AMD FireStream 9250 Breaks the 1 Teraflop Barrier

[spud107]

wonder if someone will fill something like this up?

from here http://www.picocomputing.com/ this can be used with laptops!!

 

[eidairaman1]

More Cases need to have 10-12 PCI Space brackets and right angle motherboard connectors.

My Next Case probably be capable of Dual PSUs.

 

[Shingoshi]

Corporate reasoning, isn't!!

For anyone following this thread, read http://www.rapidmind.net/pdfs/FinancialDataSheet.pdf
Basically, the 55x speedup quoted by AMD is:

1>> A single core Opteron running an opensource math library, COMPARED TO
2>> The FireStream running optimized math library SPECIFICALLY designed for financial math by RapidMind.

REAL COMPARISON
1./ Single core CPU, running inefficient C++ math library
2./ Replace math library with RapidMind, = 2x speedup
3./ Replace "single core" Opteron with "single core" Intel Core 2, = 2x speedup
4./ Replace single core with quad core = 4x speedup

So, actually, the REAL COMPARISON should be 55/16 = 3.5x speedup. At a price of $999.

OK, SO LETS USE A DUAL XEON SYSTEM ALTERNATIVE

5./ Upgrade to dual socket mainboard, one extra xeon, total $500, = 2 x speedup

That would give a net speedup of 1.75x to the FireStream but at a higher cost ($499), plus development time associated with using the SDK for FireStream and then having codethat could only run on the FireSteam. (THERE ARE GOOD SECURITY REASONS TO DO THIS... ESPECIALLY FOR PROPRIETARY FINANCE SOFTWARE).

IMO, 1.75x speed of a dual xeon workstation, is not all that impressive.

******

From looking closer at the hardware of FireStream, it seems to be essentially a GPU card with the "Video" bits removed. You could probably get a regular gaming card to do exactly the same. But I'm sure AMD will "lock" features within the BIOS, just like they do with the FireGL GPUs.


I agree, too expensive
But its not much of a breakthrough. Its a GPU in wolfs clothes, with an SDK not dissimilar to CUDA concept.
Smoke and mirrors by AMD.

This is something that never makes any sense to me. That a company would spend more money (by locking out certain existing features), to make less money. Because in the net result, that's exactly what the result is. The fewer options you provide to your customers, the fewer customers you'll have buying your product. That's just sheer stupidity, all for the sake of selfishly thinking you're going to get more from less.

Shingoshi

 

[Shingoshi]

Mismatched audience...

cell would be useless because you cant run windows or mac on it and then you have no compatible motherboard with pci ex slots for expansion even then things like memory controllers ect

i think that the cell would be useless because youd only be able to run linux and whats the point in having a powerfull cpu for linux if all you can run is doom 3 and quake 4

The people who use Linux for the applications like these, have absolutely little if any concern for games. You're asking a question like, "why would I want a Ferrari, if I can't take it offroad? It's just the wrong question and assumptions involved here.

Shingoshi

 

[Shingoshi]

My next system will include something like this...

I currently have a four-socket Opteron server, Tyan S4980 based. I'm currently using this (different) computer for my personal work. It's an old Mattel Barbie, that's been completely rebuilt with new components. I run Linux exclusively. Although I also use something called Wine (http://winehq.org) for Windows applications. I'm in the market to build a personal cluster, and these Pico products seem viable. I just wish that they would put something like these in an SSD format as well. The beautiful thing about SSDs, is that they can be installed in any existing 3.5" hotswap drive bay. And since there are many options available to put four SSDs in a single 5.25"/cdrom bay, you could easily build a cluster with these.

I currently have one of these: http://www.shopaddonics.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=ADPEXC
But something like this would be even better for what I'm talking about here.
http://www.shopaddonics.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=AE4RCS25NSA&eq=&Tp=

Using a system like this would allow you to have four of the Pico units in each cdrom bay.
http://www.shopaddonics.com/mmSHOPADDONICS/Images/ae4rcs25nsa.jpg

Or this would work too.
http://www.picocomputing.com/images/EC7BP Full.jpg

And since the SSD/2.5" drive is much larger than an expresscard, even more power could be packed into each one. Building a cluster would take only minutes to construct with tools like this.
http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/2U/213/SC213A-R900U.cfm

I thought I'd post this here, just in case anyone else like me finds this site as I did looking for similar information.

Shingoshi