Lucid Logix Demos 3D Graphics Game Changer at IDF
This just in. Can we say that here? Sure we can... At IDF today we had the opportunity to stop by the technology showcase booth of Lucid Logix. If you recall, over a year ago, the fabless semiconductor start-up promised to set the graphics industry on its ear by bringing to market PCI Express switching technology that would allow multi-graphics card installations of any variety, mixing and matching different graphics cards based on similar graphics processors or multiple cards based on very different GPUs, from both NVIDIA and AMD-ATI in system simultaneously.
Today Lucid has brought their new leading-edge technology to fruition on a motherboard built by MSI that employs their new chip and was up and running for all to see. Employing a mutli-GPU load-balancing algorithm called "Object Division Rendering" (GPUs tackle different objects on the same frame simultaneously), Lucid's Hydra engine intelligently optimizes workloads in system amongst all graphics processors, regardless of make or model. The demo we saw below didn't afford us the ability to check frame rates or see load balancing in action, but we'll take their word for it...
Lucid's Hydra chip is hiding under the blue stylized heat sink next to the #1 PCIe graphics slot...
Today Lucid has brought their new leading-edge technology to fruition on a motherboard built by MSI that employs their new chip and was up and running for all to see. Employing a mutli-GPU load-balancing algorithm called "Object Division Rendering" (GPUs tackle different objects on the same frame simultaneously), Lucid's Hydra engine intelligently optimizes workloads in system amongst all graphics processors, regardless of make or model. The demo we saw below didn't afford us the ability to check frame rates or see load balancing in action, but we'll take their word for it...
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Lucid's Hydra chip is hiding under the blue stylized heat sink next to the #1 PCIe graphics slot...
With a 48-lane PCI Express switch implementation and a 32-bit Tensilica RISC core engine to manage workloads and serve as sort of a GPU Traffic Cop, the technology is interesting and impressive to be sure. We look forward to testing an evaluation system based on MSI's "Big Bang" Intel P55 chipset-based motherboard and a Lucid Hydra engine on-board. We'll keep you posted with more details very soon.
