NVISION 08 Day 2: Keynote, NASA, Kyle Busch and Exhibitors

The second day of NVIDIA’s NVISION 08 visual computing conference began with a keynote address hosted by local television personality and tech analyst Scott Budman. Budman only did a relatively small amount of speaking at the engagement, however, as he shared the stage with a number of guest speakers, including Eileen Collins of NASA, Lorne Lanning, NASCAR's Kyle Busch, and Bernard Charles.

There was no breaking news in the keynote; instead the speakers all explained how visual computing has transformed their respective industries. Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot the space shuttle, explained how 3D simulators have significantly changed the way astronauts train and prepare for space travel. While speaking, she also brought out another representative from NASA that explained how 3D simulations have helped the Mars rovers and Phoenix lander navigate rough terrain and simulate the night / day cycle on Mars, which helps NASA’s scientists to schedule imaging experiments to best use available sunlight and shadows. A number of videos were shown along with the software tools used by NASA to map the solar system and the crafts that have been launched over the years. Eileen also spoke a bit about the Constellation project, which is due to replace the aging space shuttle sometime in the next decade.

Bernard Charles of Dassault Systemes was then brought out onto the stage to talk about the 3D modeling tools his company has created, which have helped companies like Boeing design airplanes though the use of virtual modeling, without having to build numerous prototypes.

Next, Lorne Lanning, voice actor and creator of the Oddworld games, came out to talk about the artistic side of visual computing. He showed a number of images created by digital artists and explained that as the technology has progressed, so too have digital artists.

Finally, Kyle Busch of NASCAR fame hit the stage to talk about how visual computing has changed the way he and his team design, build, and race the cars he drives. Kyle also talked a bit about how he uses racing simulators and games to stay sharp, although he did say even the best NASCAR driving games out there don’t really convey how it feels to drive a NASCAR.

After the keynote we spent some time walking through the exhibitor’s hall at the San Jose Convention center to see what kind of hardware was on display. There were no new product announcements here at the show, but Gigabyte did have a few goodies tucked away in their booth.

Gigabyte showed us their new M912V tablet-netbook. The M912V is based on Intel’s Atom processor and features an 8.9” touchscreen LCD with a resolution of 1280x768. The M912V is also equipped with a webcam and the usual assortment of USB, VGA, and audio ports, but unlike many other netbooks, the M912V is outfitted with an ExpressCard slot, which can come in handy for cellular-network based modem expansion cards.  We know, what netbook?  We were busy gazing at the other more interesting sights too.

In addition to the M912V, Gigabyte gave us a sneak peek at an upcoming X58-based motherboard for Nehalem. As usual, Gigabyte will have an assortment of X58-based motherboard, some geared directly at extreme overclockers, while others will be more feature packed for PC enthusiasts. Of course, Gigabyte’s line of NVIDIA GPU-based graphics cards and motherboards were on display in their booth as well.