CUDA: Week in Review
Friday, July 9, 2010, Issue #29 - Newsletter Home
WELCOME
Welcome to "CUDA: Week in Review," an online news summary for the worldwide CUDA and GPU Computing community.
– Contact us at: cuda_week_in_review@nvidia.com
– Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gpucomputing
– See previous issues: http://is.gd/cBXbg
– Register for GPU Technology Conference: http://www.nvidia.com/gtc (code: GMCUDANEWS10)
CUDA SPOTLIGHT
Vivid 3D Ultrasounds with CUDA
This week Siemens Healthcare announced availability of its next-generation 3D/4D ultrasound software which produces realistic, vivid images of a fetus. When we saw Dr. Roee Lazebnik of Siemens demo this at CUDA Day last February, we frankly were amazed by it.

Now that the product (called syngo.fourSight Workplace) is shipping, we contacted Roee, director of product development, for an update. Here's an excerpt from our interview:
NVIDIA: Roee, congratulations on the release. How does this technology take ultrasound to the next level?
Roee: This is the world's first commercially-available product for stereoscopic visualization of ultrasound data. It's a breakthrough because it provides anatomical information that can enable better communication between physicians and patients and aid in pre- and post-natal surgical planning.
NVIDIA: The technology leverages CUDA-based NVIDIA Quadro FX solutions as well as NVIDIA 3D Vision. Why is the 3D functionality important?
Roee: When we interact with volumetric data on a 2D screen, our ability to appreciate anatomical subtleties and depth-based details, such as the curvature of a skeletal feature, is limited. It is much more intuitive to visualize 3D data in stereo.
NVIDIA: The technology is described as "3D/4D." What does that mean?
Roee: 3D involves visualizing a static volumetric image. The term 4D refers to visualizing dynamic anatomy, such as the moving limbs or facial gestures of the fetus.
NVIDIA: In what other ways could this technology be applied in the future?
Roee: In the human body, everything from the beating heart to the abdomen can be visualized in a volume mode, meaning it can be reconstructed and viewed from any orientation. This technology has many exciting potential benefits both in diagnosis and visual communication of findings.
– See CUDA Day demo on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOGLkl9cFPw
– See VizWorld article: http://www.vizworld.com/2010/07/siemens-syngofoursight-obstetrics/
CUDA APPS
Bunkspeed Launches GPU-Accelerated 3D Rendering Software
Bunkspeed, provider of simplified 3D rendering and animation software, has released Bunkspeed SHOT, an interactive 3D application that brings the power of the GPU to creative professionals. The new version, which acts as a "camera" for 3D data, incorporates innovative iray technology from mental images and runs on NVIDIA Quadro, Tesla and GeForce platforms.

Background: Bunkspeed brought interactive ray tracing (a rendering method that simulates light reflections, refractions and shadows) to the market in 2007 but it was limited to the CPU. The new Bunkspeed SHOT leverages CUDA-based GPUs to dramatically accelerate the user´s workflow. Even the most complex scenes render interactively and in real-time. Bunkspeed also enables users to scale up rendering over multiple machines. A new level of performance and realism is now achievable at less than 20% of the cost of the same level on multiple CPUs.

"As a user of the previous generation software from Bunkspeed, I knew the standard set at the time was tough to beat. Bunkspeed SHOT offers breakthrough usability, performance and quality, and is a pleasure to use…. I am rendering at speeds unimagined just a couple of years ago…." - Peter Crowther, UK-based, computer graphic artist and illustrator
– For more info, see www.bunkspeed.com/SHOT and www.mentalimages.com/iray
– See VizWorld article: http://www.vizworld.com/2010/06/bunkspeed-shot-3d-photorealistic-rendering-simplified/
CUDA RECOMMENDED READING
Kudos for CUDA
Author: Dr. Vincent Natoli, President and Founder, Stone Ridge Technology
Publication: HPCwire
Extract:"It's been almost three years since GPU computing broke into the mainstream of HPC with the introduction of NVIDIA's CUDA API in September 2007. Adoption of the technology since then has proceeded at a surprisingly strong and steady pace. Many organizations that began with small pilot projects a year or two ago have moved on to enterprise deployment, and GPU accelerated machines are now represented on the TOP500 list starting at position two." See: http://www.hpcwire.com/features/Kudos-for-CUDA-97889444.html
GPU TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE COUNTDOWN: ELEVEN WEEKS!
GTC Live Chat Series, Presented by Adobe
To hear about some of the topics that will be presented at GTC, check out the GTC Live Chat Series starting Tuesday, July 13 on the NVIDIA blog. Our first guest is the inventor of the Brook project and CUDA - Ian Buck, software director of GPU Computing at NVIDIA. Ian will preview his GTC talk and take questions on the future of CUDA and GPU computing. NVIDIA is pleased to welcome Adobe as the sponsor of the GTC Live Chat Series.
– Log in July 13 at 11 a.m. pacific at: http://blogs.nvidia.com/ntersect/live-chat
– Register for GTC today at: www.nvidia.com/gtc
CUDA DOWNLOADS
CUDA Toolkit
– Download CUDA 3.1 Toolkit: http://bit.ly/aKCENp
– OpenCL v1.1 pre-release drivers and SDK code samples are available to GPU Computing
   registered developers. Log in or apply for an account to download.
CUDA TRAINING
New Webinar from O'Reilly! GPU Supercomputing for Finance
– July 15, 1:30 p.m. pacific
– Learn about GPUs, CUDA and Wall Street
– Presented by Andrew Sheppard
– Sign up here: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/e/1675
GPU Computing Webinars from NVIDIA
– For info on upcoming events, see: www.nvidia.com/webinars
Training from Acceleware
– July 26-30, Cambridge, Mass: www.acceleware.com/jul26cambridge (with Microsoft)
– Aug. 2-6, New York City: www.acceleware.com/aug02newyork (with Microsoft)
– Sept. 13-17, Calgary: www.acceleware.com/sep13calgary
Training from EMPhotonics
– On-site standard and customized training programs:
   http://www.emphotonics.com/services/cuda-training
SagivTech's CUDA Course on Image Processing, Following GTC
SagivTech's new CUDA course will take place Sept. 27-29 in the San Francisco area, following the GPU Technology Conference (http://www.sagivtech.com/36923.html). Other CUDA training courses from SagivTech:
– CUDA course: July 12-14, Ra'anana, Israel
– GPU/Image Processing course: Aug. 2-4, Ra'anana, Israel
– See: http://www.sagivtech.com/24054.html
CUDA and Academia
– Over 350 universities are teaching CUDA and GPU Computing courses around the world.
– The CUDA Center of Excellence Program recognizes universities expanding the frontier
   of parallel computing.
– The CUDA Research Center Program recognizes institutions performing leading-edge
   research.
– The CUDA Teaching Center Program recognizes universities providing education and
   hands- on instruction.
– The Academic Partnership Program provides support to researchers using GPUs to
   solve the world's most challenging problems.
– Learn more about NVIDIA´s Research and University activities at http://research.nvidia.com/
CUDA CALENDAR
July 2010

