Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2011 17:56:05 +0700 From: =?ISO-8859-15?Q?=22C=2E_Bergstr=F6m=22?= <cbergstrom@pathscale.com> To: Alexander Best <arundel@freebsd.org> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: gpu support for modern systems Message-ID: <4E05BEC5.9000500@pathscale.com> In-Reply-To: <20110625104509.GA87358@freebsd.org> References: <20110622234336.GA94654@freebsd.org> <BANLkTim=dgsCHAJAzBvxkpYjTFJA7Rt7GA@mail.gmail.com> <20110625104509.GA87358@freebsd.org>
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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.home | help
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