NVIDIA, the leader in GPU computing, today introduced the NVIDIA OptiX ray tracing engine, part of a suite of application acceleration engines for software developers. NVIDIA acceleration engines make it easy to incorporate valuable, high-performance capabilities into applications, while simultaneously reducing development time.

NVIDIA application acceleration engines unveiled at Siggraph 2009 include:

• NVIDIA OptiX engine for real-time ray tracing
• NVIDIA SceniX engine for managing 3D data and scenes
• NVIDIA CompleX engine for scaling performance across multiple GPUs
• NVIDIA PhysX 64-bit engine for real-time, hyper-realistic physical and environmental effects

NVIDIA today unveiled new breakthrough Quadro Plex solutions targeted at scalable visualization professionals who interact with 3D models and analyze large volumes of data. These cost-effective visual computing platforms are designed to power a wide range of ultra-high resolution and multi-channel collaboration environments - ranging from interpretation desktops to visualization walls to network operations centers.

Quadro Plex-based solutions enable professionals in fields such as energy exploration, architectural design, medical research and consumer packaged goods to seamlessly run any software application across multiple ultra-high resolution displays or projectors, facilitating accurate and timely decision making.

Professional videographers face continuous pressure to deliver high quality work under tight deadlines. To ease that burden and enable greater levels of creativity, NVIDIA today announced the availability of GPU-accelerated plug-in solutions for Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4) users, optimized to run on a wide range of NVIDIA Quadro graphics solutions.

NVIDIA is offering exclusive discounts of up to 50 percent on plug-ins from Elemental Technologies, Boris FX, Red Giant Software and proDAD when purchased at NVIDIA.com.

Among the plug-ins being offered is the NVIDIA CUDA architecture-based Elemental Accelerator 2.0 for Windows from Elemental Technologies (MSRP $499 discounted to $249). By leveraging the CUDA parallel computing architecture, this new plug-in offloads H.264 video encoding to the Quadro GPU, enabling Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 users to experience a performance increase of up to 11X when compared to CPU-only video encoders. Now available on a range of Quadro GPUs, Elemental Accelerator 2.0 supports the creation of Blu-ray DVDs and web content using Flash. In addition, NVIDIA and Elemental Technologies are bringing accelerated H.264 video encoding capabilities to Mac Pro users for the first time with the new Elemental Accelerator 1.2 for Mac OS X running on the Quadro FX 4800 for Mac.

ASUS, a leading producer of innovative server and workstation solutions, today announced three cutting-edge solutions designed to address the specific needs of SOHO and Business Enterprises. First in the line-up is the ASUS P6T7 WS SuperComputer motherboard, which provides users with sublime graphics capabilities and flexible high speed data input/output. Next is the ASUS RS700D-E6 Duo Nodes 1U Server, which features independent power supplies for superb reliability-giving business owners complete peace of mind-while offering exceptional space savings in the form of 4 + 4 hot-swappable 2.5-inch SATA/SAS hard disk drives. Finally, the ASUS Z8NA-D6 is the world's first slim dual processor server and workstation motherboard, making it the best workstation foundation for all forms of businesses.

NVIDIA's upcoming next-generation graphics processor, codenamed GT300 is on course for launch later this year. Its development seems to have crossed an important milestone, with news emerging that the company has already taped out some of the first engineering samples of the GPU, under the A1 batch. The development of the GPU is significant since it is the first high-end GPU to be designed on the 40 nm silicon process. Both NVIDIA and AMD however, are facing issues with the 40 nm manufacturing node of TSMC, the principal foundry-partner for the two. Due to this reason, the chip might be built by another foundry partner (yet to be known) the two are reaching out to. UMC could be a possibility, as it has recently announced its 40 nm node that is ready for "real, high-performance" designs.

