A quick summary of the latest key elements of the CUDA 4.0 include:

• Nvidia GPUDirect 2.0 Technology — offers support for peer-to-peer communication between GPUs within a single server or workstation. This enables easier and faster multi-GPU programming and application performance
• Unified Virtual Addressing (UVA) — provides a single merged-memory address space for the main system memory and the GPU memories, enabling quicker and easier parallel programming
• Thrust C++ Template Performance Primitives Libraries — provides a collection of powerful open source C++ parallel algorithms and data structures that ease programming for C++ developers. With Thrust, routines such as parallel sorting are 5x to 100x faster

01 - Nvidia's CUDA website is showcasing CUDA 4.0's release.

The new Mac OS X support includes new features in CUDA-GDB. A release candidate for CUDA Toolkit 4.0 will be available free of  charge beginning March 4, 2011. You can enroll in the CUDA developer program here: www.nvidia.com/paralleldeveloper

To learn more about CUDA go here.

AutoDesSys will be at the American Institute of Architects National Convention next month, June 10-12, in booth #2375. The company has recently updated Bonzai 3D to version 2.1 which includes an updated SketchUp 7 importer/exporter. Additionally, the famous developer of formZ has also introduced OpenClip technology for PowerCADD users who use formZ and Bonzai 3D. You can read that full report here.

Nvidia PhysX and CUDA News

The new Autodesk Softimage 2011 product includes the integration of two key Nvidia technologies: Nvidia PhysX and Nvidia CUDA. Recently Architosh reported on the first CUDA-based rendering GPU-driven ray tracer engine. CUDA is similar to OpenCL utilizing language that takes advantage of computational resources on graphics processing units (GPUs). The latest Softimage 2011 enables real-time simulations using Nvidia PhysX, a powerful physics application programming interface (API) or “engine” accelerated by Nvidia’s Quadro graphics cards.

T-Splines updated to version 2.3

T-Splines for Rhino 2.3 has been released this month. T-Splines for Rhino 2.3 features integration with two other products based on the Rhino platform, Grasshopper and Orca3D. Users of Grasshopper, a generative modeling program based on Rhino, can use free-form T-Spline shapes as the basis of Grasshopper-generated models. Similar integration with Orca3D, a marine architecture oriented plugin for Rhino means that naval architects can cut sections through T-Spline hulls.

“T-Splines is of the greatest value to the busiest designers, because it allows them to iterate more quickly between designs and converge on the desired shape,” said Matt Sederberg, CEO of T-Splines. To learn more visit them online here.

Octane Render is a true, un-biased ray tracer that runs completely on the GPU, delivering performance over traditional CPU-based ray tracers up to and beyond 10x performance. It doesn’t use biased methods to approximate results.

Octane Render is fully GPU-based, fully interactive, and features physically based materials and lighting. It also features a realistic camera model supporting real-time Depth of Field and as mentioned above uses un-biased spectral algorithms.

New Octane Render by Refractive Software - Mac, Windows and Linux CUDA -based Multi-GPU Ray Tracer.

Octane Render requires a CUDA capable video card (GPU) and is based on a custom CUDA implementation. It can run on older Nvidia 8000 series and up consumer video cards. OpenCL is planned to be supported in the future.

At this time on the 32-bit version is supported on the Mac due to Nvidia CUDA toolkit limations for Mac OS X. It only runs on Intel-based Macs and requires 10.5 or 10.6. You can download a demo version here.

You can learn more here: http://www.refractivesoftware.com/

Google finally announced that Mac users can enjoy the new Google Earth Browser plugin for both Safari and Firefox 3.0 and later. This is not the same as Google Earth for Mac, the application. That has been available for eons. Back in May 2008 Google released Earth Plugin for browsers on Windows which enables much of what Google Earth Application does but inside your browser. Then in October Google announced the plugin/app for the iPhone — making it the first mobile device to run Google Earth. 

Now Google Earth Plugin for Safari/Firefox Mac will enable the fundamental services of a navigable 3D globe with direct tie-in to website links that put locations right on the 3D earth. You can get the plugin here.

Vectorworks 2009 Localized Versions Available Now in Europe

Nemetschek North America has announced the availability of localized versions of the entire Vectorworks 2009 product line for European markets. European distributors have tailed Vectorworks 2009 products to meet the specific needs of their local marketplaces in addition to native language support. Versions are now available in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands will be releasing versions in the next few weeks. 

Nvidia’s CUDA Cleans Up at Supercomputing Awards

At the Supercomputing (SC) Convention this year Nvidia in conjunction with with university researchers won several awards for their achievements in GPU computation. Tesla GPUs and CUDA architecture were recognized in multiple categories, indexing the technology as making a real and significant impact in the high-performance computing (HPC) industry. 

