the person whose opinion counts most here is Pythagoras, who has led the XS F@H team for 5 yrs+.

Perkam

[Charles Wirth]

LOE, I have no clue what you are talking about.

Link please.

[[XC] leviathan18]

if they release a wcg program to use the x1900xt oh god im gonna be so happy i can use my lappy x1300?

[nn_step]

Haven't we know about the potential since the X1800XT came out

[Revv23]

yeah this is nothing new, they just put a name to it.

What did you guys think Avivo is?

Because videocards are so well suited for parrallelism they can be several times faster then cpu's for thinks like folding and video encoding.

[pythagoras]

There will be a link to a working port of this on Monday.

Regards

John.

[eXceeded]

K, it's just 'stream' sounds like steam to me. but to each their own. lol:slapass: nvidia probably has their own marketing team working on their own SLi memory accelerator too. but i hope for homeland security sake, you are right.:)

I think that all of Nvidia's current lineup are painfully slow in comparison to ATI's X1900+ range, no idea why but from all the news stories it seems that this will be only X1900 at first then the lesser cards will become compatible, albeit slower. I can't wait to see the difference that there is between teh 7900/7950 and the X1900/1950.

[erwinz]

sounds good.. :) two companies are better than one.. :D (ATI and AMD)

[thephenom]

Nothing special about it, people have long been using GPUs to do these computations. Read up on GPGPU if you have the time.

[XSAlliN]

Old News 4 Me - this is what I'm waiting for ;)

PS.It will be special when it's out.

[mursaat]

The link in ATI's homepage:

ATI Products Drive Research to Cure Diseases with Folding@Home
http://www.ati.com/buy/promotions/folding/index.html

Which is interesting is this:
Please note that, currently, only the following products in ATI’s Radeon X1900 Series and Radeon X1950 Series can run the application. We will post information about upcoming products that will support this application in the near future.

Radeon X1900 Series: Radeon X1900 GT, Radeon X1900 XT, Radeon X1900 XTX, Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition
Radeon X1950 Series: Radeon X1900 XTX, Radeon X1900 CrossFire EditionMaybe lower cards can't cope with OS and F@H? I doubt so, at least X1800s should work too :confused:

[thephenom]

The link in ATI's homepage:

ATI Products Drive Research to Cure Diseases with Folding@Home
http://www.ati.com/buy/promotions/folding/index.html

Which is interesting is this:Maybe lower cards can't cope with OS and F@H? I doubt so, at least X1800s should work too :confused:
My guess is it would work, just ATI won't support it as they would rather focus their driver development on their core business instead.