2010/11/17 12:15:01
Amazon推出新的NVIDIA繪圖晶片運算服務
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為了反映科技界的未來趨勢，Amazon Web Services (AWS)新增了一項新的運算方式，它將使用電腦的繪圖晶片。
AWS的Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)可讓用戶使用不同類型的線上運算資源，只要付費就能使用。EC2一開始只是傳統的企業伺服器設定，但是Amazon為它增加了不同的服務以滿足特定的運算需求。
新的Cluster GPU服務是一台伺服器，配備兩顆四核英特爾Nehalem系列Xeon X5570處理器、兩顆Nvidia Fermi系列Tesla M2050繪圖晶片、22GB的記憶體、1.7TB儲存空間、以及10 gigabit的乙太網路連線。
繪圖處理器一開始只是專門用來加速電腦的繪圖運作，主要是3D遊戲與設計軟體。但是近年來繪圖晶片的效能大幅增進，早已超出當初設計的目的，這也是他們會現身在超級電腦之中的原因，例如世界最快的超級電腦Tianhe-1A。
深入來說，GPU可以用來處理媒體資料—例如重新剪輯影像大小，或是壓縮音訊—並且也可以處理一些平行執行的計算工作。這是因為繪圖晶片很擅於執行這種類型的運作。因為每一顆Nvidia M2050具有448個處理核心可處理這種平行工作。
但是設計這些混合式系統並不是容易的事，因為繪圖晶片與傳統的處理器各自有其記憶體。為了使用它，程式設計者可以直接寫入到Nvidia 專為GPU處理的CUDA技術，使用專供它運用的程式碼函式庫，或是使用較高層的介面如OpenCL標準。
新的GPU服務目前只有搭配Linux執行，並且僅在Amazon的北維吉尼亞州區提供。目前它最貴的服務為每小時2.10美元。相較於傳統執行Linux伺服器的每小時費用為34美分，Windows伺服器則為每小時48美分。
(ZDNet Taiwan編輯部/Rex Chang譯)
Amazon EC2 Functionality with NVIDIA Graphic Cores
Amazon EC2 presents a true virtual computing environment, allowing you to use web service interfaces to launch instances with a variety of operating systems, load them with your custom application environment, manage your network’s access permissions, and run your image using as many or few systems as you desire.
Cluster GPU Instances
Instances of this family provide general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) with proportionally high CPU and increased network performance for applications benefitting from highly parallelized processing, including HPC, rendering and media processing applications. While Cluster Compute Instances provide the ability to create clusters of instances connected by a low latency, high throughput network, Cluster GPU Instances provide an additional option for applications that can benefit from the efficiency gains of the parallel computing power of GPUs over what can be achieved with traditional processors. Learn more about use of this instance type for HPC applications.
Cluster GPU Quadruple Extra Large 22 GB memory, 33.5 EC2 Compute Units, 2 x NVIDIA Tesla “Fermi”M2050 GPUs, 1690 GB of local instance storage, 64-bit platform, 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
Amazon Web Services takes NVIDIA GPU servers to the cloud
Amazon Web Services on Monday launched graphical processing unit instances for its high performance computing workloads.
In a statement and blog post, Amazon said graphical processing unit (GPU) servers have become popular enough to bring to AWS. GPU servers, powered by Nvidia’s Tesla chips, are about to hit mainstream as Dell, HP and IBM bring formerly custom servers to market.
AWS said that these GPU servers have generally been out of reach for many companies due to costs and architecture. Now AWS will put these servers on its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service.
Amazon’s Cluster GPU Instances allow for 22 GB of memory and 33.5 EC2 Compute Units. The GPU instances tap Amazon’s cluster network, which is designed for data intensive applications. Each GPU instance features two NVIDIA Tesla M2050 GPUs.
The key specs:
· A pair of NVIDIA Tesla M2050 “Fermi” GPUs.
· A pair of quad-core Intel “Nehalem” X5570 processors offering 33.5 ECUs (EC2 Compute Units).
· 22 GB of RAM.
· 1690 GB of local instance storage.
· 10 Gbps Ethernet, with the ability to create low latency, full bisection bandwidth HPC clusters.
For Nvidia, the AWS launch is a nice win. GPUs may get a larger footprint in the enterprise.
For Amazon, the GPU clusters are a nice way to tap verticals such as the oil and gas industry, graphics and engineering design.
Amazon noted that customers may mix and match the usual instances with the GPU flavor to coax the most performance out of the cloud.
The company has been testing out its GPU instances with a few customers such as Calgary Scientific, a medical imaging software company; BrightScope, a financial data analytics outfit; Elemental Technologies, which provides video processing applications.
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