NVIDIA RealityServer - cloud computing in 3D

About Cloud Computing has a lot to say in theory. Large companies are aware of the advantages of this technology, and it is time to move from theory to practice. NVIDIA, together with the manufacturer of rendering solutions Mental images, introduced RealityServer. This is a server hardware platform with a powerful graphics accelerator and a special software environment, thanks to which photorealistic three-dimensional image can be obtained on any computer, laptop, and even a smartphone.

One of the main advantages of the platform is the ability of servers to cluster together and provide separate processing of calculations. This shows the flexibility and extensibility of the system. The entry-level configuration includes eight GPUs and RealityServer 3.0 and supports more than 10 users working simultaneously with resources. The solution for the corporate segment is equipped with more than 100 graphics processors and supports from 1000 users. Nvidia Tesla with 240 graphic cores each is used as a GPU. Externally, RealityServer is available as a floor or rack solution, and the company accepts applications for the preliminary configuration of the server. The manufacturer can add RAM, put extra drives, additional GPUs. The server is running software from Mental images with the same name - RealityServer, where iray technology is used, which renders with ray tracing and uses the CUDA architecture.


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The main client software is built on technologies that are familiar to the modern Internet, such as SOAP, JSON-RPC, REST, and client-side JavaScript, Flash, and ActionScript environments. The server transmits the resulting data as one or more JPEG images, and thanks to the technologies described above, it is possible to manipulate images and actions in real time.

The manufacturer calls such a solution convenient for architectural bureaus, design and graphic studios of medium scale, which can not afford to buy an expensive graphic station for several tens of thousands of dollars on the table for each employee. In addition, the concept embodied in RealityServer, changes the approach to the implementation of many tasks, and lays the foundation for creating a whole class of remote graphics applications, such as 3D games, CAD systems, rendering systems, and a host of other programs that can be run remotely, and the client will be issued only the finished picture. In addition, Nvidia is in talks with Amazon about hosting several RealityServers in data centers serving the Elastic Compute Cloud cloud service.

Platform deliveries will begin from November 30, 2009.