Driving Towards Smarter Cities: Reinforcing Intelligent Transportation Systems by HWAcom Cyber Monitor – A Case Study with LED Vision

Transportation is a symbol of national modernized and the engine to drive economic activities more efficient and living standard more civilized. In contemporary Malaysia, rapid urbanization poses significant challenges to transportation systems. The burgeoning urban population has led to increased traffic congestion, longer commute times, and heightened pressure on transportation infrastructure. Efficient traffic management and the need for sustainable solutions are paramount to address these challenges.

Intelligent transportation system (ITS) therefore is suggested to transform the traditional transportation become more responsible to dynamic status and environment by digitalized IoT, edge computer and capability of AI analysis. The mission of ITS development is to deliver efficiency, safety and management.  In the rapidly urbanizing landscape of Malaysia, traffic management has become a critical challenge for cities.  To improve efficiency and for a better traffic management in the city of Johor Baru, LED Vision Sdn Bhd, a professional and experienced player in the traffic industry, and HwaCom System, a reliable network management solution provider, have joined forces to provide its cutting-edge intelligent transportation with resilience of protection to support the city in smart management.

Harnessing the capabilities of HWACom's Cyber Monitor system, the intelligent transportation system of LED Vision has redefined traffic optimization with Cyber Monitor’s protection to ensure the digital-based transportation system operate without risk of downtime.

Led Vision has a proven track record in traffic transportation system.  Its CTi traffic solutions aim to transform traffic management by providing a tailor-made, multi-junction A.I. solution. It empowers traffic junctions to perceive, visualize, analyze, decide, and collaborate effectively. This innovative solution is fueled by artificial intelligence, cloud technology, and machine learning, marking a significant advancement in traffic management systems.

The architecture of the solution involves the strategic installation of AI-enabled CCTV cameras and edge mini PCs at critical junctions. These devices, connected through 4G connectivity, collect vital traffic data, including vehicle counting, classification, origin-to-destination patterns, journey time, and waiting time. The solution utilizes this data to optimize traffic movements, adapt to unforeseen events, and provide real-time insights for efficient traffic For instance, that data not only becomes the reference to authority to regulate the traffic policy, but also becomes the fundamental principle for traffic controllers to decide the duration of green light then even for decision to give a green light wave, which is the term of several traffic lights in green, to digest the heavy traffic efficiently in a set region.

The deployment of the ITS in Johor was undertaken to address specific traffic challenges in the region. By installing AI-enabled CCTVs and mini PCs at key junctions, the solutions effectively collected comprehensive traffic data. This data was then analyzed to identify traffic flow patterns, peak periods, origin-destination matrices, and green wave strategies, facilitating informed traffic management decisions.

The future of intelligent transportation in Malaysia involves embracing cutting-edge technologies to revolutionize urban mobility. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) will play a pivotal role by integrating advanced traffic control, real-time data analysis, and adaptive strategies to optimize traffic flow, reduce congestion, and enhance overall transportation efficiency.  In addition, more application, such as CV2X based solution to enable the connection between the smart traffic light and vehicles for instance, smart ambulance would allow ambulance vehicle receive the priority to pass the junctions for emergency.

Infrastructure of transportation is considered as essential facility because it involve many of people daily activities.  Any downtime of the facility could probably cause an accidents and hurt the users.  To reinforce the resilience of the ITS, a strategic integration with HWACom's Cyber Monitor system, a software-based network management system, was executed. This integration significantly bolstered the security and threat detection capabilities within the transportation system. The collaboration showcased a cohesive and robust ITS ecosystem, ensuring uninterrupted and secure traffic operations.

In this case, Cyber Monitor is deployed to monitor those digital IoT devices, edge computer and traffic light controller is securely connected.  It also monitors the data transmission between the edge devices and cloud without interruption.  Road side units are usually operating in a rugged environment with high temperature and humidity.  Cyber Monitor can monitor those devices of operation in real time and notify the administrators in case of any faulty or abnormity, set by threshold.  Cyber Monitor prevent the solution from risk by downtime.

The groundbreaking solutions have marked a significant stride in improving urban mobility and traffic management. Together, HWACom and LED Vision Sdn Bhd have not only addressed the urbanization challenges but have also set a promising trajectory for the future of intelligent transportation in Malaysia. This collaboration demonstrates the potential to build smart, efficient, and secure cities for the citizens of Malaysia.