Nvidia’s CUDA technology is very similar to Apple’s OpenCL parallel computing technology that has become a ratified industry standard managed by the Khronos Group. There are multiple parallels and commonalities between CUDA and OpenCL, which Nvidia has endorsed. 

Texturefly.com – Online Depot for architectural entourage

Texturefly.com is a new online store for textures to be used in 3D rendering applications. Trees, people, plants and backgrounds are available. The entourage is 2D. 

http://www.texturefly.com/

The Standard has a good article here. Of all the companies it mentions that Apple should buy the one I would agree makes the best sense is Nvidia. The graphics chip maker could be bought six times over with Apple’s available cash. Once more, Nvidia has been delivering superb new GPU and related technologies for the past few years, its CUDA architecture is of particular note. With Nvidia in Apple’s hands the geniuses within its PA Semi acquisition and the geniuses within Nvidia could do magical things together. It’s truly exciting to think about!

But There’s More…

I’ve been writing about specific acquisitions this past year that make sense strategically for protecting and growing Apple’s “Creatives” market. Specifically I’ve put out the notion that Apple should possibly buy Nemetschek AG of Germany as a solid AEC industry play. I’ve also written about a Gehry Technolgies buy. Both are interesting for a variety of reasons. And both would excite the AEC (architecture/engineering/construction) market and its millions of users.

So in light of that it’s interesting to see somebody outside of the CAD press discuss the idea that Apple should buy Autodesk. But that is just what David Morgenstern of ZDNet did today. Yes…it seems Apple’s big cash numbers have gotten the speculation engines oh-running. I can hear them churning across the blogosphere. The CAD blogs and press will no doubt pick up on this. It is always interesting when the general press catches up to what some of us in the CAD press have been saying.

Personally I’m not sure buying Autodesk would be a brilliant move for Apple. They would pay a premium for some de-facto industry standard apps that are in truth fairly mediocre at best. In time such apps will die-out. On the other hand, Morgenstern is correct is stating that  Apple’s approach to its customers is similar to Apple’s. This was the point I was making earlier in the year.

Would an Apple-Autodesk or Apple-Nvidia acquisition make sense to you? Login and share you thoughts below.

The Constructech Vision Award has been given to ArchiCAD-based Holden Construction for its use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) software in a large construction project. Holden won the award for its Aquarium Hilton Garden Inn in Atlanta, Georgia. The project demonstrated how a general contractor can use BIM technology to enhance teamwork, build faster, avoid costly change order and diminish the number of field conflicts.

Graphisoft, now a subsidiary of German Nemetschek AG, has recently launched ArchiCAD 12 and introduced the world’s first BIM with multiprocessing support. To learn more about ArchiCAD 12 go here.

Executive Suite Makes Some Changes at Nemetschek North America

Nemetschek North America, the makers of VectorWorks, has announced that Dr. Biplab Sarkar will now be its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Dr. Sarkar has been involved with the company for eight years spearheading its advanced 3D modeling technology and came to N.A. from Parametric Technologies.

Eight years ago when Architosh reported this news there was some hope that Dr. Sarkar’s ProE background would foster advanced MCAD on the Mac or perhaps create opportunities for ProE file compatibility between VectorWorks and ProE.

Former CTO Paul Pharr will now become the company’s new Chief Information Officer (CIO) responsible for information management systems and web applications and delivery technologies. These changes are aimed at better positioning the company’s resources.

Nvidia Achieves Top Spot in Distributed Computing Application

Nvidia GPUs are powering over 1 petaflop of processing power to Stanford University’s Folding@Home distributed computing application as of last week, reports the University. Active Nvidia GPUs deliver over 1.25 petaflops or 42% of the total processing power of the application which seeks to understand how proteins affect the human body.

The key to this story however is that Nvidia is achieving this computation contribution via just 11,370 total active processors. In comparison 208,268 CPUs running Windows were active, contributing just 6% of processing power to the project.

Nvidia’s GPUs are delivered in is Nvidia CUDA architecture appliances. “As these statistics show, the impact of NVIDIA GPUs on protein folding simulations has been extraordinary,” said Vijay Pande, associate professor of chemistry, Stanford University and director of the Folding@home project. “Teams that are folding with NVIDIA GPUs are seeing huge boosts to their production and this is helping to accelerate the project significantly.”

To learn more visit this page.

DigitalCAD has a two part series on working with Cinema 4D and ArchiCAD to bring your architectural visions to life. There are several levels of screen shots and some QuickTime videos in this short tutorial on working with these two applications together. Go here.

Apple and Nvidia

This blog post has a very credible and interesting comment regarding the Mac platform and Nvidia as the candidate for providing new motherboard designs which venture away from the limitations of Intel boards while maintaining full compatibility with Intel processors. Nvidia is an Intel chipset licensee and has been developing its first nForce mainboard chipset for Intel-based notebooks, currently code named MCP79.

