Saturday 5 November 2011

The NVIDIA Blog

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GPU Acceleration Made Easy: Get 2x in 4 Weeks!

Posted: 04 Nov 2011 04:43 PM PDT

I often meet software developers who say they've heard about the awesome power of GPUs but are afraid of venturing into the world of parallel programming. The truth is, it's much easier than you think.

To help ease wary minds, The Portland Group (PGI) has launched the "2x in 4 Weeks. Guaranteed."  Program. It's designed to help developers achieve up to 2x speedups in their applications on GPUs in a month or less of development time.

PGI has been working on what you might call a "magic" compiler, called the "PGI Accelerator." Technically speaking, it's an auto-parallelizing compiler. It enables programmers to realize immediate acceleration of their application code, without requiring them to modify or adapt the underlying code itself. The compiler only requires the programmer to provide simple hints (known as "directives"), about which portion of an application's code needs to be parallelized. The compiler then does the heavy lifting — automatically parallelizing that portion of the code.

This directives-based approach is extremely easy to use. It's also much faster than manually changing the code. And it provides impressive resolution.  In fact, many PGI Accelerator users are seeing 5x to 10x speedups, sometimes in as little as two days.  And the best part is that the updated code can run on CPUs or GPUs, or both.

We are so confident in this directives based approach to parallel programming, that we are guaranteeing your results.  Simply sign up to get a trial copy of the PGI Accelerator compiler and try it out.

We guarantee you will get 2x application speed-up in less than a month of development time. If you don't, PGI will offer four hours of expert consultation to accelerate your code

In less than a day since the program's launch, we have seen nearly 50 developers registered for the program. One developer, working in image processing, submitted his story of how he saw 10x speedup in less than three weeks.  Another developer, working in robotics, saw 2x speedup on his application in less than two weeks.

With PGI Accelerator, these developers were able to focus on results, without spending months (or years) tweaking their CPU-based code, only to realize minimal performance increases.

So, give it a try and do come back and tell us your story!  We'll post all the submitted stories in a few weeks so stay tuned.

Grow Your Mo For Cancer Awareness

Posted: 04 Nov 2011 01:49 PM PDT

More than 100 NVIDIA employees in the U.S., UK and Australia this month are growing one for cancer awareness – growing a moustache, that is. They are supporting an initiative called Movember, and we challenge you to grow one for the cause, too.

Keoki showing off his Mo during
Movember 2010.

We first learned of the Movember initiative last year, when it became clear that a group of normally clean-shaven marketing folks were sprouting interesting-looking facial hair above their lips. Curiosity won out, and that's when we came to know about this very clever organization, which raises awareness about prostate and testicular cancers by turning mens' faces into conversation pieces about the cause. Funds raised through Movember go to Livestrong and Prostate Cancer Foundation to fund research, survivorship and awareness programs.

How does it work? Sign up on the Movember site and grow a moustache during the month of November. To be a real Mo, you'll need to shave any facial hair you might already have. And if you join Team NVIDIA and you raise the most funds, you'll win a stylish Team NVIDIA t-shirt.

NVIDIA employee Keoki Young started the Mo craze at NVIDIA last year, and is leading the charge again this year alongside NVIDIA co-founder Chris Malachowsky. Listen to Keoki talk about his interest in the Movember cause and watch some brave members of Team NVIDIA shave off their beards and moustaches on "Movember 1st" in preparation for a month of Mo growing:


So far, our employees are off to a good fundraising start, having collected $8,500 in just the first couple days.

So, do you want to be a Mo Bro alongside our adventurous NVIDIA team? Sign up on the Team NVIDIA Fans (click Join My Team) page and start growing your own Mo. Snap a few pics of your new moustache during the month to keep us up to date on your status.

NVIDIA co-founder Chris Malachowsky shaved off the moustache and
beard he had for 10+ years to get a fresh start for Movember.

Since the launch of the NVIDIA Foundation's Compute the Cure initiative last fall, several hundred employees have participated in cancer education info sessions and activities like Movember aimed at fighting cancer by participating in awareness and prevention initiatives. We look forward to expanding these initiatives to include NVIDIA fans in the hopes that our combined efforts can increase the health and longevity of our friends and families.

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