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Professional Graphics CGW Webinar

Professional Graphics CGW Webinar. Evolution of Professional Graphics Yesterday’s Landscape. Pro graphics distinguished from consumer/corporate graphics by most every metric Vendor, chips, boards, bus, memory, video I/O, OS, middleware/APIs, usage, performance, price

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Professional Graphics CGW Webinar

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  1. Professional GraphicsCGW Webinar

  2. Evolution of Professional GraphicsYesterday’s Landscape • Pro graphics distinguished from consumer/corporate graphics by most every metric • Vendor, chips, boards, bus, memory, video I/O, OS, middleware/APIs, usage, performance, price • Excusive domain of Traditional Proprietary Workstation (TPW) vendors • Sgi, Sun, HP, DEC and IBM drove the innovation • Proprietary UNIX/VMS were the only OSes

  3. Evolution of Professional GraphicsToday’s Landscape • Hardware migration from “in-house” to IHV • IHVs are vertical: chips and AIBs • TPW vendors no longer build graphics chips • Enable IHV hardware with drivers for proprietary Unix • A few unique high-end board configurations • Gaming is driving innovation • E.g. programmable shaders, floating-point precision • Even $1K+ multi-board monsters: Alienware and Nvidia’s SLI • Much harder to distinguish from consumer AIBs • Cost premium has dropped considerably

  4. Graphics Hardware DifferentiationProfessional vs. Consumer • Brand • Reliability • ISV certification • Customer support • Breadth of driver support • OpenGL ICDs • 64-bit Linux and Windows drivers • Performance and price can be a low priority • Legacy requirements can sustain lagging hardware

  5. Graphics Hardware DifferentiationProfessional vs. Consumer • Remaining GPU differences artificial and/or minor • (Virtually) no difference in “raw” die • Nvidia and ATI lead with same GPU/VPUs from consumer line • relatively minor driver, package and or board-exposed features • Board-level differences significant at high-end only • Value varies by application • Physical memory • DCC and vis-sim have never-ending appetite for textures • Display support optimized for pro applications • Framelock, genlock, interface type (e.g. SDI) • Number and datarate of video interfaces • Ultra-high resolution (e.g. dual dual-link for up to 9 Mpixel displays)

  6. 2003 Professional Graphics Hardware Market • Nearly 2.1 million professional graphics AIBs sold • Almost $1B in revenue • Legacy “in-house” graphics from TPW vendors small but significant • Only 5% of units shipped, but 16% of revenue • Incremental opportunity for IHVs • Units are in the low-end, but revenue is in the mid-range

  7. JPR Pro Graphics AIB Classes

  8. Vendor Profile • 5% (units) and 11% (revenue) share in 2003 • but 26% and 44% unit share in high and ultra-high • Pro Gfx flagship: Realizm • What sets Realizm apart • Exclusive focus on professional apps • Chip-level scalability • 16-bit FP format in frame buffer • Virtual, paged video memory • Where 3DLabs is going • Fighting hard to keep high-end dominance • Largest physical memory, Multi-chip AIBs, Genlock / framelock • Realizm trickle-down to mid-range and low-end?

  9. Vendor Profile • 17% (units) and 15% (revenue) share in 2003 • Unbranded presence in “2D” applications • Pro graphics flagship: Fire GL 7100 • What sets Fire GL apart • A strong mid-range focus (31%) • Subjective edge in quality and quality/performance • Perf/W has won mobile and embedded sockets • ATI dominant in mobile workstations (67%) • Where ATI is going • Best positioned to ride growth in mobile workstation • Can it (should it) ignore high end of market?

  10. Vendor Profile • JPR estimates* 9% (units) and 11% (revenue) share in 2003 • But ~17% in “2D” segment • Slanted heavily toward direct sales • Not directly targeting “power renderers” • Appeal on basis of image quality and specific, niche features • Where is Matrox going? • Road ahead looks difficult in keeping pace on GPUs • Last major introduction, Parhelia, was out in May 2002 • Move to programmable shaders and floating-point requires overhaul • Some key competitive advantages going away • More “2D” competition from Nvidia, ATI and maybe soon IGPs • Fewer areas of differentiation, e.g. super-high res (9 Mpixel) • OEM presence declining • Continued focus on custom-fit solutions for large customers * Matrox is private and does not disclose financials

  11. Vendor Profile • 67% (units) and 47% (revenue) share in 2003 • Pro gfx flagship: Quadro FX 4000 (NV40 GPU) • What sets Nvidia apart • Breadth of offerings, entry to ultra-high end • Shader Model 3.0 vs. 2.0 • SLI: Board level scalablity • Custom offerings for DCC, vis-sim • Where Nvidia is going • Trying to take share in existing segments • From 3Dlabs in the high/ultra-high end • Think margin, not units • Sales synergy • From ATI in the mobile space (MXM and Axiom) • Getting GPUs into new segments, like render farms