 

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6Estates marks the pioneering deployment of NVIDIA DGX BasePOD, featuring NVIDIA DGX H100 Systems, in Southeast Asia

6Estates Pte Ltd, a company headquartered in Singapore specializing in Enterprise AI solutions, has successfully deployed the inaugural NVIDIA DGX™ BasePOD featuring NVIDIA DGX H100 systems in Southeast Asia. This deployment aims to expedite AI innovation and facilitate digital transformation initiatives throughout the region.

Spun off from the National University of Singapore and Tsinghua University, 6Estates focuses on delivering domain-specific large language model (LLM)-backed solutions to enterprises. 6Estates is also a member of NVIDIA Inception, a program for cutting-edge startups revolutionising industries with technological advancements.

DGX BasePOD leverages NVIDIA's full-stack data centre platform, including industry-leading computing, storage, networking, software, and infrastructure management all optimised to work together and provide maximum performance at scale.

6Estates plans to use its NVIDIA DGX BasePOD for its new Model Solutions offering, which empowers enterprises with customised, domain-specific LLMs and applications. The company will also have access to NVIDIA AI Enterprise software for secure, stable and supported production AI. The software layer of the NVIDIA AI platform, NVIDIA AI Enterprise, offers 100+ frameworks, pretrained models, and development tools to accelerate data science and streamline the deployment of production-ready generative AI, computer vision, speech AI, and more.

The cluster will also support 6Estates' existing AI solutions – namely its Intelligent Document Processing platform, which automates processing and analysis for unstructured, template-free documents, and automates workflows for lenders and trade companies from end to end.
"There is immense potential for Generative AI to transform how businesses operate – spanning from how they execute internal processes to how they understand and serve their customer base. We are seeing incredible demand from customers looking to implement LLM solutions that are highly tailored and with the highest assurance of security, and we are excited to bring this to life for enterprises in the region," said Dr. Luan Huanbo, Founder and CEO of 6Estates.

Next-Generation Model Training and Inference

NVIDIA DGX H100 systems form the building blocks of the world's most advanced and most powerful AI computing platform. Each system contains eight NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs, which feature the new Transformer Engine, second-generation secure Multi-Instance GPU capabilities, and fourth-generation NVIDIA NVLink connectivity. With DGX H100 systems, 6Estates can achieve up to 4x higher speed for GPT-3 AI training and up to 30x higher speed for AI inference compared to the previous generation.

Using NVIDIA DGX H100, 6Estates will materially shorten model training time to deliver faster Model Solutions service to enterprise customers.

6Estates' NVIDIA DGX BasePOD cluster with NVIDIA DGX H100 systems can help power domain-specific LLM training and on-premise deployments to customers.

"Supporting large enterprises that need to process and understand substantial amounts of customer data to develop a truly transformational LLM requires significant compute resources – NVIDIA DGX H100 provides access to the industry-leading performance needed to do so," said Dr Luan.

"Generative AI is helping businesses across industries create new opportunities and better serve customers. 6Estates' deployment of NVIDIA DGX AI supercomputing can help organisations across Southeast Asia drive growth through the development of advanced AI services and solutions," said Dennis Ang, Senior Director of Enterprise Business for the ASEAN and ANZ Regions at NVIDIA.

Empowering Businesses with Customised, Domain-Specific LLMs

6Estates has begun developing domain-specific LLMs for several customers – one in the finance domain, with a commercial company targeting to train 70B ~ 130B size models, and another in the medical domain, with a research institution targeting to train 7B, 13B, and 65B size models.
The benefits of domain-specific LLMs are manifold. For the financial services industry, which is a key market for 6Estates, the cluster will be leveraged to support customers with:

• Automating customer onboarding and fraud / risk assessments

• Extracting deeper customer insights for credit assessment and monitoring

• Synthesising customer data across multiple internal and external applications

• Forecasting and monitoring financial impact from customers

• Generating more appropriate product recommendations

• Delivering more precise and informed automated customer support

• Simplifying reporting and analysis for management teams

Facilitating more rewarding employee experiences through reduced manual work
6Estates is ready to equip companies with customised on-premise AI capabilities, as well as AI-enabled Intelligent Document Processing and end-to-end workflow automation.

