Our team is here at SIGGRAPH 2010 this week and it’s been a great show so far. One of the things we’re getting asked about most frequently is this eye-catching video wall on display in our booth.

People are amazed these 40 displays, with more than 92 megapixels of resolution are powered by just 10 ATI FirePro™ V8800 graphics accelerators. The ATI S400 Synchronization module ensures all of the monitors are synchronized. Not only is the solution easier to config with less than half of the number of cards required by the ‘lime green guys’, the price is less than half as well[i].

Thanks to our ATI Eyefinity Technology, each ATI FirePro V8800 graphics card is able to drive four displays. Each Colfax workstation powering the wall features up to three V8800s and can power 12 displays. On the other hand, each Nvidia Quadro 5000 card is only able to drive two displays, which means you need twice as many cards in a comparable workstation, resulting in increased complexity, space, systems and power consumption. Further, the Nvidia synchronization module (G-sync) is limited to two GPUs, limiting the total number of outputs per system to four. With the ATI FirePro S400 sync module supporting four GPUs and each GPU supporting four outputs, ATI can drive up to 16 displays per workstation. This factor-of-four advantage in density translates directly into less complexity, space, systems and power.

Our partner, Colfax International, a leading provider of innovative and expertly engineered workstations, servers, clusters, storage and personal supercomputing solutions, has provided the hardware for this set up. Custom engineered for unique customer environments, the Colfax workstation are designed to increase energy efficiency and optimize performance for demanding, real-world workloads.

The software creating the high resolution image shown here on the video wall is provided by partner VizRT, which provides content production tools for the digital media industry, from 3D graphics and maps through integrated video workflow solutions and online publishing tools. Viz Video Wall ER™ revolutionized video-wall setups and created unique surroundings for viewers. Customers choosing Viz Video Wall ER and ATI FirePro graphics can be confident that they have a have a solution designed to power a video wall featuring complex 3D animations and display video at the highest resolutions in perfect lock step.

The digital media industry, including broadcast networks, no longer relies on basic charts or graphs and video alone. They are increasingly pursuing more sophisticated and interactive visualizations that allow them to present information to audiences in new and stimulating ways. The combination of Colfax, Vizrt and ATI FirePro graphics, and the unprecedented density of displays per workstation offered by ATI Eyefinity Technology, brings to life the new possibilities in digital media and video displays.

As the saying goes, seeing is believing. If you are at the show, stop by the booth and see this impressive video wall for yourself. If you’d like to know more about what we’re doing at this year’s SIGGRAPH, please visit Command Your Creations for more detail.

Janet Matsuda is Senior Director, Professional Graphics at AMD
Her postings are her own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

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[i] The ATI FirePro V8800 MSRP USD is $1,499 and the Nvidia Quadro 5000 MSRP USD is $2,249.