  12. Pro Graphics Technology Trends • Final stage of migration to fully programmable architecture • Richer, “cleaner” programming: large code, predication, branching • Changing how graphics hardware vendors will compete • Leveraging parallelism • Today’s flagship GPUs: 6 vertex and 16 pixel pipelines (ATI/Nvidia) • Chip-level (3DLabs) and Board-level (Nvidia) scalability • Continuing to “annex” upstream processing • Physics, kinematics, simulation, animation, tessellation • Vehicle for general purpose computing (GPGPU), • Why Intel’s biggest threat may someday be not AMD but Nvidia • Floating-point precision • GDDR3 memory

  13. PCI Express for Graphics • Serial, point-to-point, packets • More a network interconnect than a traditional I/O bus • Variable number of “lanes” • Graphics design center: 16-lane • More bandwidth, but remember: • Directionally constrained: 4GB/s up, 4GB/s down • In-band command, control and packet overhead reduces bw • Just in time to carry the load • Most apps on most hardware today not constrained by AGP 8X • Some may be … it all depends • HD video editing • Hybrid CPU/GPU render for DCC Src: PCI-SIG

  14. PCI Express Graphics AIBs • Form factor derived from PCI • Power budgets • 10W: ×1 cards (<= 6.6” length) • 25W: ×1 cards (> 7.0” length), ×4 cards, ×8 cards, ×16 low-profile graphics and ×16 server I/O • 75W: full-height graphics cards • High-end Graphics Spec will allow auxiliary power for up to 150W Src: PCI-SIG

  15. PCI Express Connectors • “Up-plugging” allowed • OEMs encouraged to support wider connectors • Link width not determined by connector or interface, negotiated at config time • More end-user flexibility • Allows dual high-bw (≥ AGP 8X) graphics AIBs Src: PCI-SIG

  16. GPU Interfaces to PCI ExpressTo bridge or not to bridge • Initial plans spurred some mud-slinging • ATI planned all native PCIe interfaces • Nvidia indicated plans to bridge with on-board HSI (“AGP 16X”) • 3DLabs’ Realizm depends on configuration • In the end, it will most likely be a non-issue • Speedup of full-speed PCIe interface is exception and debatable • ATI will likely bridge back to AGP • HSI does not preclude native PCIe – NV45 is out already • 3DLabs likely to fill in low-end PCIe offerings, too • Dell should ship Nvidia and ATI PCIe AIBs July, 3DLabs later this quarter

  17. Pro Graphics Market Trend Forecast • Strong growth in Mobile Workstations • Final phase in transition to all-IHV graphics • AIBs configured for specific applications • Genlock and SDI for DCC studio apps • Framelock for vis-sim and wall-display applications • IGPs for pro graphics? Never say never. • What about Grantsdale for “2D workstation” apps? • Why Nvidia/ATI/3DLabs’s biggest competitor may someday be Intel • GPUs to final frame rendering?

  18. Nvidia’s Application-specific AIB Configurations Nvidia Quadro FX 4000 SDI I/O Nvidia Quadro FX 3000G I/O

  19. GPUs in the Render Farm? • Graphics hardware is absent in the render farm • ISVs/IHVs looking to final-frame speedup as well • Enablers • Primary: advent of programmable hardware shaders with compilers • Secondary: FP color precision, more flexible programming (larger code, predication, branching) • Nvidia Gelato, Mental Images’ Mental Ray 3.3 • Vendors would welcome 10K’s of incremental professional GPUs • Not a slam-dunk • Global illumination, raycasting techniques (e.g raytracing and volume rendering) don’t map very well (at least not yet) to GPUs

  20. Technology ForecastImpact of Longhorn • Image quality • Gamma, sRGB, 32-bit FP, Text enhancements • Virtualization to support Avalon, “Presentation Manager” • Virtual memory, mostly under OS/driver interaction • GPU: “Hyper Threading”-like context management • Pixel rates will be especially stressed • Lots of temporary textures, surfaces to be warped, composited, blended • Dual, cascaded vertex shaders • Moving to (optional) programmable hardware tessellation • Security & stability • simpler drivers, hang prevention • OpenGL ICDs should be upgraded for Longhorn (but not required)

  21. Windows Graphics FoundationLonghorn and Beyond Src: Microsoft, WinHEC 2004

  22. Backup Slides

  23. Hardware Differentiation vs. Consumer Disappearing

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