Get in touch with the team today to explore how to use domain-specific LLMs to drive growth and efficiency and strengthen business operations.

About 6Estates
6Estates is an LLM-powered Enterprise AI solution provider based in Singapore, spun off from National University of Singapore and Tsinghua University. It provides a comprehensive range of domain-specific LLM solutions, from hardware and base models, to LLM tuning and applications.
Through the Model Solutions offering, 6Estates empowers enterprise customers in Southeast Asia with fully customised on-premise AGI capabilities. It also delivers ready-to-use LLM-powered applications through its Intelligent Document Processing platform, which provides fast and accurate document extraction and analysis, as well as end-to-end workflow automation for lenders and trade companies.

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Samsung Provides Memory Solutions for Automotive

With Samsung’s wide selection of DRAM and Flash memory, you can build optimized systems with absolute confidence. Samsung's memory provides exceptional speed and ample capacity with outstanding energy efficiency.

With Samsung DRAM and flash memory, system performance is robust and stable even in extreme high and low temperatures.

Longevity matching automotive life cycles
Samsung provides extended support to enable sufficient safety testing and defect resolution that meets the needs of the market, through dedicated manufacturing lines for its automotive memory products.

Two graphs show Product development and manufacturing lifecycles with the phase including Design, Development, Evaluation, Pre-Production Manufacturing, Production. In the Automotive Industry, Semiconductor Production decreases upon Pre-Production Manufacturing, Production. In the Semiconductor Industry the Production rises upon Design, Evaluation Production phase. 

Comprehensive portfolio for enhanced connected cars
Samsung offers a wide range of products for connected cars, satisfying diverse demands of the market with reduced compatibility issues and customization concerns and provides dedicated technical support to effectively speed up the time to market for automotive manufacturers.

Samsung automotive DRAM Memory
Samsung follows the standards of AEC-Q100 to enhance reliability. Our automotive DRAM products’ advanced ECC and single-digit PPM provides improved quality and safety while driving. We are actively engaged in the automotive memory business to provide the reliable high quality automotive memory solutions on the market.

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Case Study: Roger Williams University Enables VDI Initiative with NVIDIA GRID™

Roger Williams University (RWU) is a leading independent university based in Rhode Island, with 4,300 undergraduate students and 900 graduate students. One of RWU’s most renowned academic programs is architecture, with programs that foster both rigorous technical and design curricula with a well-rounded liberal arts foundation. RWU offers its students programs that prepare them for professional careers, with working methodologies that mimic what they might find in a real-world company. As part of that effort, RWU tapped systems integrator Logical Front to give architecture students the flexibility to work from anywhere, on any device, even when using graphics- intensive applications like Autodesk’s AutoCAD ® and Revit ®, and Adobe ® Creative Suite ® 6. In order to facilitate an efficient virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) robust enough to support the aforementioned applications, RWU turned to Dell PowerEdge ™ servers running Citrix’s XenServer with NVIDIA’s GRID ™ technology for GPU virtualization. To more effectively implement this solution for their students, Logical Front worked closely with RWU’s IT group, including James Galib IT Director; Ryan Tiebout Systems Operations Manager; and Gerald Normandin Systems Administrator.

Solution Overview:
> Industry: Higher education
> Server Hardware: Dell PowerEdge Servers, GRID K2
> Server Hypervisor: Citrix XenServer
> VDI: Citrix XenDesktop with HDX 3D Pro
> Virtual GPU type: GRID vGPU-shared
> Type of Users: Power users and Designers. Architecture and engineering students
> Number of Users: 1000+
> Applications: Autodesk AutoCad, Revit. Adobe Creative Suite

Roger Williams U. VDI integration uses Dell PowerEdge servers

CHALLENGE

The biggest hurdle in RWU’s transition to a virtual desktop infrastructure for its architecture students was the ability to effectively provide access to the graphics-rich applications that its students require. VDI had the potential to let students work with much more flexibility, grow comfortable with real-world practices, and to eliminate cumbersome desktops from the architecture lab, thus freeing up more space for classrooms - however, everything needed to work seamlessly for adoption to take hold.