The GT300 comes in three basic forms, which perhaps are differentiated by batch quality processing: G300 (that make it to consumer graphics, GeForce series), GT300 (that make it to high-performance computing products, Tesla series), and G200GL (that make it to professional/enterprise graphics, Quadro series). From what we know so far, the core features 512 shader processors, a revamped data processing model in the form of MIMD, and will feature a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface to churn out around 256 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU is compliant with DirectX 11, which makes its entry with Microsoft Windows 7 later this year, and can be found in release candidate versions of the OS already.

Soon after becoming the first to be out with a portable desktop alternative featuring the Intel Core i7 processor, SmoothCreations dished out another of its kind, this time a portable workstation named Bulldozer. The company is looking to target two classes of consumers with this product: gamers, and graphics professionals, who will take advantage of its hardware for high-definition gaming or CAM/CAE/CAD, medical imaging, forensics, government or military use. The applications are broad thanks to the hardware, which just might come at the expense of a little portability.

The Bulldozer features a 17-inch screen with a native resolution of 1900x1200 pixels. Under its hood is a Core i7 (models 940 or 965 XE) or Xeon X5580 processor. Up to 16 GB of memory can be opted for, along with up to 1.5 TB of storage thanks to three SATA HDD bays. A Blu-Ray combo drive provides removable storage. Connectivity options include WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, and Bluetooth 2.0. Graphics is care of NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 with 1 GB of memory. Depending on the application, 64-bit Windows XP, Windows Vista, or RedHat Linux could be opted for. Its pricing is not known.

Leadtek Research Inc., exclusive workstation partner of NVIDIA in APAC, today announced the advent of its most powerful Quadro professional solution family yet. It includes the FX 3800, FX 1800, FX 580 and FX 380. Along with previously launched FX 5800 and FX 4800, the latest Quadro family offers top to bottom solutions on the shelves to satisfy the most demanding customers in different industries.

Whether designing the next aircraft or delivering seven-day weather forecasts, today's professionals seek a reliable, robust visualization platform designed to address their unique challenges and needs. Highlighting a decade of innovation, driven by the needs of the most demanding professionals, NVIDIA today introduced its most powerful and advanced top-to-bottom line of Quadro professional GPU solutions in the Company's history.
"Our mission with Quadro is to help customers solve the world's most challenging visual computing problems," stated Dan Vivoli, executive vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. "We learn every day from them and are humbled by their brilliance. The new lineup, with the flagship Quadro FX 5800, sets the stage for the next ten years of innovation."

NVIDIA, the inventor of the GPU, today introduced NVIDIA SLI Multi-OS, a ground-breaking technology that allows users and visualization applications, for the first time, to take full advantage of multiple NVIDIA Quadro GPUs from a single graphics workstation in a virtualized environment.

This new technology delivers a faster, more efficient workflow to maximize productivity and lower the total cost of ownership for professionals in markets such as: digital content creation, sciences, manufacturing, and oil and gas.

"In today's economy, organizations are turning to virtualization to increase productivity and maximize cost savings," says Jeff Brown, general manager of professional solutions at NVIDIA. "Now professionals working with visualization applications can benefit from virtualization."

NVIDIA has released new drivers for its professional Quadro series of video cards. The latest NVIDIA Quadro release 182.08 supports all cards from the Quadro FX, Quadro CX and Quadro NVS series. Release highlights:

• WHQL Certified driver.
• Improved performance on workstation applications.
• Added support for DDC-Ci/MCCS over the DisplayPort AUX channel.
• Added 10-bits per color (10bpc) DisplayPort support for full-screen applications on supported products.
• Integrated AutoCAD and 3ds Max Performance Drivers in the graphics driver with auto-detection, providing increased performance. Support for three latest versions of AutoCAD and 3ds Max. Standalone versions or version updates can still be downloaded from the NVIDIA driver download page.
• Workstation application compatibility fixes. Please read the release notes for more information on product support, feature limitations, driver fixes and known compatibility issues.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA Quadro Release 182.08 WHQL for Windows XP/Vista (32/64-bit)

The ability to drive big displays now comes in a small package with the release of the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 420, the industry's only low profile professional graphics solution designed for maximum display real estate with a small form factor (SFF) computer. Featuring NVIDIA nView display software and support for four 30-inch displays at 2560x1600 high resolutions, business professionals can maximize productivity through increased desktop real estate and easy to use display management tools.
Built to meet the needs of today's most demanding business professional, the Quadro NVS 420 professional graphics solution offers stability, ease-of-use and wide compatibility. In addition it has been thoroughly tested to ensure compatibility with the leading business applications.

