Equalizer 0.9, a framework for creating and deploying parallel, scalable OpenGL applications, has been released. The most notable new features in this release are:

• Automatic cross-segment load-balancing for multidisplay installations
• Dynamic Frame Resolution (DFR) for constant-framerate rendering
• Compression Plugin API for runtime-loadable image compression engines

See the 0.9 release notes on the Equalizer website for a comprehensive list of new features, enhancements, optimizations and bug. A paperback Equalizer Programming and User Guide is available from Lulu.com. Commercial support, custom software development and porting services are available from Eyescale Software GmbH.

LabVIEW GPU Computing unleashes the computing power of NVIDIA GPUs via the CUDA interface from within a LabVIEW application. Code that calls the GPU for computation is integrated into the native parallel execution system of LabVIEW as if it were any other multi-threaded external library function call.

LabVIEW is a graphical programming environment used by millions of engineers and scientists to develop sophisticated measurement, test, and control systems using intuitive graphical icons and wires that resemble a flowchart. LabVIEW offers unrivaled integration with thousands of hardware devices and provides hundreds of built-in libraries for advanced analysis and data visualization. The LabVIEW platform is scalable across multiple targets and operating systems, and since its introduction in 1986 has become an industry leader.

The GPU Technology Conference will be held Sept 30-Oct 2, 2009 in San Jose, Calif. This event will focus on the latest breakthroughs that developers, engineers and researchers are achieving through the use of the GPU. Learn more at www.nvidia.com/gtc

Session abstracts and speakers can be found at www.nvidia.com/gtc under the Agenda page. Sessions announced to date include

• Advanced C for CUDA
• CUDA Fortran Programming for NVIDIA GPUs
• What Every CUDA Programmer Needs to Know about OpenGL
• Debugging tools for CUDA
• Using CUDA within Mathematica
• The TotalView Debugger for CUDA
• OPLib: A GPL Library of Elementary Pricing Functions in CUDA/OpenCL and OpenMP
• Par4All: Auto-Parallelizing C and Fortran for the CUDA Architecture

More sessions are to be announced.

Yesterday the Portland Group and NVIDIA announced plans to develop new Fortran language support for CUDA GPUs.  The pair will release the Fortran language specification for CUDA GPUs at the International Conference on Supercomputing in Hamburg, Germany this week. The CUDA Fortran compiler will be added to a production release of the PGI Fortran compilers scheduled for availability in November 2009.

From the press release:

The Portland Group®, a wholly-owned subsidiary of STMicroelectronics and leading supplier of compilers for high-performance computing (HPC), today announced an agreement with NVIDIA under which the two companies plan to develop new Fortran language support for CUDA GPUs.

The NVIDIA® CUDA™ architecture allows developers to offload computationally intensive kernels to the massively parallel GPU. Through function calls and language extensions, CUDA gives developers explicit control over the mapping of general-purpose computational kernels to GPUs as well as placement and movement of data between the x64 processor and the GPU. The NVIDIA CUDA C compiler already provides this capability to C programmers. The CUDA Fortran compiler will provide this same level of control and optimization in a native Fortran environment from PGI.

NVIDIA is offering a series of free GPU computing webinars covering a range of topics from a basic introduction to the CUDA architecture to advanced topics such as data structure optimization and multi-GPU usage.

There are several webinars scheduled already; attendees are encouraged to pick the date and time which best suits their schedule. Visit the NVIDIA GPU Computing Online Seminars webpage for webinar registration and further information. Additional webinars will be scheduled throughout the next few months so check for future alerts and visit the NVIDIA online seminar schedule page often.

The new MachStudio Pro is stand-alone, visualization and rendering software that uses multi-threaded GPGPU computing to enable 3D artists to create and manipulate lights, materials, and HDR cameras in a real-time, non-linear workflow environment with film quality results.

From an NVIDIA Press Release:

SANTA CLARA, CA—APRIL 20, 2009—NVIDIA Corporation, the inventor of the GPU, today announced the release of its OpenCL driver and software development kit (SDK) to developers participating in its OpenCL Early Access Program. NVIDIA is providing this release to solicit early feedback in advance of a beta release which will be made available to all GPU Computing Registered Developers in the coming months.

Developers can apply to become a GPU Computing Registered Developer at: www.nvidia.com/opencl

“The OpenCL standard was developed on NVIDIA GPUs and NVIDIA was the first company to demonstrate OpenCL code running on a GPU,” said Tony Tamasi, senior vice president of technology and content at NVIDIA. “Being the first to release an OpenCL driver to developers cements NVIDIA’s leadership in GPU Computing and is another key milestone in our ongoing strategy to make the GPU the soul of the modern PC.”

At the core of NVIDIA®’s GPU Computing strategy is the massively parallel CUDA™ architecture that NVIDIA pioneered and has been shipping since 2006. Accessible today through familiar industry standard programming environments such as C, Java, Fortran and Python, the CUDA architecture supports all manner of computational interfaces and, as such, is a perfect complement to OpenCL. Enabled on over 100 million NVIDIA GPUs, the CUDA architecture is enabling developers to innovate with the GPU and unleash never before seen performance across a wide range of applications.

Developers can apply to become a GPU Computing Registered Developer at: www.nvidia.com/opencl

Graphic Remedy launched the first official version of gDEBugger Mac at this year’s Game Developers Conference, held in San Francisco, 23-27 March. On Tuesday March 24, gDEBugger Mac was demonstrated in the Khronos Developer University full-day tutorial area. A fully functional trial version of gDEBugger Mac is now available for download.

gDEBugger is an OpenGL Debugger and Profiler. It traces application activity on top of the OpenGL API, lets programmers see what is happening within the graphics system implementation to find bugs and optimize OpenGL application performance.

gDEBugger Mac brings all of gDEBugger’s Debugging and Profiling abilities to the Mac OS X OpenGL developer’s world. gDEBugger now runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.

On March 11, NVIDIA launched the GPU Ventures Program, a global initiative thats aim is to identify, support and invest in early stage companies leveraging the GPU for visual and other computing applications. Also announced was the launch of the program’s corresponding GPU Venture Zone website which is a portal designed to showcase the innovative GPU applications being developed.

The new gDEBugger V4.5 adds the ability to view texture MIP-map levels. Each texture MIP-map level’s parameters and data (as an image or raw data) can be displayed in the gDEBugger Texture and Buffers viewer. Browse the different MIP-map levels using the Texture MIP-map Level slidergDEBugger V4.5 also introduces support for 1D and 2D texture arrays. The new Textures and Buffers viewer Texture Layer slider enables viewing the contents of different texture layers. This version also introduces notable performance and stability improvements.

gDEBugger, an OpenGL and OpenGL ES debugger and profiler, traces application activity on top of the OpenGL API and lets programmers see what is happening within the graphics system implementation to find bugs and optimize OpenGL application performance. gDEBugger runs on Windows and Linux operating systems, and is currently in Beta phase on Mac OS X.

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