The architecture would support Intel’s latest announced Core 2 processors as well as a 1,066MHz system bus and the option of DDR3 memory. More importantly, the MCP79 consolidates onboard graphics and memory controllers onto a single piece of silicon, thereby shrinking the space needed for these internals — always a bonus for Apple’s ambitious “slim-design” plans.

Certain models of the chip will also use workstation-level Quadro integrated video and support for SLI technology to support dual discrete video chips. Mac users have been waiting for Apple to support SLI and Apple has recently implemented drivers for Nvidia’s CUDA general purpose compute technology. With Snow Leopard and OpenCL a more industry-standards based approach will win out over CUDA specifically.

The article concludes that the secrecy around MCP79 is unusual for Nvidia and a possible sign of the shroud Apple typically puts over its future product plans. It is possible an Apple-related announcement at NVISION may come forward.

VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2

The latest version of Fusion 2, the virtualization program from VMware adds the ability for Intel-based Macs to run both x86 and x86-64-bit operating systems as “guest” operating systems under Mac OS X as the host operating system, simultaneously. This includes not just 64-bit Windows but Linux, NetWare and Solaris.

Fusion’s Unity view creates a seamless desktop environment between Windows XP and Mac OS X applications.

For power users Fusion 2 beta 2 allows users to assign multiple CPUs to one virtual machine to gain additional performance for CPU-intensive work and the system has improved 3D graphics support. You can test drive Fusion beta 2 for free here.

In Brief: Luxology this week announced the immediate availability of“MP3 Player: Rapid Visualization and Prototyping”, a new video album that demonstrates how modo 302 can be used to complement and enhance the product design process. This training video series focuses on product design and rapid prototyping using modo 302’s subdivision surfaces tools. For more information see this web page.

DAZ 3D Elite

DAZ has released the most realistic human models available in the new DAZ 3D’s Victoria 4 Elite. Utilizing what it calls “unprecedented technology” the new series of add-on morphs and textures for the fourth generation of Millennium Figure, Victoria, create lip creases, individual eyelashes and visible pores making Victoria look more realistic than ever.

“DAZ 3D has always delivered the best 3D content, but we realize that one of the most challenging and time consuming tasks 3D artists face is creating and obtaining believable texture maps and body morphs – and that’s where Victoria 4 Elite comes in,” said DAZ 3D president, Dan Farr.

New Victoria 4 Elite sample model.

“We have taken this challenge head-on, investing in high-end professional solutions to create a state-of-the-art Human Data Acquisition Center (H.D.A.C) which provides the most accurate 3D human forms and textures only available through the DAZ 3D Elite series.”

HDAC in Victoria 4 Elite allows users to experience professional-quality features such as:

• Elite Skin Textures – All skin texture photo-references use proprietary lighting to ensure even lighting with minimal shadowing for the most consistent and reliable reference data.
• Elite Body Shapes – Utilizing several different scanners, the Elite line of Body Shapes offers the most complete set of scan data for new body and joint shapes.
• Elite Life Poses – By resourcing scan data of live model static poses in combination with motion capture data, Life Poses offers natural pose sets, preserving body mass and weight and its effect on joint positioning.

The DAZ 3D Victoria 4 Elite bundle is priced at 74.96.USD. For more information visit the the DAZ 3D website.

NVISION 2008

NVISION is the professional technical conference by Nvidia, makers of some of the world’s leading graphics cards. The event takes place August 25-27 with over 35 technical conference sessions covering a wide range of topics from CUDA, OpenGL, DirectX and other software and graphics items. If you register by the 18th of August you qualify to win a Nvidia Quadro FX high-end graphics board valued at 1199.USD. Click here.

SIGGRAPH 2008

Another conference coming up is SIGGRAPH 2008. The conference runs from August 11-15 while the exhibition floor runs from 12-14. SIGGRAPH is premier conference for 3D professionals across nearly all industries, from engineering and sciences to industrial design and animation entertainment. You can learn more and register here.

What is CUDA?

CUDA, which stands for Computer Unified Device Architecture) is a toolkit in the C language that enables the programming of CUDA-enabled GPU’s by Nvidia. It includes a nvcc C compiler, special libraries (CUDA FFT and BLAS), profiler, gdb debugger for the GPU and the CUDA programming manual. The kit also includes numerous examples of source code to help developers get started with CUDA.

There are several CUDA-enabled GPUs that work on the Macintosh, including the Quadro FX 5600 card and the GeForce 8800 GT, two of the latest cards shipping on the Mac Pro.

CUDA is being used for such things as molecular dynamics simulation, astrophysical simulations and visual molecular dynamics.

For more information visit: www.nvidia.com