Today, mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD), digital content creation (DCC) and broadcast applications received a major performance boost with the introduction of the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 ultra-high-end professional graphics card. With advances in GPU architecture, added graphics memory and 30-bit color, the Quadro FX 4800 gives professionals the right toolset to dramatically push the boundaries of realism, performance and quality.

"In this increasingly competitive landscape, it's imperative that professionals deliver better, faster and more cost-effective results," said Jeff Brown general manager, Professional Solutions, NVIDIA. "NVIDIA is not only addressing this challenge, but is raising the ultra-high-end visualization bar by creating specialized solutions to meet the direct needs of professionals - whether it be a geophysicists or MCAD designer."

Professionals searching for oil, diagnosing illness or styling the next high-performance luxury vehicle all have one thing in common, the need for advanced visual computing solutions. NVIDIA Corporation, the world leader in visual computing technologies, today unveiled the most powerful professional graphics card in graphics history - the NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800.
"The size and complexity of data is growing at an exponential rate. The challenge for today's professional is to make sense of the mountain of data by distilling it into a form they can comprehend, analyze and use to make impactful decisions," said Jeff Brown, general manager, Professional Solutions, NVIDIA. "At stake can be billions of investment dollars, or even people's lives. The Quadro FX 5800 has advanced features to allow massive
datasets to be viewed beyond traditional 3D enabling professionals to make fast and accurate decisions."

With today's traditional workstation model pricing, many organizations can only afford to deploy professional graphics solutions to select designers and engineers, leaving a significant portion of the workforce with sub-optimal products. This is about to change as NVIDIA Corp. announced today NVIDIA Quadro FX 470, the first integrated professional motherboard GPU, and NVIDIA Quadro FX 370 Low Profile (Quadro FX 370 LP), an entry-level Quadro graphics boards for small form factor systems.

NVIDIA today introduced its new accelerator for Adobe Creative Suite 4 software, the NVIDIA Quadro CX. This new GPU provides creative professionals with a faster, better, more reliable way to maximize their creativity. Quadro CX was architected to deliver the best performance for the new GPU-optimized features of Adobe Creative Suite 4.

NVIDIA today announced that Adobe will natively support its graphics processing units (GPUs) in their newly announced Adobe Creative Suite 4. Adobe is the latest visual computing company to grab on to the massively parallel processing power of NVIDIA GPUs for more than just rendering pixels to the screen. With NVIDIA GPU acceleration, Adobe Creative Suite 4 enables a faster, more natural way of working with images, while improving quality and productivity. The latest edition in a long line of award-winning software toolsets, Adobe Creative Suite 4 is the first application set of its kind to take advantage of the power of native GPU acceleration.

Ray-tracing is the buzzword with consumer and professional graphics these days. It's a technique with which accurate representation of light with its behaviour in adherence with the laws of physics can be done when generating 3D computer graphics.

NVIDIA took ray-tracing to an interactive level with its work on an interactive real-time ray-tracing application. Currently NVIDIA has a larger stash of intellectual property in the field of ray-tracing than other players such as AMD or Intel, with the acquisition of MentalRay, a company that is pretty-much a standard in Hollywood.

Demand for better graphics performance and programmability within the professional notebook market continues to increase as animators, designers and engineers work with larger 3D models, datasets and images. NVIDIA Corporation, the worldwide leader in visual computing technologies, continues to address the demand with the introduction of a new series of NVIDIA Quadro FX mobile GPUs, featuring an NVIDIA CUDA Parallel Computing Processor. Leading workstation manufacturers such as Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP and Lenovo are now offering the new series of Quadro FX mobile GPUs across a wide range of professional notebook workstations.

