NVIDIA's Fermi: Architected for Tesla, 3 Billion Transistors in 2010
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 30, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Efficiency Gets Another Boon: Parallel Kernel Support
In GPU programming, a kernel is the function or small program running across the GPU hardware. Kernels are parallel in nature and perform the same task(s) on a very large dataset.
Typically, companies like NVIDIA don't disclose their hardware limitations until a developer bumps into one of them. In GT200/G80, the entire chip could only be working on one kernel at a time.
When dealing with graphics this isn't usually a problem. There are millions of pixels to render. The problem is wider than the machine. But as you start to do more general purpose computing, not all kernels are going to be wide enough to fill the entire machine. If a single kernel couldn't fill every SM with threads/instructions, then those SMs just went idle. That's bad.
GT200 (left) vs. Fermi (right)
Fermi, once again, fixes this. Fermi's global dispatch logic can now issue multiple kernels in parallel to the entire system. At more than twice the size of GT200, the likelihood of idle SMs went up tremendously. NVIDIA needs to be able to dispatch multiple kernels in parallel to keep Fermi fed.
Application switch time (moving between GPU and CUDA mode) is also much faster on Fermi. NVIDIA says the transition is now 10x faster than GT200, and fast enough to be performed multiple times within a single frame. This is very important for implementing more elaborate GPU accelerated physics (or PhysX, great ;)…).
The connections to the outside world have also been improved. Fermi now supports parallel transfers to/from the CPU. Previously CPU->GPU and GPU->CPU transfers had to happen serially.
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SiliconDoc - Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - link
Nice rebuttal to page 2: " Another kind of LAUNCH "--
write it down, nvidia launched today....(according to lunatic lying red roosters)
tamalero - Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - link
weird.. they still said its "coming soon", I dont see any GF300 firm chips.when ATI said "we present the 5870" they were already on newegg.com
Silicon, let's face it, you're the biggest pro-nvidia troll I've ever seen.
SiliconDoc - Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - link
You are also the person that went into a tirade about nvidia not replacing laptop gpu's with the faulty substrate and instead puttig on a heftier fan.You waxed on about how much you hate nvidia, and how they harmed the children (you claimed to be a teacher of some sort) then you screeched about nvidia reps, wished violence upon them, and claimed you'd love to show them how to do their jobs correctly.
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That's YOU tamalero.
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Now it's pretty amazing I tell the simple plain truth, you deny it a week late, lying for ati, have you public hate and rage on this board for nvidia, and yet claim it is I that is a fanboy.
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One Q, has your raging hatred for nvidia receded, or does lying about the 5870 release give you a sense of vengeful pleasure ?
tamalero - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
what truth?you're just inventing random crap your brain somehow imagines in illusions.
and what the hell are you talking about?
I never claimed to be a "teacher", wished violence? what the hell are you smoking?
harmed the children.. jesuchrist... are you on some sort of scientologist brainwashing group ?
SiliconDoc - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
Since you have lied, I will get the link and your quotes.SiliconDoc - Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - link
no they wre not already on newegg - listed and greyed out- the first one available in a trickle -and only today have those listed appeared available, before that it was on for a few seconds, card gone - all GREYED OUT again.---
Sept. 23rd was launch, this is 7 days later.
They were a WEEK of paper. (no one can fairly count a sickly 1,2 or half dozen trickle)
tamalero - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
they were grey, because they sold out, note..., there were on amazon and tigerdirect.com as well. I woudlnt be surprised if newwave and other sites had the 5870 as well.you're just a person with mental problems who cant really accept anything outside your tiny world.
SiliconDoc - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
TigerDirect was pre-order, as well as Amazon was reserve - you just haven't got clue one.fikimiki - Friday, October 2, 2009 - link
In Poland, (it is Europe cause you don't know for sure)it is available in shops.
Also you can grab one from newegg.com
bobvodka - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - link
I woke up on HD5870 launch day.I logged onto a website in the UK.
I ordered an HD5870.
It shipped the same day.
I had it the next day and have been enjoying it ever since.
Looks like a non-paper launch to me.