Why “Gaming” Chips Are Moving Into the Server Room
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 2:07 pm
Article
We're definitely seeing more and more things using GPU's.After several years of trying, graphics processing units (GPUs) are beginning to win over the major server vendors. Dell and IBM are the first tier-one server vendors to adopt GPUs as server processors for high-performance computing (HPC). Here’s a manager’s view of the hardware change and what it might mean to your data center. (Hint: faster servers.)
GPUs are normally used in desktop PCs, where they serve as high-speed graphics accelerators, primarily for games. But it’s slowly dawning on both server makers and end-users that GPUs make great math co-processors for more tasks than just gaming.
In May, IBM announced plans to offer a pair of Tesla M2050 GPUs in its iDataPlex dx360 M3 scale-out servers. Dell followed with an early June announcement that its PowerEdge M610x blade servers would come with a pair of Tesla GPUs. The M610x, equipped with an Intel Xeon 5500 or 5600, can generate up to 400 gigaflops of performance.