SolidWorks running with VMware on a Chromebook.
VMware, NVIDIA and Google are working together to deliver high-performance virtual desktops and workstation-class graphics to Google Chromebooks.
The technology will allow any 3D application to run on the low powered notebooks. Demonstrations at VMware World today highlighted DS SolidWorks, Autodesk 3ds Max and Blender as three of those tools.
The announcement looks to be much more than just a marketing tie-in. VMware says that new generation Nvidia Tegra K1-powered Chromebooks, such as the Acer Chromebook 13, will feature ‘exclusive’ technologies that decode data from its next generation BLAST Performance technology, which is used in the datacenter.
VMware also showed a technology preview of Nvidia GRID vGPU (virtual GPU) technology running on the VMware platform – specifically VMware Horizon and Horizon DaaS.
This is big news for desktop virtualisation. Support for VMware, the world’s leading enterprise virtualisation platform, will massively extend the potential reach of Nvidia GRID technology.
Nvidia GRID, which allows multiple virtual machines to share the power of a single GPU, is currently only fully supported by Citrix, who has a much smaller slice of the enterprise market
VMware’s technology is not yet available but the company has announced an early access program for select Nvidia and VMware customers in Q4 2014.