“Before we started testing VDI with NVIDIA GRID, we were seeing many problems; many solutions just didn’t work well with the intense graphics and video environment that an architecture department needs,” explained James Galib. “As soon as we had more than 8-10 people connected, the frame rates in 3D renderings would just go way down and get jumpy. The software applications became very clunky to use and it just wasn’t conducive to architecture work at all and students weren’t able to maintain a good project flow,” added Ryan Tiebout. “We were getting very frustrated searching for a viable VDI solution that could support our graphics needs, and no other schools seemed to have VDI systems in place at this level,” continued Galib. “That’s when we started working with Logical Front. They introduced us to GPU virtualization with NVIDIA GRID and that really saved the project in my opinion—otherwise, this initiative may have failed.”

SOLUTION
Logical Front set up RWU with a custom VDI system dubbed “rCloud” featuring Dell Equallogic storage, Dell PowerConnect ™ switching, and Dell PowerEdge servers running a total of twelve NVIDIA GRID K2 boards through Citrix XenServer. NVIDIA’s GRID ™ vGPU ™ technology allows up to 8 to 16 concurrent users to share one GPU – meaning that with this configuration, rCloud can support up to 96 to 192 concurrent graphics users. RWU’s IT Group saw immediate improvement with the graphics performance on virtual machines, and students responded enthusiastically to the technology and the flexibility it offered. With GRID, architecture students now have the ability to access graphics-intensive applications like AutoCAD outside the lab, and see the same high level of performance on any device.

“GRID totally opens up what our students can do, and it raises the bar for our university as a whole.” “Students are telling us that rCloud is very easy to access and runs very smoothly,” said Galib. “They love the ability to work on their own devices and still access any application they need, even outside of the lab. Even students with lower-end devices are using rCloud successfully and get the same performance they would on a workstation thanks to GRID. The flexibility of VDI is a huge value-add to our students, and will allow them to save money on hardware and software in the long run, which is very important to us.”

IMPACT
After achieving great success with VDI in the Architecture program, RWU is in the process of rolling out rCloud to other departments as well, starting with engineering, with the ultimate goal of making it accessible to all students. Right now 1,000 RWU students (about a quarter of the student body) have access to rCloud , with varying levels of graphics power allotted based on their area of study.

“We are definitely going to ramp up rCloud by bringing in more GRID K2 boards, as well as introducing GRID K1 boards to increase our density and cater to less-heavy graphics users,” explained Tiebout. “The K2 boards will be dedicated to graphics power users like the architecture and engineering students, while the K1 boards will ensure that any student can still experience seamless graphics performance even on more basic applications like Microsoft ® Office and Internet Explorer. This means that students can truly use any application, anywhere - giving each student the flexibility to work outside of a computer lab or library, no matter what they’re working on.”

“We are so excited to bring this cutting edge technology to students,” concluded Galib.

To learn more about NVIDIA GRID, go to www.nvidia.com/vdi

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Case Study: Turkish Aerospace Relies On NVIDIA GRID for VDI Build Out

Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI) is Turkey’s center of technology for the design, development, modernization, manufacturing, integration and life cycle support of integrated aerospace systems, from fixed and rotary wing aircraft to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems and space systems. With the strategic investments made in recent years, TAI has established a respected and recognized presence in the global market as a reliable player known for its technologies and commitment to ultimate customer satisfaction. The widespread product and activity range grant TAI a unique and unmatched position globally. In order to handle the increasing number of engineers and required graphics power, TAI recently adopted NVIDIA’s GRID graphics-accelerated virtual desktop and application technology to streamline its IT network and optimize available GPU resources.

