DEVELOP3D - Technology for the product lifecycle

Readers of DEVELOP3D take to the polls

Amidst the Monday morning drudgery here at DEVELOP3D.com we are giving you the chance to get motivated with the opportunity for you to cast your opinion on a head-scratching debate with our all new Poll of the Week.

As you fill your fifth cup of coffee; curse the start of the working week, and solicit explanations from your co-colleagues as to how you woke up after post-work Friday drinks in an old lady’s front garden, here you have the chance to do something productive for the benefit of your fellow designers and engineers.

All the totals will be collated and scrutinised on Friday’s blog - so return then to see if you’re amongst the masses, or striving out there as an intellectual pioneer/dumbwit [delete as applicable].

So, today’s question is:

Dassault Systèmes has had positive experiences testing Catia V5 and V6 on six screens using an ATI FirePro V9800.

Forget running four monitors off a single graphics card - AMD has just launched a six monitor capable beast based on its ATI Eyefinity multi monitor graphics technology. Before you start thinking ‘why on earth would I want six monitors on my desktop, where would I put my coffee?’ - with a six monitor setup using an ATI FirePro V9800, AMD is really focused on a brand new market, that of low-cost powerwalls for design/review, digital mockup and client presentations.

While a fully fledged system will set you back the best part of $7,000 ($2,499 for the ATI FirePro V9800, $2,500 for a high-spec workstation and a couple of grand for six HD monitors), the alternative would cost a whole lot more. For one, you’d need three graphics cards and in most cases more than one workstation.

In addition to cost, AMD believes there are technical benefits of using a single card solution instead of multiple graphics cards. “Most applications don’t know how to split their content between multiple GPUs, says Rob Jamieson, product marketing manager EMEA, ATI FirePro at AMD. “[When using multiple graphics cards] if you are looking at the left hand screen and you rotate the object, how does it swap that data to the right hand screen? Does it transfer all that data from one GPU’s memory to the other GPU’s. With Eyefinity that is still the same memory block, it’s still the same GPU so it understands the data. That means you get good performance across the six monitors. It also means most software, out of the box, can understand it and use it.”

Read more…

When I was looking at all the events taking place during the London Design Festival I was very pleased to see that The Royal Academy of Engineering, based just round the corner form Pall Mall and Trafalgar Square, is getting in on the action too.

As Ian Bowbrick, Head of Professional Formation, told me the Academy were invited by Sir John Sorrell, Chairman of the London Design Festival, to take part. “Design and engineering are fundamentally linked and to date the London Design Festi val has embraced other aspects of design but engineering hasn’t really had a platform. So, our inclusion is to give engineering its first involvement in the Festival,” says Bowbrick.

The Academy then put together a programme focussed on a very topical theme: Designing a Low Carbon Infrastructure for London. All the exhibitions, events, debates and activities taking place from 20 to 23 September 2010 will tackle this issue on how to make low carbon living for Londoners a reality in the future. “Rather than put together a group of disparate activities we decided to have a central theme around the area of low carbon and carbon management,” explains Bowbrick. “I think the issue for everybody involved in this area is that the technology is very clearly defined but the most important stage we are faced with now is getting the general public to actually understand and take up the technology. What we are doing by holding this programme is to create a platform for people in the transport, innovation and buildings areas to try and make that link with the general public.”

The first day of the programme is focussed on transport and examines the challenges currently being faced by London and Londoners in the daily battle of getting from A to B, and presents an insight into some of the latest technology and planning possibilities that could make the capital a greener city and ease congestion. During the day the Switch EV (below), an electric car project that has won funding through the Technology Strategy Board’s Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator Programme, will be on display in the forecourt of the Academy for those attending the events on that day to have a nose around and actually sit inside. The designers of the vehicle will also be on hand to answer any questions visitors may have. “With electric cars we are used to seeing small boxy vehicles that aren’t very attractive. But the technology and designs have moved on significantly and a lot of people haven’t seen these. In addition, some people have never sat in an electric vehicle so they don’t know how the controls are different, what the pedal configuration is and how they know when it needs recharging,” says Bowbrick.

Read more…