DH Article: ATI "Stream Computing"

***Zardon*** · Oct 2, 2006, 11:41 AM

Read the article here
____________________

Driver Heaven was recently in San Francisco for an event on ATI's Stream Computing Technology. There were many guest speakers including ATI head honcho Dave Orton.

"Dave Orton kicked things off with an overview of the whole concept, and he put forward quite a realistic outlook on what it can and can not do. Far from being the best thing for every task out there, Orton started out saying how it may or may not apply to your workload. If the problem you have will map to a GPU, you can see speedups from 10x to 40x, a massive increase. Doing the same math purely on a CPU would take a very expensive computer."

bananaman · Oct 2, 2006, 12:43 PM

am goign to download the beta today, is there a DH folding team?

***Zardon*** · Oct 2, 2006, 01:39 PM

Im not really sure there is a demand for it ...

bananaman · Oct 2, 2006, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

Im not really sure there is a demand for it ...

was just wondering as was going to pledge my work here before i went elsewhere

kelston · Oct 2, 2006, 04:09 PM

Wonder if this really is the way to go. After all, the most recent issue was the sheer power demand of video cards to the point of suggesting next gen cards would be externally housed. Not to mention the heat generation of a video card. Plus, are vpu/gpus designed to handle the load as often as Stream Computing would demand?

*CATALYST maker* · Oct 2, 2006, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bananaman

was just wondering as was going to pledge my work here before i went elsewhere

hey feel free to join ATI's team, we would love your help, and anyone else's.
Team 51394
come aboard

bananaman · Oct 3, 2006, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CATALYST maker

hey feel free to join ATI's team, we would love your help, and anyone else's.
Team 51394
come aboard

didn't get a chance to get it up and running last night but I will take up your offer

Al_Vampyre · Oct 3, 2006, 04:27 AM

Very interesting, I was immediately thinking video encoding work, still takes forever even on an Opteron running at 2.5Ghz!!

Judas · Oct 3, 2006, 08:20 PM

Is there an x64 variation of the driver going to be available?

I'm actually hopeing for more then just folding though very soon if possible.

BTW, does this take advantage of crossfire?

ET3D · Oct 8, 2006, 04:00 AM

Sorry I'm late to the party.

Anyway, the problem with stream computing is simply that it's uncomfortable to program. If ATI provided an API specifically for this, something which doesn't include all of Direct3D's or OpenGL's burden (both in semantics and CPU overhead), then it could make things simpler. DX10 will improve things, though, so it may not be worth for ATI to go for their own API yet.

Though I suspect that this does have something to do with AMD pushing towards a new definition that will allow CPUs to include such functionality without having to have the other 3D stuff that goes with it (texture sampling, ...).

Oct 2, 2006, 11:41 AM	#1
*Zardon* enchanted Join Date: May 2002 Location: Driverheaven Posts: 32,256 Rep Power: 3150	DH Article: ATI Stream Computing Read the article here ____________________ Driver Heaven was recently in San Francisco for an event on ATI's Stream Computing Technology. There were many guest speakers including ATI head honcho Dave Orton. "Dave Orton kicked things off with an overview of the whole concept, and he put forward quite a realistic outlook on what it can and can not do. Far from being the best thing for every task out there, Orton started out saying how it may or may not apply to your workload. If the problem you have will map to a GPU, you can see speedups from 10x to 40x, a massive increase. Doing the same math purely on a CPU would take a very expensive computer."

Oct 2, 2006, 12:43 PM	#2
bananaman banana muncher Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: London Posts: 1,255 Rep Power: 46	am goign to download the beta today, is there a DH folding team? __________________

Oct 2, 2006, 04:09 PM	#5
kelston DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: May 2003 Location: Bayside, NY USA Posts: 340 Rep Power: 0	Wonder if this really is the way to go. After all, the most recent issue was the sheer power demand of video cards to the point of suggesting next gen cards would be externally housed. Not to mention the heat generation of a video card. Plus, are vpu/gpus designed to handle the load as often as Stream Computing would demand? __________________ Pants are a dangerous foe!

Oct 3, 2006, 04:27 AM	#8
Al_Vampyre DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Scotland Posts: 1,512 Rep Power: 55 System Specs	Very interesting, I was immediately thinking video encoding work, still takes forever even on an Opteron running at 2.5Ghz!! __________________ "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad" - Brian O'Driscoll - Ireland Rugby Team 2009 Grand Slam winning Captain.

Oct 2, 2006, 01:39 PM	#3
*Zardon* enchanted Join Date: May 2002 Location: Driverheaven Posts: 32,256 Rep Power: 3150	Im not really sure there is a demand for it ...

Oct 8, 2006, 04:00 AM	#10
ET3D Hopeless Dreamer Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Dreamland, near the pool of infinite graphics cards Posts: 2,524 Rep Power: 59 System Specs	Sorry I'm late to the party. Anyway, the problem with stream computing is simply that it's uncomfortable to program. If ATI provided an API specifically for this, something which doesn't include all of Direct3D's or OpenGL's burden (both in semantics and CPU overhead), then it could make things simpler. DX10 will improve things, though, so it may not be worth for ATI to go for their own API yet. Though I suspect that this does have something to do with AMD pushing towards a new definition that will allow CPUs to include such functionality without having to have the other 3D stuff that goes with it (texture sampling, ...).