Solution overview: 

> Industry: Aerospace
> User Profiles: Designers and Power Users
> Number of Users: 1300+
> Applications: Siemens NX, Siemens PLM Viewer, Oracle AutoVue
> Server Hardware: Dell R720 servers with NVIDIA GRID ™ K1 and K2 Graphics Cards
> Server Software: Citrix XenServer
> VDI: Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp
> Virtual GPU Solution: vGPU

Turkish Aerospace engineers get fully optimized graphics regardless of their client hardware

CHALLENGE
TAI currently has over 1,500 engineers at its central facility in Ankara, but plans to double that number within the next few years. User hardware varies greatly, ranging from entry-level thin clients with standard office productivity applications (e.g. Internet Explorer ® and Microsoft ® Office) to advanced workstations with heavy CAD applications for design and visualization (e.g. Siemens NX). Each user requires dedicated graphics cards—both for the graphics-intensive applications on the professional-grade workstations, and to view CAD data on thin clients and business PCs over TAI’s secure Intranet, via applications such as Siemens PLM Viewer and Oracle AutoVue. TAI’s IT department faced significant challenges in supporting varying hardware setups and dozens of different applications, and knew they needed to simplify before they continued expanding. Furthermore, with its previous 1:1 user-to-graphics card setup, TAI needed a way to increase user density and more efficiently allocate GPU power as needed to its growing pool of engineers.

“Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and dynamic allocation of GPU power to virtual machines via vGPU ™ became a necessity for our IT department,” explained Serdar Kaya, IT System Engineer, TAI. “In this environment where we are constantly expanding, and our engineers require varying amounts of graphics power each day from project to project, simply buying and maintaining more workstations and more graphics cards became costly and unmanageable. We needed to be able to simplify overall and also increase our user density.”TAI had already adopted Citrix’s XenDesktop ® and XenApp to begin shifting to a virtualized infrastructure - but graphics density and allotment remained hurdles.


“Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and dynamic allocation of GPU power to virtual machines via vGPU became a necessity for our IT department,”

SOLUTION
TAI turned to NVIDIA’s GRID technology to address its graphics-related issues. TAI adopted servers equipped with GRID K1 boards to enable applications for viewing CAD models and office productivity in a virtualized environment; and adopted servers with GRID K2 boards (to enable heavy CAD applications such as Siemens NX in a virtualized environment. NVIDIA’s GRID vGPU (virtual GPU) Manager allows up to eight users to simultaneously share a single GPU from both boards, which instantly increased TAI’s user density without compromising graphics performance.

Virtual GPU sharing allowed TAI to maximize the efficiency of its available resources. No longer tied to a 1:1 GPU setup, the IT department could allocate graphics power to a wide range of simultaneous users as needed. The availability of this technology allowed TAI’s workforce to scale up while being easily manageable for the IT department, and without requiring additional space in the server room.

“A common problem we faced was that an engineer would be working on Project A where he might require additional memory or more graphics power than usual, so we install more RAM and higher-end graphics cards onto his workstation,” explained Kaya. “But then after a few weeks this engineer would switch over to Project B, which had lesser requirements, but it’s not necessarily worth it for us to uninstall the extra RAM or extra GPU. Now multiply that by thousands of engineers. NVIDIA GRID ™ allows us to optimize our hardware investments so that resources can be easily shared and transferred between users as needed - nothing goes to waste.”

NVIDIA GRID also eliminated latency issues, providing a truly responsive and interactive user experience on graphics-intensive applications. Users experienced fully optimized graphics performance regardless of their hardware—thin clients, workstations, and more are supported.

“VDI and GRID make the job so much easier for our IT department, because GRID supports our entire range of users - from thin client hardware to advanced workstation hardware, and from basic productivity applications to professional design and visualization applications,” said Kaya. “GRID really streamlined our IT support. I can now give our users a boost of GPU power on the fly. It’s as simple as allocating additional GPUs in XenServer, and the GPU upgrade is there once the virtual machine is powered up again.”

IMPACT
“NVIDIA GRID is like nitrogen for virtual desktop infrastructure,” continued Kaya. “You use nitrogen in your car engine when you require an extra boost of power - and that’s exactly what GRID has done for our virtual machines.”  TAI plans to outfit its Ankara facility with several more GRID K1 and K2-equipped servers, to fully realize the benefits of virtual GPU technology for its growing user base. And with the recent release of Citrix XenDesktop 7, TAI can leverage new improvements for even more GRID functionality.

“NVIDIA GRID is allowing TAI to expand efficiently,” said Kaya. “It supports our dynamic environment by optimizing our available resources and eliminating strains on IT. I am eager to increase our number of GRID-equipped servers, so that we can share the benefits of the virtual GPU with as many of our users as possible.”

