Nvidia introduced its Quadro Plex workstations on the first day of the SIGGRAPH exhibition. The turnkey system connects to a PC like an external graphics card. Nvidia described it as the first dedicated Visual Computing System.
Depending on the model, Quadro Plex provides as many as four graphics cards and eight dual-link DVI outputs. One configuration can add four dual-link SDI outputs alongside two dual-link DVI outputs.
Multiple workstations can theoretically be clustered. Nvidia said its largest installation to date comprised 256 systems. At least one monitor must be attached to each workstation, so the performance of several workstation modules cannot be combined for one display; the limit is the power of eight GPUs.
Each unit is the size of a small tower and consumes as much as 480 watts. It connects through an eight-lane or 16-lane PCI Express card using a cable then limited to 2.5 metres.
Configuration is similar to an internal Nvidia graphics card and requires only the latest Quadro drivers. Because the driver architecture is unchanged, Quadro Plex works with software that supports a single Quadro card without application reconfiguration. The external enclosure allows expansion to more graphics cards or a newer generation of OpenGL accelerators.
Nvidia expected real-time presentation and simulation graphics to be the primary application. The company claimed that the combined 3D performance of as many as eight GPUs per display could generate photorealistic images suitable for direct printing.
A single workstation costs between $17,000 and $25,000. Availability was planned for approximately three weeks later, directly from Nvidia.
