Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:01:13 +0000 From: Alexander Best <arundel@freebsd.org> To: =?iso-8859-15?Q?C=2E_Bergstr=F6m?= <cbergstrom@pathscale.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: gpu support for modern systems Message-ID: <20110625110113.GA89867@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <4E05BEC5.9000500@pathscale.com> References: <20110622234336.GA94654@freebsd.org> <BANLkTim=dgsCHAJAzBvxkpYjTFJA7Rt7GA@mail.gmail.com> <20110625104509.GA87358@freebsd.org> <4E05BEC5.9000500@pathscale.com>
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On Sat Jun 25 11, "C. Bergström" wrote: > On 06/25/11 05:45 PM, Alexander Best wrote: > >On Thu Jun 23 11, Christopher Bergström wrote: > >>On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 6:43 AM, Alexander Best<arundel@freebsd.org> > >>wrote: > >>>hi there, > >>> > >>>modern systems with their suffisticated gpus provide quite a potential > >>>for > >>>moving some of the workload from cpu to gpu. for certain stuff gpus are > >>>much > >>>faster than cpus, like number crunching or encoding/decoding multimedia > >>>contents. > >>> > >>>anybody who is using mplayer(1) in combination with nvidia cards and > >>>vdpau has > >>>probably experienced how much faster and less cpu intensive things can > >>>work out > >>>when decoding HD video stuff e.g. > >>> > >>>since opencl/cuda isn't available under freebsd, it doesn't seem > >>>possible to > >>>somehow hook the nvidia gpu into the every day freebsd workload that > >>>easily. > >>PathScale has HMPP and partial CUDA support on FreeBSD now. Some > >>caveats to this > >> > >>1) Non-free (We could possibly make the tools free for FreeBSD > >>community, but I'd have to get approval for it) > >>2) CUDA support isn't complete (Basic core is there and HMPP C/Fortran > >>works) > >>3) Tesla 20xx series only > >> > >>We offer real support for FreeBSD and it's not using any linux emulator > >>hacks. > >> > >>Let me know if anyone is interested. (If we get enough positive > >>feedback I'll pursue some resolution to #1) > >i'd really love to see this stuff being made available to the community. i > >think this could pose a huge advantage to all kinds of audiences: home > >users, > >servers people, etc. > > > >basically every modern computer comes with a gpu that performs much better > >at > >certain tasks than the installed CPU. not making use of the gpu is a huge > >waste > >of ressources. i think microsoft had a video on their channel 9 platform > >demonstrating the huge advantages that one can get when offloading certain > >tasks onto the gpu. just think of gimp being able to perform 10 times > >faster! > > > >..or being able to compile world 10 times faster...or...or... ;) > You missed the part where I said it's *Tesla* only. This is really only > useful for HPC/life sciences/financial/server market. > > This isn't to say we're not excited about it, but I'm still unsure who > if anyone is using FreeBSD in those areas. ...but is the CUDA api for tesla so much different than the CUDA geforce api?
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