HPCwire: PeakStream, AMD to Produce Webinar on Using GPUs in HPC

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February 02, 2007

PeakStream, AMD to Produce Webinar on Using GPUs in HPC

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., January 31, 2007 -- PeakStream Inc., a leading software application platform provider for the high performance computing (HPC) market, will team with AMD for a Dr. Dobb's sponsored webinar. The webinar, scheduled for Thursday, February 8th, from 10 to 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, will discuss the evolution of Graphic Processor Units (GPUs) and how these processors can be exploited for their tremendous processing power in a wide range of scientific, business and consumer computing applications.

In this webinar, Bob Drebin, Chief Technology Officer for AMD's Graphics Products Group, will explore how graphic processors can be utilized to exploit the vast processing power needed for computationally-intense applications, citing examples such as PeakStream's tenfold performance increase in a medical imaging application1 and other academic cases where years of computation were effectively performed in months on an AMD GPU.

"Graphics processors today are capable of processing far more than just graphics applications -- with the right platform support they are powerful parallel processors leveraged for a wide range of scientific, business and consumer applications," said Bob Drebin, Chief Technical Officer, AMD's Graphics Products Group. "Peakstream employs what I believe is an accessible software platform that provides software developers an interface to take advantage of the computing power of graphics cards."

While the performance potential of next-generation multi-core processors like GPUs is tremendous, providing promising benefits to energy exploration, defense applications, academic research and financial institutions, this potential can only be fully realized with a programming model that simplifies the process for general-purpose use. Matthew Papakipos, PeakStream founder and chief technology officer, will examine such a model -- stream programming -- using the PeakStream Platform, a newly launched software application platform, as an archetype. PeakStream defines stream programming as a data parallel programming method compatible with distributed, explicitly managed memory that can offer superior productivity, performance and efficiency compared to alternative approaches. Stream programming requires the programmer to express data parallelism in his or her problem, but all system specifics such as memory architectures or accelerators are abstracted from the programmer by a dynamic runtime which schedules and manages work appropriately based on the platform specifics. Papakipos will not only explore how developers are already utilizing this platform to realize the full performance potential of GPUs for computationally-intensive applications, but also demonstrate how to program HPC applications in a matter of hours as opposed to days.

"Leveraging GPUs can be an intimidating endeavor for organizations as they have been notoriously difficult to fully exploit," said Matthew Papakipos, founder and chief technology officer of PeakStream. "However, their potential in important applications such as medical imaging or seismic mapping is extremely exciting and our platform can help alleviate engineers' hesitations in order to exploit the full potential of these next generation processors. Our software platform allows developers to program to a wide variety of hardware platforms with a single API. As hardware platforms evolve, the same application binary will run on these new platforms."

For more details on the webinar and its participants, please register at https://www.cmpnetseminars.com/BTG/default.asp?K=1AA1A1&Q=574

About PeakStream, Inc.

PeakStream redefines high performance computing (HPC) by providing an easy to use software application platform that leverages the power of a new generation of industry standard processors. From graphic processor units (GPUs) to Cell to multi-core central processing units (CPUs), PeakStream enables developers to exponentially increase application performance and decrease time to solution. PeakStream is privately held and venture funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital and Foundation Capital. The company is headquartered in Redwood City, California. For more information, visit PeakStream http://www.peakstreaminc.com.

1. Based on simulations performed by PeakStream, Inc. using traditional processing models vs. using ATI processors.

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Source: PeakStream, Inc.

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