back to article Intel: 3D Web to save HPC

Intel CTO Justin Rattner has a stark warning for the HPC community: Come up with a killer application or the business will stagnate. As the person who spearheaded the creation of the ASCI Red massively parallel system for the US Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories - the first machine to break through the 1 …

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  1. Eddie Edwards
    Thumb Down

    Sucky demo code

    "Sparse matrix math ... on that test, a Larrabee chip that was not overclocked was able to do between 7.9 and 8.1 gigaflops, depending on the test and the size of the matrices."

    Considering it could do 800 GFLOPS on another test, that's some pretty crap sparse matrix code.

  2. Maria Korolov

    A couple of corrections

    Christa Lopes created the hypergrid integration part for OpenSim, not OpenSim itself. OpenSim is a open source project, similar to Apache, that allows people to create their own virtual worlds very similar to Second Life. (In fact, you can use the same browsers to access both.)

    OpenSim is already up and running -- dozens of public world now use the technology, including OSGrid, ReactionGrid, ScienceSim, FrancoGrid, and many others. In addition, there are hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of smaller grids run by schools, companies, and individuals.

    Anyone can download and install the software and run a virtual world on their computer, and anyone else can teleport in (if they know the hypergrid address). If you want someone else to host it for you, prices start at just $15 per region per month (compared to $300 for the same region from Second Life).

    An enterprise version of OpenSim, integrated with enterprise systems, has been available from IBM since the summer -- it's called Lotus Sametime 3D.

    -- Maria Korolov

    Editor, Hypergrid Business

    (http://www.hypergridbusiness.com)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    People, people, people, ... , people

    Sometimes I do despair.

    Something like the rag trade has diverse phenomena at work.

    There is the abstract, cerebral aspect of mm accuracy and cutting finesse to avoid wastage (true I sense you think?)

    Then there is the tactile, feel of fabric on skin while walking along runway rush of excitement with music and lights sort of thing.

    Q: So where does IT fit in?

    A: send me your muni and I will tell you?

  4. Robert Hill
    Pint

    Remember, I said this...

    in the El Reg HPC poll - "The rise of 3D on laptops and desktop displays will give rise to a huge increase in HPC use..." or some such twaddle in my poll summary. Nice to see that I'm not the only one that has that vision...(ironically, I typed that last word as "fixation" and had to edit. Possibly a Freudian slip..).

    So come on all you masses, go buy an Asus laptop with 3D or a Zalman display with 3D...HPC needs the business!

  5. Joe Cooper
    Flame

    Is this serious?

    3D web? I thought people got tired of bringing this up over ten years ago. Does anyone remember VRML?

    I can't really even go into why its a dumb & superfluous idea without feeling like I'm spraying a straw man with napalm.

    Meanwhile, there are already 3D virtual worlds online built for fantasy purposes.

    It doesn't make shopping or working easier, but its great if you want to pretend you own a spaceship.

  6. BlueGreen

    so the peak of human endeavor

    harnessing the most advanced technology, unbelievable computation potential. To sell trash. Utter fucking trash. I guess your kids aren't going hungry Mr Rattner. And well done for reporting this without a trace of irony Mr Morgan.

  7. mafoo
    Pint

    this sounds an awful lot like...

    SAD LIFE!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!]

    Give me a iPint at the Black Sun when they do tho.

  8. BlueGreen

    Oh bollocks

    Major, major apologies to the author. I missed your last line.

    Post in haste, repent at leisure. Ouch

  9. mwk

    @is this serious

    It'll be serious once I exploit this "metaverse" to upload a deadly linguistic virus into the users brains.

  10. Chris Miller
    Thumb Up

    Yes, I remember VRML

    and I agree with Mr Cooper. I also remember a virtual 3D interface (mid-90s??) for HP-OpenView that would allow you to 'fly' through a simulation of your machine room* to see a 3D representation of your misbehaving server instead of a green 2D icon turning red. At the time, the basic HP-OV already needed a £10,000 Sun workstation to run it - the idea of doubling the cost for no identifiable benefit didn't catch on for some reason.

    * Similar to the control software depicted in 'Jurassic Park' - "It's a Unix system! I know this!".

  11. Robert Hill
    Go

    Same El Reg page as..

    the intro to Muvizu by Andrew - coincidence or not?

    I just spent way too much time fooling around with Muvizu, and while it is very basic, the actuality of having a "Garageband" for 3D animation that does not take months to learn is VERY, VERY cool. It is very, very easy to use (for a 3D tool), the motion controls are very intuitive, the interface is clear and simple (unlike say, Blender). It is in short a 3D tool for the masses, and I can see both community use for fun, but also business uses (simple cartoons for internal PR, illustrating business "scenarios" such as customer service interactions, etc.). It will not replace PowerPoint, because it doesn't look serious enough nor is it "dry" enough - but it can definately be useful to illustrate points, especially around behaviour and personal interactions, and it can be useful to show viewpoints, and future business states (i.e., illustrating business change programmes).

    Get people started on this, and soon enough you will find people that want deskside clusters and hybird CPU/GPUs to make this stuff run faster and with more realism...

  12. Pinky's Brain

    80 cores? Larrabee?

    This can't be right ... a 5x16 Larrabee running at 400 MHz is extremely unlikely. This sounds far more like the Terascale chip from 2 years ago. If Rattner really called this Larrabee and really said it had 80 cores then there's a major story here ...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No need to wait for Larabee

    http://www.nvidia.com/object/realityserver.html

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