[Forbes] Nvidia will power Microsoft Azure ( Microsoft Next gen Cloud)

[desprado]

NVIDIA just announced that Microsoft will offer professional graphics applications and accelerated computing capabilities to customers worldwide through its Azure cloud platform, by leveraging NVIDIA GRID 2.0 virtualized graphics technology. Microsoft MSFT +2.27% will be offering the capabilities with its new N-Series virtual machine offerings, which makes Azure the first cloud-computing platform to provide access to NVIDIA NVDA +4.17% GRID 2.0 for enterprise customers.
“Our vision is to deliver accelerated graphics and high performance computing to any connected device, regardless of location,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “We are excited to collaborate with Microsoft Azure to give engineers, designers, content creators, researchers and other professionals the ability to visualize complex, data-intensive designs accurately from anywhere.”
NVIDIA GRID 2.0 essentially gives users access to NVIDIA Quadro-accelerated professional graphics applications in a virtualized environment. Microsoft is able to provide said access via the cloud through Azure, or via a hybrid of the two using both Windows and Linux virtual machines.
Azure will also offer customers access to NVIDIA Tesla Accelerated Computing Platforms, including the flagship Tesla K80 GPU accelerators, for highly parallelized operations or high performance computing (HPC) applications.
“As a leader in advanced visualization, NVIDIA GPUs were a clear choice for our new N-Series compute family,” said Jason Zander, corporate vice president at Microsoft Azure. “NVIDIA and Microsoft have a long history of enabling industry-wide innovation and we look forward to working with them to bring this revolutionary cloud experience to our customers.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcoch...ns-via-azure-with-nvidia-grid-2-0-technology/

 

[tential]

Microsoft waned to use azure to power part of their gaming console too right?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Microsoft waned to use azure to power part of their gaming console too right?

They have stated they wanted or could offload to their server cloud to boost Xbox One performance. I wouldn't be surprised if the future of consoles was purely streaming based content.

 

[tviceman]

They have stated they wanted or could offload to their server cloud to boost Xbox One performance. I wouldn't be surprised if the future of consoles was purely streaming based content.

I would be surprised, the infrastructure in most of the world isn't ready for 100% based streaming of high fidelity, fast twitch games.

 

[Silverforce11]

Streaming would be horrible for gaming. We're flipping out over frame latencies that vary by 8ms, good luck streaming from the cloud on top of that. heh

This kind of application is for virtual desktops & workstations. Not gaming. It'll never catch on for gaming.

 

[n0x1ous]

I would be surprised, the infrastructure in most of the world isn't ready for 100% based streaming of high fidelity, fast twitch games.

Streaming would be horrible for gaming. We're flipping out over frame latencies that vary by 8ms, good luck streaming from the cloud on top of that. heh

We are talking about consoles guys. they don't know what fast twitch games are, nor do they know or detect latencies with their [inferior] controllers. This is perfectly reasonable to think that this is the last console gen and next gen will just be a steam link like box from MS and or Sony. for console peasants, that will be good enough for them

Profanity isn't allowed in the technical forums. Elitism is tolerated.
-- stahlhart

 

[railven]

From my understanding, MSFT wants to offload some game computation to servers (ie background scenery, physics calculations on destructible objects, etc etc), which will boil down to eye candy. If done right, it can be very immersion for the player(s). If not, expect some hardcore "lip synching" issues when you shoot a wall and the hole appears 2-3 seconds later.

 

[Dribble]

Streaming would be horrible for gaming. We're flipping out over frame latencies that vary by 8ms, good luck streaming from the cloud on top of that. heh

This kind of application is for virtual desktops & workstations. Not gaming. It'll never catch on for gaming.

While I agree grid gaming does have downsides, there are advantages too. Remember that any online gaming is already dependent on the game server which is in the cloud. If the gpu grid is in the same place as the server so has 0 latency to it then you've got a big advantage there. Even better if the game server is the same machine providing the players games - so you say play L4D 4 player using grid and the L4D server and all 4 players are running on the same machine (some monster 16 core, 8 gpu job).

 

[thesmokingman]

This smells like a fluff piece.

 

[Genx87]

I feel like some of this is wishful thinking. Even if we get 1Gbps lines to our homes in the next 10 years. Local resources will vastly out perform anything coming from the cloud.

Now if they are going to allow for virtual desktops to utilize local hardware on the host to increase performance of applications. That makes much more sense than trying to game through the cloud in the next 10 years.

Anybody remember the last Simcity? They were trying to offload background processes into the cloud. The result was a complete disaster. And that is a simulation game that wasnt fast twitch.

 

[PhonakV30]

You need Internet with much less latency.ofc their market will be limited.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Streaming would be horrible for gaming. We're flipping out over frame latencies that vary by 8ms, good luck streaming from the cloud on top of that. heh

This kind of application is for virtual desktops & workstations. Not gaming. It'll never catch on for gaming.

I agree.

 

[ShintaiDK]

An interesting development.
http://techreport.com/news/29142/microsoft-acquires-havok-physics-engine-from-intel

The company also alludes to the possibility of including Havok in its Azure cloud services, as part of its effort to build "the most complete cloud service.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Of course, this being NVidia, their GPU virtualization features are software-based, rather than hardware-based like AMD. Currently, that means that other users can spy on what the other GPU processes are doing. Crypto? Bad idea with a scenario like this.

I can only see this being useful for cloud gaming. Any other uses, would be a poor idea, from a security POV.

http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/amd-firepro-multiuser-gpu-vdi,1-2855.html

I think that the mention of the "security issues" surrounding NV's GPU virtualization solution were discussed on TheReg.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Of course, this being NVidia, their GPU virtualization features are software-based, rather than hardware-based like AMD.

Where did you get that idea?

http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA4-1701ENW.pdf

 

[Good_fella]

Where did you get that idea?

http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA4-1701ENW.pdf

Rekt. AMD fooling us with "hardware-based virtualization", "hardware Asynh".

 

[Mondozei]

Rekt. AMD fooling us with "hardware-based virtualization", "hardware Asynh".

Except AMD has hardware-level support of Async Compute and NV doesn't, although that's a different topic. If you're going to attack AMD then at least do so with facts and not with a confused mind.

 

[Good_fella]

Except AMD has hardware-level support of Async Compute and NV doesn't, although that's a different topic. If you're going to attack AMD then at least do so with facts and not with a confused mind.

And what if changes? If you're going to attack Nvidia then at least know what industry wants.

 

[gamervivek]

Where did you get that idea?

http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA4-1701ENW.pdf

This very forum, besides the discussion on B3D. :whiste:

https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/c..._worlds_first_hardwarebased/cunvdeq?context=3

But AMD being AMD, this went to nvidia.

https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/nvidia-maxwell-speculation-thread.50568/page-179

 

[ShintaiDK]

I see, so HP/nVidia is right and the forum is just forum nonsense

 

[itsmydamnation]

I see, so HP/nVidia is right and the forum is just forum nonsense

how many VDI's can you support per card.......

thats the difference between the tech.

Also GRID has been out of ages, Vmware and Citrix have pushed it hard with little success ( atleast at the clients i do work for).

AMD's play is new so its likely going to take a while to get some traction.