August 2015 – On the graphics visualization front, Intel was discussion an adaption to the new generation of processors that is using CPU based processing as an alternative to GPU and dedicated memory offload. Even though the new processors include both CPUs and GPUs in the same chip, and they share a common bus, there are still more CPU rather than GPU resources available. Open software such as OpenCL, OpenGL and Opwn SWR support both CPUs and GPUs from a common code set, and the new SDVis applications can be optimized for this platform. Current generations of Intel® CPUs are highly complex, parallel processors that incorporate multiple processor cores, with multiple threads per core and single instruction multiple data (SIMD) execution units per core.
While there are new specific multicore solutions (i.e. DX12) that finally address the multi-core and multi-core type (CPU and GPU), it does not have the platform support to include DSPs and specialty processors like the open source development environments. OpenSWR is a software rasterizer and OSPRay is a software ray tracer that are run on multiple CPUs. The performance for these software modules with OpenSWR and an Intel Xeon E5-2699 v3 processor board with 2 x 18 cores at 2.3GHz ranges from 0.47x to 0.75x the runtime required vs an Nvida GeForce GTX Titan X with 12GB RAM.
The advantages of software defined visualization include:
- Large memory allows large models – able to visualize data sets beyond the reach of graphics cards
- Scalability - Runs on anything from a notebook to the largest supercomputers
- Compatibility – Software approach frees users from choosing a particular version of graphics controller; no need to replace existing machines
- Sustainability – Solution can be used for years to come without risk of hardware obsolescence
- Performance – By using our Software Defined Visualization libraries, software visualization takes full advantage of modern, parallel features of multi-core and many-core processors
Further information can be found at the IDF San Francisco event under session INFS011 – SF15-INFS011-102.