“With GRID, TAI has been able to enhance IT efficiency and performance, which reduces costs and improves productivity. This technology will help us to achieve our goals within the global aerospace industry,” concluded Gülsen Bayramusta, Manager of IT, TAI.

To learn more about NVIDIA GRID, go to www.nvidia.com/vdi

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GPU acceleration gives a significant performance boost to Java applications

At the JavaOne conference in San Francisco IBM demonstrated how GPU-powered hardware could accelerate Java applications. According to Sumit Gupta general manager, Tesla GPU Accelerated Computing at Nvidia, there are other general purpose GPU applications as well as IBM's ground-breaking demo.

In his keynote presentation at at JavaOne, IBM’s chief technology officer of Java, John Duimovich,explained that IBM will be enabling IBM runtimes for server-based GPU accelerators and is also set to investigate the use of GPU acceleration in standard workloads under existing application programming interfaces.

GPU acceleration is nothing new. The graphics processing demands of the latest generation of 2D and 3D computer games has been deployed in scientific computing and for rendering animation films like Avatar (pictured), thanks to Nvidia's Cuda libraries, which makes the GPU programmable.

Where IBM has differed is in its use of the GPU for more general purpose computing. Although it also used the Cuda libraries to attain the 48x Java performance break-through, Gupta says IBM is also investigating how to incorporate the libraries into the next version of the Java Development Kit (JDK).

In doing so, he believes IBM's research will enable GPU acceleration to be used to speed up Java, without the need to use Cuda. It could be a significant milestone, given Java powers many of the many of the application servers behind e-commerce systems. “The type of applications that can be accelerated are either compute or data intensive,” Gupta says.

But he says applications will need to be modified to use GPU acceleration. “In a standard Java program you need to add a few keywords to the programming language to tell the Java compiler to map to the GPU.” Nvidia has already added seven new keywords to the C++ programming language to enable programmers to tell the C++ compiler that a section of code needs to run on a GPU.

Seven extra Java keywords may not seem like a lot. Gupta says: “The challenge is not the programming language. The challenge is thinking about the way to solve a problem in a parallel [computing] way.”

For instance, in a very basic sorting algorithm to order a list of numbers a program could run down the list comparing each number to find the largest one, then run down the same procedure again for the next largest number until the whole list had been sorted This is a linear sort: it starts at the top of the list and processes one number at a time until it reaches the bottom.

“You could also sort in a parallel way. Lots of algorithms already use a parallel programming model.” Running in parallel means that each GPU could handle a bit of the task independently.

A program to sort a list of 20 numbers could divide the list into four groups of five, and split the processing so that each GPU handles one of the four groups ie GPU 1 processes the first five numbers, GPU handles the second group of five and so on. Gupta says the big issue for software developers is that they need to be aware of data bottleneck. A data botteneck would occur if more than one GPU simultaneously accessed the same data such as if GPU1 and GPU2 tried to look at the first group of five numbers in the sorting example. He says this problem would not normally occur if an algorithm is coded normally in a linear way, since only one processor is being used, and it can only process one piece of information at a time.

Beyond the advantages of parallel programming Gupta says: “The biggest benefit of the GPU is it has memory that is 6* faster than CPU memory due to DDR5 SDRAM.” He says GPU-powered graphics cards offer high operational throughput and very high memory bandwidth, which makes GPUs suitable for data analytics accelerators.

He says Salesforce.com has a group that does sentiment analysis on Twitter feeds using GPUs for data analytics. The Shazam cloud-based song matching service also uses GPU-based data analysis to help users identify songs, by analysing a sample against a music fingerprint. “Companies like Jedox and Fuzzy Logix are among a few companies who are building businesses using GPU accelerators for databases,” Gupta adds.

But given that a high-end graphics card can only have up to 6 GB of SDRAM, there are unlikely to be any in-memory GPU-based database accelerators coming to market in the near future, since the RAM requirements of in-memory databases are thousands of times greater.

However, Gupta believes GPUs will have a place in database acceleration. He says: “Within the core database, the GPU is very fast at sorting [data].”

A GPU-powered database system would need some way to transfer data to and from the GPU. Once in the GPU's memory, data processing should be extremely fast. Such technology is theoretically possible but it is a long way off, according got Gupta. “It may take some time for someone to invent.”

