Re: IBM POWER6 heralds dawn of visual computing era

IBM POWER6 heralds dawn of visual computing era


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080828220314.lq3gg11z&show_article=1


*Eyes turn to dawn of 'visual computing'*
*
*
*Lifelike graphics are breaking free of elite computer
games<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=computer%20games&sid=breitbart.com>
and
spreading throughout society in what industry insiders proclaim is the
dawning of a "visual computing era."
Astronauts, film makers and celebrities joined software savants, engineers
and gamers in the heart of Silicon Valley this week for a first-ever NVision
conference devoted to computer imagery advances changing the way people and
machines interact.

"Visual computing is transforming the videogame industry; transforming the film
industry,<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=film%20industry&sid=breitbart.com>
and
has all kinds of potential for how we view real-time television," NVIDIA
co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang told those gathered at the event.

"We solve some of the most challenging problems for more and more companies
around the world. Let the era of visual computing begin."
Gamers dueled for three days in a cavernous room in the San Jose Convention
Center while entrepreneurs showed how graphics breakthroughs are shining in
other fields.
Car makers are exploring letting potential buyers not only customize
automobiles with graphics
software<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=graphics%20software&sid=breitbart.com>
but
go on virtual test
drives.<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=test%20drives&sid=breitbart.com>

Graphics processing underpins financial modeling and weather forecasting.

Israel-based Optitex demonstrated software that replicates fabrics so
realistically that clothing designers can see what fashions will look and
act like on people before garments are made.

Optitex's animation software is being eyed by Hollywood film makers.

Dassault Systemes<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=Dassault%20Systemes&sid=breitbart.com>
puts
3D computer-assisted design to work virtually constructing passenger jets,
buildings and more.

"Three-D should be a new way for us to dream and design the future of our
world," The French company's chief executive Bernard Charles said at
NVision.

"It will impact everything we do: education, science, talking to each other
... of course games."

He predicts that lifelike graphics combined with feedback from online
communities will let people influence how products are designed, sold and
even how "green" they are.

Charles maintains computer
simulations<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=computer%20simulations&sid=breitbart.com>
will
be so realistic that virtual activities will mirror physical experiences.

Simulators already play an important part in training for space shuttle
missions, according to former US astronaut Eileen Colleens, the first woman
shuttle commander.

"When you fly the actual mission you feel like you are in a simulator,"
Collins said. "We really can't do our job without the good visual graphics
that we get."

The world of visual computing is "inescapable," said Chris Malachowsky, a
co-founder of NVIDIA, a California firm renowned for high-end graphics
processing cards for computers.

"We are being presented with displays everywhere," Malachowsky told AFP. "It
used to be about the computing part, but the emphasis is shifting. It is not
so much about the computation but how it is presented and seen by people."

The rising tide of digital videos, photos, films and television shows on the
Internet is lifting the status of graphics chips, cards, and software and
strengthening a trend to "unflatten" displays with 3D imagery.

Malachowsky spoke of using visual computing power to develop new medicines
or provide doctors with real-time 3D images of patients' organs.

"They will be able to recreate scan data so fast you could see your own
heart beating," Malachowsky said.

"This is being subsidized by all these kids out there playing games."

Perceptive Pixel founder Jeff Han, referred to by some as "the father of
touch screen" computing, maintains graphics opens up user interface control
possibilities that could render a "mouse" obsolete.

Han demonstrated touch-screen technology that lets several people
simultaneously manipulate applications and files on a single large monitor.

"It's not personal computing anymore," Han said. "It's visual computing."

Battlestar Galactica bombshell Tricia Helfer praised computer animation
innovations that enable the science fiction television series to rivet
viewers.

Helfer plays a part-machine, part-organic Cylon character called "Number
Six" that has turned on its creators.

"It's a bit threatening," Helfer said of technology promising to one day
make animated characters indistinguishable from real actors.

"But the advantages and uses of it are amazing, but it is something we are
going to have to get used to."
*
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