Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1011494
72 cgw | e d i t i o n 3 , 2 0 1 8
will need GPUs to chew through
all that data and make sense of
it. The advent of IoT and smart
sensors adds to the explosion
of data – today, there are some
800,000 GPU developers.
For 30 years, the dynamics
of Moore's law held true. But
CPU performance scaling has
slowed. GPU computing is de-
fining a new, supercharged law.
It starts with a highly specialized
parallel processor and continues
through system design, system
soware, algorithms, and opti-
mized applications.
There are over 35 appli-
cations and areas of science
that are employing GPUs for
compute acceleration, AI, and
machine-learning (ML) applica-
tions, as well as video process-
ing and streaming. From medical
imaging to audio signal pro-
cessing (Alexa and Shazam run
on GPUs in the cloud), weather
forecasting, computational fluid
dynamics, and finite-element
analysis, to cryptography and
massive data-reduction projects
like SETI and Folding@home.
You'll never look at or think
about a GPU the same. You
knew them for rendering and
gaming. And with the explo-
sion in AI, they now do all those
things and more. For example,
raytracing on a GPU is not new.
It's also not easy, as GPUs aren't
well suited for raytracing due
to the branching inherent in
raytracing. Also, raytracing takes
time to resolve an image. Using
AI predictive analysis, Nvidia has
demonstrated how GPUs can be
used to speed up raytracing.
The same concepts have
been used to make slow-motion
movies from regular 30 fps video.
In the old days when an animator
would make a drawing (of, say,
a duck), he or she would then
make a second drawing with the
duck in a different position, or
maybe smiling. The studio would
hire grunts, er interns, to draw all
the frames in "be-tween." Later,
when animation soware was
developed, that was one of the
first (2D) features – tweening
To make slo-mo, you need a lot
of tweening, But photographs are
a zillion times more difficult than
a simple 2D animation. So, the
slo-mo AI soware is similar to the
raytracing speedup soware figur-
ing out where things should be.
T H A N K S T O T H E G A M E R S
The number of applications
will continue to expand, quite
possible exponentially, especially
as AI is applied to more aspects
of science, engineering, medicine,
and security. However, it's the
volume of the game market that
provides the economy of scale
that allows such powerful proces-
sors as GPUs to be affordable.
So, all the scientists and ana-
lysts out there should say thank
you to the gamers who are play-
ing for the R&D and manufactur-
ing of these marvelous massive
parallel processors.
Jon Peddie is president of Jon Ped-
die Research, a Tiburon, CA-based
consultancy specializing in graphics
and multimedia that also publish-
es JPR's "TechWatch." He can be
reached at jon@jonpeddie.com.
Edition 3 2018, Volume 41, Issue 3: COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD (USPS 665-250) (ISSN-0271-4159) is published bi-monthly with special additional issues in January and July
resulting in 8 issues per year by COP Communications, Inc. Corporate offices: 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, CA 91204, Tel: 818-291-1100; FAX: 818-291-1190; Web Address: info@
copprints.com. Periodicals Postage Paid at Glendale, CA, 91205 & additional mailing offices. COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD is distributed worldwide. Annual subscription prices
are $72, USA; $98, Canada & Mexico; $150 International airfreight. To order subscriptions, call 847-559-7310.
© 2018 CGW by COP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without permission. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the
internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by Computer Graphics World, ISSN-0271-4159, provided that the appropriate fee is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center
Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA 508-750-8400. Prior to photocopying items for educational classroom use, please contact Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222
Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA 508-750-8400. For further information check Copyright Clearance Center Inc. online at: www.copyright.com. The COMPUTER GRAPHICS
WORLD fee code for users of the Transactional Reporting Services is 0271-4159/96 $1.00 + .35.
POSTMASTER: Send change of address form to Computer Graphics World, P.O. Box 3296, Northbrook, IL 60065-3296.