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Case Study : Adrenaline Soaked Productions Driven by NVIDIA Quadro Professional Graphics Solutions

At the intersection of action adventure storytelling and cutting-edge video processing technology, a new breed of filmmaker is materializing. These artists are producing adrenaline-soaked movies, commercials and branded entertainment with an immediacy that engages viewers at a visceral level.

To craft their visual stories, these professionals need tools as nimble and fast-paced as they are. Lugging around huge cameras or waiting for video editing equipment to process shots are not options. 

Bandito Brothers, a full-service media company and filmmaking collective based in Los Angeles, specializes in harnessing technology to create authentic action/adventure content. With a range of workstations running the Adobe Creative Suite 5 software, and IRIDAS SpeedGrade– all powered by the NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics solutions – Bandito Brothers is able to edit its work in real-time and at full-scale resolution.

Bandito Brothers is known for its high-octane in-camera action seen in commercials for cars, soft drinks and branches of the US armed forces, as well as on the silver screen. Scenes used in the studio’s work often integrate adventure sports such as motorcycle racing, surfing, snowboarding and skateboarding, or actual military exercises with live ammunition.

"We are fearless directors and cameramen who are willing to immerse ourselves in pretty much anything to get great footage – and we are also technologists who push technology in post-production to achieve our desired results," said Jacob Rosenberg, Chief Technology Officer and Director at Bandito Brothers. "For us, the Adobe and NVIDIA tools are like a Swiss army knife, allowing you to create essentially anything you want right on your desktop."

The right technology for the job

"We create ‘cinematic non-fiction,'" said Rosenberg. "We architect a story with real people, shoot it, edit it and tell that authentic experience."

Whether it’s a skateboarder dragged behind a subway train for a Mountain Dew commercial, or films such as Dust to Glory (about the Baja 100 road race) and Step Into Liquid (about extreme surfing), Bandito Brothers makes sure it conveys an immersive, "being-there" quality.

Bandito Brothers uses Quadro-equipped workstations running Adobe Premiere Pro and IRIDAS SpeedGrade software. Their post-production technology works with any camera format, so the filmmakers need not rely on large, unwieldy cameras to capture their action footage. Recently they have been using the new Canon 5D Mark II Digital SLR, making it very easy to get high quality footage while hanging out of speeding vehicles or parachuting out of planes.

"We need to work in a WYSIWYG environment," said Rosenberg. "Quadro enables us to watch a full broadcast monitor to see scenes with pixel-for-pixel accuracy. We create a color profile correction, throw it on the timeline, and it looks much better than just the raw video."

When editing and applying effects, the CUDA parallel computing architecture of NVIDIA Quadro GPUs dramatically accelerates Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. As a result, Bandito Brothers artists enjoy an amazingly fluid, real-time video editing experience at full resolution, without expensive, custom hardware or additional third-party products.

In addition, deploying the NVIDIA Quadro Digital Video Pipeline solutions, Bandito Brothers utilizes HD-SDI output options, and routes the video feeds to various review stations in the studio, or their plush screening room. “Right now we are using single channel HD-SDI output, but when we move to 3D, we know Quadro’s built-in dual channel support is waiting for us and ready to go," said Rosenberg.

Better efficiency allows more time for creativity

With Adobe CS5 and the Quadro GPU, Bandito Brothers can now take footage from a shoot, import it directly into Premiere Pro CS5 and begin editing right away. The Mercury Playback Engine in CS5 enables editing of RAW footage taken directly from the Canon 5D and placed in the timeline.

"With Quadro, we see our work in real-time, at the right resolution, without having to go through proxies or temporary files," said Rosenberg. "NVIDIA enables us to reduce the number of steps in the editing process and shortens the remaining steps – so the whole post-production process is more efficient."

By streamlining the production process, the combination of Adobe and NVIDIA technologies free Bandito Brothers to reach their full creative potential.

"It's important for us to create work that not only our clients appreciate, but also that we believe in," said Rosenberg. "NVIDIA Quadro allows us to have an immediate immersive experience, doing things in real-time at the highest possible quality.

"We have high expectations for what we do," he said. "Because we trust the solutions from Adobe and NVIDIA, we are able to produce authentic video content that exceeds our expectations."

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