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CAD Central (News and Analysis)
2 Feb, 2009 By: Kenneth WongSolidWorks CEO Blogs and Twitters; IMSI Delays Launch of CAD Freeware; For Design Answers, Ask Nature; Autodesk Rounds Out FEA Portfolio; Taiwan Plays Catch-Up in RP Development; Judge Partially Dismisses Autodesk vs. SolidWorks Suit; Geomagic Studio 10x Ships; The Fate of Macworld Expo; AMD Looks to the Clouds
AMD Looks to the Clouds
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, AMD's president and CEO Dirk Meyer revealed his company's upcoming contribution to cloud computing: ADM Fusion Render Cloud. Flanked by officials from Lucasfilm, Dell, HP, and game publisher Electronic Arts, Meyer explained his vision.
 Using OTOY's web plug-in, AMD Fusion Render Cloud will deliver cinematic quality renderings (such as the one here, from OTOY's web site) to remote desktops. |
AMD Fusion Render Cloud, he said, is "a new kind of supercomputer . . . designed to break the one petaFLOPS barrier and to process a million compute threads across more than 1,000 graphics processors. . . . And it will be powered by OTOY's software for a singular purpose: to make HD (high-definition) cloud computing a reality."
Theoretically, when the supercomputer comes online, people will be able to play video games and run graphics-intense applications and horsepower-hungry programs from a web browser or a mobile device. AMD Fusion Render Cloud will execute the users' commands and deliver cinematic-quality output to the users' devices and machines, using OTOY's web plug-in (www.otoy.com). In short, users will have access to a supercomputer's rendering and processing power without having to own one. The AMD Fusion Render Cloud will be powered by AMD Phenom II processors, AMD 790 chipsets, and ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics processors.
AMD's announcement came barely one month after Autodesk CEO Carl Bass expressed his interest in cloud computing during the Autodesk University conference at the same locale ("Event Report: Autodesk University 2008, Part 2 — cloud computing in the forecast for desktop-dominated CAD market," December 10, 2008, www.cadalyst.com). For the CAD community, AMD and Autodesk's flight into the cloud promises faster, cheaper ways to visualize sophisticated architectural scenes, render animations, and display finite-element analysis results.
IMSI/Design Delays CAD Freeware Launch
At Autodesk University last December, IMSI/Design, makers of TurboCAD, unveiled a 2D CAD product it planned to give away. At the time, the company introduced the software as A/CAD LT Express. (For more, read "IMSI/Design Freeware Targets AutoCAD LT Users," CAD Central, November/December 2008.) IMSI/Design announced it would make the free version available by year end from the designated download site at www.acadnow.com. But at press time, the portal redirected visitors to firstlook.imsidesign.com, showing a half-drawn curtain and the message "Coming soon."
"A/CAD is now called DoubleCAD (for Drafting & Detailing)," explained CEO Royal Farros. "Autodesk abandoned the ACAD trademark some 17 years before, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records," he said, but Autodesk said it would oppose use of the name. DoubleCAD XT and XT Pro are now expected to ship in February.
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AutoCAD Tips!
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