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Inner Geek: Old Guys Rule Posted: 04 Aug 2010 10:00 AM PDT The other day in the office we were talking about our greatest gaming moments (GGMs), those times when you are in the zone and playing really great. I love to game, I am just not as great as some of the other guys around the office. As a result, my GGMs are few and far between. Sadly for me, they are also fleeting. One of my GGMs happened at the GeForce LAN 3 back in 2006. NVIDIA loves to throw big launch events for significant product releases, and GeForce LANs are my favorite part of the events. We get the chance to connect with and give back to our biggest supporters, gamers, with these LAN parties.  We bring in pizza, soft drinks, give away a bunch of free stuff and deliver a rockin' good time. At any GeForce LAN we always have a group of systems set up for folks that did not bring PCs, and they make for some 'walk-up' LAN fun. This was the site of my short but sweet GGM. The game was Quake 4. I played a pretty good round, in my usual middle-of-the-pack style. But then it happened. I got HOT, and it came mostly at the expense of 'Player5.'  Armed with my trusty rocket launcher, I took out three guys that were doing battle with each other, all in one shot. I whipped around quickly and took out Player5 approaching me from behind. Then I came around a corner and Player5 re-spawned right in front of me. Spawn kill. I shot another guy as he leaped from platform to platform, for a mid-air kill. I popped Player5 again, steps before he got to a health pack. Then I blindly shot a rocket at an approaching corner and hit Player5 as he was coming around the corner in the opposite direction. Finally, I approached the biggest room on the map, and who was waiting there, but Player5. (Queue the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). I dodged, darted and caught him in the feet with a rocket blast to end the game! There I was, on an amazing killing spree and alone at the top of the scoring list! I was jazzed. Then some kid on the other end of the table looked over at his buddy on the opposite side of the table and said, "Hey, were you Player2". His friend flatly replied, "No, I think it was that old guy down there." Ouch. Gamers giveth, and gamers taketh away. But for a few minutes in Quake 4, old guys ruled!

David Kirk's Live Chat Encore - Your Questions Answered Posted: 03 Aug 2010 04:26 PM PDT If you had a chance to read or take part in our live chat with David Kirk, then you likely saw all the great questions we received. In fact, there were so many David didn't have time to answer all of them during the one-hour chat. Not to worry, though, we were able to circle back with David and get his take on a few more of your questions. You can read his responses below. Stay tuned to the blog for updates on when the next GPU Technology Conference (GTC) live chat will take place. And, just as a reminder, GTC is just around the corner so register now to benefit from the early-bird rates. Question from lawless: Do you think processor architectures like this are going to replace traditional CPU's? David Kirk: I think what you'll see are more and more systems designed to use the GPU for parallel processing, while continuing to use a CPU type processor to run the operating system and manage basic serial functionality. This is a view shared by many in the high performance computing space, such as Jack Dongarra at the University of Tennessee who has been quoted as saying that future computing architectures will be hybrid systems with parallel-core GPUs working in tandem with multi-core CPUs. Question from Benjamin: Recently a new book called CUDA by Example was launched, could you talk about this book and how it could be a complement of your book? David Kirk: I see them as complementary. The book I wrote with Dr. Hwu, Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach, is designed for use in the classroom and as a reference for computing professionals. The new CUDA by Example book provides a great self-paced introduction to parallel programming, and CUDA API information using source code examples that help programmers who are just getting started learn by implementing examples for each concept covered in the book. So, both books can be effectively used together, or separately. Question from Allan: The question is whether NVIDIA sees their primary role as being the caretaker of the "PTX" opcodes and the CUDA platform with the market building on these technologies or will NVIDIA consider developing and promoting additional new GPU-leveraging software? David Kirk: NVIDIA is already investing in software solutions that leverage the general-purpose GPU computing capabilities of GPUs. Examples include our suite of application acceleration engines or "AXEs" available as well as several interesting solutions from our mental images division. More at: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/axe.html and http://www.mentalimages.com/products.html

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