DEVELOP3D - Technology for the product lifecycle

At Siggraph 2010, a not-so-subtle battle is taking place.  It’s the battle of the graphics computing future.  Depending on whom you listen to, the path to graphics performance nirvana is paved by graphics processing units (GPUs), central processing units (CPUs) or a combination of the two called heterogeneous processing units (HPUs) by analyst Jon Peddie.

At Peddie’s annual luncheon on Wednesday, the graphics processing future was discussed by a panel of high-ranking technologists, some with vested interest in which acronym comes out on top:

Eric Demers, GPG CTO of AMD
Brian Harrison, CTO of SolidWorks Labs
Rolf Herken, CEO & CTO of mental images
Bill Mark, Senior Research Scientist for Intel
Paul Stallings, VP of Software Development for Kubotek

Cheaper and faster

The principal area of interest for designers and engineers, of course, is how high-end rendering can improve their work, now and in the future.

Prices for heterogeneous computing are dropping dramatically, according to Peddie, giving more designers and engineers access to capabilities such as real-time ray tracing on lower-cost workstations.  More bandwidth, better compression and optimized software are making it more feasible to work with computer graphics via the cloud, whether over a company intranet or public internet.

Standing in the way

There are obstacles, of course.  AMD’s Demers says it is still expensive to move data around, so vendors need to find ways to bring computing power to the data, without moving the data itself.  Intel’s Mark says that the industry needs to get better at moving data back and forth between CPU and GPU.  SolidWorks’ Harrison says that software vendors need to reduce the time it takes to leverage new graphics hardware capabilities within their applications.

Beyond the niche

The biggest benefit to the huge leaps in graphics processing is that designers and engineers can now see early on what a product is going to look like.  This advances engineering and reduces the strain on marketing, which early in the design process will have a good picture of what it will be selling to customers.

Ray tracing and other high-end rendering techniques used to be a niche, typically used by a specialist who could take days to generate a realistic model.  Now, says Harrison, because of lower hardware prices, leaps in performance, and greater ease of use, more users can take advantage of high-end rendering.  Ray tracing and other rendering technologies are moving from specialist to generalist, “a big deal” according to Harrison.

Greater accessibility, more apps

Kubotek’s Stallings says that the big explosion will take place when the balance of CAD/CAM users shifts more dominantly toward 3D.  Only in the last couple of years, says Stallings, have the majority of CAD/CAM users begun working with 3D CAD programs.

Because of the greater accessibility of high-end rendering, Stallings sees it being used for an increasing number of applications – basically anything where style is important.  Some people are even seeing high-end rendering as a central engineering tool.

In an earlier conversation on the Siggraph show floor, Thomas Teger, VP of Marketing for Luxion, said he is seeing increasing interest in using products such as his company’s Keyshot to do engineering-oriented renderings.  Examples include product cutaways to show the inside of gears or exploded assemblies.

High-end rendering in every home

Herken of mental images has the most far-reaching vision of where high-end rendering will take us.  He sees a future where consumers can custom-configure the car they want – including colour, materials and accessories – from their home using a laptop.  Car dealers – and the haggling game that goes with it – will be things of the past.

In the end, designers, engineers and general consumers will probably look at rendering like a utility; they aren’t likely to care whether their graphics processing is taking place on CPUs, GPUs or HPUs.  As always, fast, cheap and easy will rule the day.

Bob Cramblitt is a guest blogger on DEVELOP3D. He reports on CAD/CAM/CAE technologies that impact product development. He’s been attending Siggraph since he was a mere youth, beginning in 1983.