Comments on: RapidMind acquired by Intel, likely good news for the community http://insidehpc.com/2009/08/20/rapidmind-acquired-by-intel/ HPC News Without the Noise for Supercomputing Professionals | insideHPC Fri, 03 May 2013 04:44:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Aleksey http://insidehpc.com/2009/08/20/rapidmind-acquired-by-intel/#comment-222956 Aleksey Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:14:58 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/?p=6786#comment-222956 Being acquired by a larger company - the fate of all successful small companies. Being acquired by a larger company – the fate of all successful small companies.

]]> By: Chris Heier http://insidehpc.com/2009/08/20/rapidmind-acquired-by-intel/#comment-179151 Chris Heier Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:32:08 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/?p=6786#comment-179151 Hi James, thanks for the comment. These solutions I would like to understand a bit more about. I had done work with Rapidmind on a couple of fronts. Testing with Cell and GPU. This was probably nearly 2 years ago, but I do like to keep an eye and see how RapidMind is doing. I have been more focused on developing hardware solutions around CUDA as of late simply because when I had started developing platforms, we had multi GPU in mind, and CUDA not only had a solution that operated multi GPU, from our findings, it supported N number of GPUs. In our case, it was 6 Tesla C870 GPUs. On top of that, there was actually an application in development that supported CUDA multi GPU processing (VMD) that even scaled to 6 GPUs. If you have the chance, I would like to discuss this more with you directly, either by phone or e-mail. Hi James, thanks for the comment. These solutions I would like to understand a bit more about. I had done work with Rapidmind on a couple of fronts. Testing with Cell and GPU. This was probably nearly 2 years ago, but I do like to keep an eye and see how RapidMind is doing. I have been more focused on developing hardware solutions around CUDA as of late simply because when I had started developing platforms, we had multi GPU in mind, and CUDA not only had a solution that operated multi GPU, from our findings, it supported N number of GPUs. In our case, it was 6 Tesla C870 GPUs. On top of that, there was actually an application in development that supported CUDA multi GPU processing (VMD) that even scaled to 6 GPUs.

If you have the chance, I would like to discuss this more with you directly, either by phone or e-mail.

]]> By: James Reinders http://insidehpc.com/2009/08/20/rapidmind-acquired-by-intel/#comment-179132 James Reinders Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:51:39 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/?p=6786#comment-179132 Chris - are you using Rapidmind now? If so, I'm confident you'll like the future as it unfolds. Rapidmind is not disappearing. Combining with our product for Ct technology is like a marriage made in heaven. Rapidmind has expanded from Cell, GPUs to multicore as they were able to get to a vision we share: harnessing data parallelism, without requiring deep parallel programming knowledge or reasoning, with satefy by default (in my opinion, one of three key barriers to being able to parallel programming widely adopted). This vision really makes the most sense when it is cross-platform - not tied to one processor/GPU/accelerator nor a single OS. I'm proud of the success we've had with Intel Threading Building Blocks (TBB). It is so successful in no small part because it delivers on the cross-plaftform support. Actions speak louder than words. I'm confident believing in Intel as a tools provider is a good bet. Personally, I think it is the best bet you can make in parallel programming. As an Intel employee, you might double check my enthusiasm - but I'll stand behind it. Nothing happens overnight, including OpenCL. OpenCL holds promise for tools vendors as a target. Rapidmind currently targets CUDA. It would be a bonus for us, and our future tools, if the promise of a non-proprietary CUDA (as some have describe OpenCL) emerges as an alternate target with more reach. We're seeing a lot of interest in providing abstract targets for tools - like Microsoft's Concurrency Runtime (for Windows, in beta now), and Apple's Grand Central Dispatch (for Mac OS X - in Snow Leopard, in beta now). Microsoft is targetting tool writers, Apple is much more aimed at users, and OpenCL is in between. Each is interesting, and definitely no overlapping. Offering a lot of "opportunity." The future of wide spread parallel programming is in higher level abstract and portable methods. OpenMP, Intel Threading Building Blocks, and Ct/Rapidmind are amoung the answers. James Reinders, Intel Chris – are you using Rapidmind now? If so, I’m confident you’ll like the future as it unfolds.