Symposium on Application Accelerators in High-Performance Computing
   (SAAHPC 2010)

July 13-15, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
http://saahpc.ncsa.illinois.edu/register

Parallel Symbolic Computation 2010 (PASCO)
July 21-23, Grenoble, France
http://pasco2010.imag.fr/contest.html

SIGGRAPH
July 25-29, Los Angeles
http://www.siggraph.org/s2010/

CUDA Programming on GPUs
July 26-30, University of Oxford, U.K.
http://www.oerc.ox.ac.uk/events/course-on-cuda-programming%202010

August 2010

Proven Algorithmic Techniques for Many-Core Processors
Aug. 2-6, Choice of onsite locations, or online
https://hub.vscse.org

Virtual School of Comp. Science & Engineering
Aug. 2-6, choice of onsite locations
https://hub.vscse.org

GPU Programming for Molecular Modeling
Aug. 6-8, Beckman Inst. for Advanced Science & Tech, UIUC
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Training/Workshop/GPU_Aug2010/

Symposium on Chemical Computations on GPGPUs
Aug. 22-26, Boston
http://illinois.edu/lb/article/2101/36281

Unconventional High Performance Computing 2010 (UCHPC 2010)
Aug. 31-Sept. 1, Italy
http://www.lrr.in.tum.de/~weidendo/uchpc10/

September 2010

GPU Technology Conference (GTC) 2010
Sept. 20-23, San Jose, Calif.
http://www.nvidia.com/gtc (register today, space is limited)

Future

Supercomputing 2010
Nov. 13-19, New Orleans, LA
http://sc10.supercomputing.org/
IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium
May 16-20, 2011, Anchorage, AL
http://www.ipdps.org/

(To list an event, email: cuda_week_in_review@nvidia.com)

CUDA RESOURCES
CUDA Articles in Dr. Dobb's
– Supercomputing for the Masses, Part 18: http://is.gd/cs6b9
– Supercomputing for the Masses, Part 17: http://is.gd/cs6eI
– Supercomputing for the Masses, Part 16: http://is.gd/citaC
– Supercomputing for the Masses, Part 15: http://is.gd/citnJ
CUDA Books
– Programming Massively Parallel Processors by D. Kirk, W. Hwu: http://is.gd/7bNYP
– See additional books here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_books.html
CUDA Documentation
Download developer guides and documentation: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/gpucomputing.html
NVIDIA Parallel Nsight
– Download the Beta: www.nvidia.com/nsight
– Download the Release Notes: http://bit.ly/9iEYMs
CUDA ON THE WEB
– Check out the NVIDIA Research site: http://research.nvidia.com
– Read previous issues of CUDA: Week in Review: http://is.gd/cBXbg
– Follow CUDA & GPU Computing on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gpucomputing
– Network with other developers: www.gpucomputing.net
– Stayed tuned to GPGPU news and events: www.gpgpu.org
– Learn more about CUDA on CUDA Zone: www.nvidia.com/cuda
– Watch CUDA on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/nvidiacuda
About CUDA
CUDA is NVIDIA’s parallel computing hardware architecture. NVIDIA provides a complete toolkit for programming on the CUDA architecture, supporting standard computing languages such as C, C++, and Fortran as well as APIs such as OpenCL and DirectCompute.

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