NVIDIA has quietly updated its professional video cards with the new dual-GPU Quadro FX 4700 X2 PCI-E 2.0. Designed for CAD, DCC, and other visualization applications, the newest Quadro is SLI ready, has 256-bit memory interface, 2GB GDDR3 memory (1GB per GPU), and four dual-link DVI connectors for simultaneous work on up to four high-resolution displays. We only know that the card is powered by two DirectX 10/Shader Model 4.0 capable GPUs, but NVIDIA does not name whether these are G92 or G94 cores. The specifications page only hints at the card's power consumption during load - 226W.

NVIDIA Corporation, the world leader in visual computing technologies, today introduced the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3600M professional GPU for notebook and laptop workstations. This new graphics solution defines a new level of graphics performance and advanced visual computing for designers, engineers, and scientists who demand the functionality of a desktop workstation on a notebook platform.

Broadcast, video and film professionals engaged in editing, compositing, and color grading can now benefit from the advanced features of new NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 SDI and Quadro FX 4600 SDI graphics cards. These next-generation graphics-to-video-out solutions from NVIDIA, which allow real-time rendering to become an integral part of the production work flow, feature 8-, 10- and 12-bit uncompressed SDI output in SD, HD, or 2K formats, Genlock support, improved 2D video compositing capabilities, 3D graphics and graphics processing unit (GPU) programmability, and more.

The Indian film market, popularly known as "Bollywood," is booming, but Indian filmmaking, until quite recently, has been slow to adapt to computer-generated visual effects (VFX) and animation. As Bollywood moves toward an era of slick visual effects, Indian VFX and animation studios are honing their skills and building their portfolios by taking on work from Hollywood as well as for indigenous films and commercials.

Earlier this year, NVIDIA unveiled its record-setting NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 and Quadro FX 4600 professional graphics boards based on an industry-changing unified architecture that delivers high-performance processing, support for Shader Model 4.0, NVIDIA GPU computing, and other breakthrough features. Today, the company extended the family, with the launch of new mid-range and entry-level 2D and 3D Quadro boards for professionals in the CAD/CAM, DCC, medical imaging, digital video and financial sectors. The new Quadro professional graphics also redefine the price/performance dynamic for professional graphics-from the Quadro FX 370, available for the unprecedented entry price of $129 MSRP to the Quadro FX 1700, with an MSRP of $699. These new boards have the capabilities required to visualize the latest generation of complex 2D, video and 3D content. Now there is a Quadro solution for many types of users, projects and budgets.

NVIDIA Corporation, today announced a new family of mobile GeForce 8 graphics processors targeted at the newly evolved notebook PC market. The new GeForce 8600M and GeForce 8400M versions are available now from the top PC makers such as HP, Toshiba, Acer, Samsung, and ASUS. NVIDIA today also launched the professional NVIDIA Quadro GPU graphics for notebook computers. The new line of mobile video cards, which includes NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M, Quadro FX 570M and Quadro FX 360M, is designed to solve complex professional visual computing challenges in a mobile form factor. The Quadro FX 1600M, available with up to 512MB GDDR3 memory, and the Quadro FX 570M, offering up to 256MB GDDR3 memory, feature a 128-bit memory interface, support for OpenGL 2.1, DirectX 10, and adaptive power management tools. The Quadro FX 360M, designed for thin and light, entry-level mobile workstations, offers similar features as its bigger brothers, with up to 256MB GDDR3 memory and a 64-bit memory interface. NVIDIA Quadro FX mobile solutions are also available starting today, through leading OEMs such as HP, Fujitsu Japan, and FSC as well as leading mobile workstation system integrators. For more information about the entire GeForce 8 Go and Quadro series of video cards, please click here.