Rapidmind is not disappearing. Combining with our product for Ct technology is like a marriage made in heaven.

Rapidmind has expanded from Cell, GPUs to multicore as they were able to get to a vision we share: harnessing data parallelism, without requiring deep parallel programming knowledge or reasoning, with satefy by default (in my opinion, one of three key barriers to being able to parallel programming widely adopted). This vision really makes the most sense when it is cross-platform – not tied to one processor/GPU/accelerator nor a single OS.

I’m proud of the success we’ve had with Intel Threading Building Blocks (TBB). It is so successful in no small part because it delivers on the cross-plaftform support. Actions speak louder than words. I’m confident believing in Intel as a tools provider is a good bet. Personally, I think it is the best bet you can make in parallel programming. As an Intel employee, you might double check my enthusiasm – but I’ll stand behind it.

Nothing happens overnight, including OpenCL. OpenCL holds promise for tools vendors as a target. Rapidmind currently targets CUDA. It would be a bonus for us, and our future tools, if the promise of a non-proprietary CUDA (as some have describe OpenCL) emerges as an alternate target with more reach. We’re seeing a lot of interest in providing abstract targets for tools – like Microsoft’s Concurrency Runtime (for Windows, in beta now), and Apple’s Grand Central Dispatch (for Mac OS X – in Snow Leopard, in beta now). Microsoft is targetting tool writers, Apple is much more aimed at users, and OpenCL is in between. Each is interesting, and definitely no overlapping. Offering a lot of “opportunity.”

The future of wide spread parallel programming is in higher level abstract and portable methods. OpenMP, Intel Threading Building Blocks, and Ct/Rapidmind are amoung the answers.

James Reinders, Intel

]]> By: Chris Heier http://insidehpc.com/2009/08/20/rapidmind-acquired-by-intel/#comment-179122 Chris Heier Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:46:39 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/?p=6786#comment-179122 It's great to hear McCool and the boys over at RapidMind are doing great. I do hope that the RapidMind IP does stick around. That deal with PeakStream and google was a bit of a kick in the teeth for those who were working with them. I know on our side, we were hoping to start getting some software converted to PeakStream and then they went dark. With RapidMind though, I am very curious as to what the direction and status of their current lineup of software will be. They had essentially gotten their start in GPU and Cell based solutions before they moved to multi-core. Also, with OpenCL beginning to take shape in the computing world, where does this end up leaving technologies like RapidMind in the foreseeable future? A middleware solution for OpenCL integration or a competing technology to it? It’s great to hear McCool and the boys over at RapidMind are doing great. I do hope that the RapidMind IP does stick around. That deal with PeakStream and google was a bit of a kick in the teeth for those who were working with them. I know on our side, we were hoping to start getting some software converted to PeakStream and then they went dark. With RapidMind though, I am very curious as to what the direction and status of their current lineup of software will be. They had essentially gotten their start in GPU and Cell based solutions before they moved to multi-core.

Also, with OpenCL beginning to take shape in the computing world, where does this end up leaving technologies like RapidMind in the foreseeable future? A middleware solution for OpenCL integration or a competing technology to it?

]]> By: The Era of Stealth Acceleration « Bear Crossings http://insidehpc.com/2009/08/20/rapidmind-acquired-by-intel/#comment-179018 The Era of Stealth Acceleration « Bear Crossings Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:47:18 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/?p=6786#comment-179018 [...] 20, 2009 by bearcrossings This morning I was reading John West’s article about Intel’s acquisition of RapidMind.  It’s the latest example of the High Performance Computing (HPC) industry recognizing the [...] [...] 20, 2009 by bearcrossings This morning I was reading John West’s article about Intel’s acquisition of RapidMind.  It’s the latest example of the High Performance Computing (HPC) industry recognizing the [...]

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