Nvidia Tesla
Encyclopedia
The Tesla graphics processing unit
(GPU) is nVidia's
third brand of GPUs. It is based on high-end GPUs from the G80
(and on), as well as the Quadro
lineup. Tesla is nVidia's first dedicated General Purpose GPU
. The Tesla series takes its name from pioneering Serbian electrical engineer Nikola Tesla
.
) compared to previous microprocessors, the Tesla products target the high performance computing market.
The lack of ability to output images to a display is the main difference between Tesla products and ordinary video cards. For equivalent single precision output, Fermi-based nVidia Geforce cards have four times less dual-precision performance. Tesla products primarily operate:
nVidia Teslas power the second-fastest supercomputer in the world, Tianhe-1A, in Tianjin
, China
.
Notes
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
(GPU) is nVidia's
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
third brand of GPUs. It is based on high-end GPUs from the G80
GeForce 8 Series
The GeForce 8 Series, is the eighth generation of NVIDIA's GeForce line of graphics processing units. The third major GPU architecture developed at NVIDIA, the GeForce 8 represents the company's first unified shader architecture.-Naming:...
(and on), as well as the Quadro
NVIDIA Quadro
The Nvidia Quadro series of AGP, PCI, and PCI Express graphics cards comes from the NVIDIA Corporation. Their designers aimed to accelerate CAD and DCC , and the cards are usually featured in workstations....
lineup. Tesla is nVidia's first dedicated General Purpose GPU
GPGPU
General-purpose computing on graphics processing units is the technique of using a GPU, which typically handles computation only for computer graphics, to perform computation in applications traditionally handled by the CPU...
. The Tesla series takes its name from pioneering Serbian electrical engineer Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
.
Tesla overview
Because of their very high computational power (measured in floating point operations per second or FLOPSFLOPS
In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second...
) compared to previous microprocessors, the Tesla products target the high performance computing market.
The lack of ability to output images to a display is the main difference between Tesla products and ordinary video cards. For equivalent single precision output, Fermi-based nVidia Geforce cards have four times less dual-precision performance. Tesla products primarily operate:
- in simulations and in large scale calculations (especially floating-point calculations)
- for high-end image generation for applications in professional and scientific fields
- with the use of OpenCLOpenCLOpenCL is a framework for writing programs that execute across heterogeneous platforms consisting of CPUs, GPUs, and other processors. OpenCL includes a language for writing kernels , plus APIs that are used to define and then control the platforms...
or CUDACUDACUDA or Compute Unified Device Architecture is a parallel computing architecture developed by Nvidia. CUDA is the computing engine in Nvidia graphics processing units that is accessible to software developers through variants of industry standard programming languages...
.
nVidia Teslas power the second-fastest supercomputer in the world, Tianhe-1A, in Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
Specifications and configurations
| Configuration | Model | # of GPUs | Core clock in MHz (each) |
Shaders | Memory | Processing Power (peak) GFLOPs | Compute capability4 | TDP Thermal Design Power The thermal design power , sometimes called thermal design point, refers to the maximum amount of power the cooling system in a computer is required to dissipate. For example, a laptop's CPU cooling system may be designed for a 20 watt TDP, which means that it can dissipate up to 20 watts of heat... watts |
Form factor and features |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thread Processors (total) | Clock in MHz (each) | Bandwidth max (GB Gigabyte The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is... /s) |
Bus type | Bus width (bit Bit A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states... , each GPU) |
Total size (MiB) | Clock (MHz) | Single Precision(SP) Single precision floating-point format Single-precision floating-point format is a computer number format that occupies 4 bytes in computer memory and represents a wide dynamic range of values by using a floating point.... Total(MUL+ADD+SF) |
Single Precision(SP) Single precision floating-point format Single-precision floating-point format is a computer number format that occupies 4 bytes in computer memory and represents a wide dynamic range of values by using a floating point.... MAD(MUL+ADD) |
Double Precision(DP) FMA | |||||||
| GPU Computing Processor1 |
C870 | 1 | 600 | 128 | 1350 | 76.8 | GDDR3 | 384 | 1536 | 1600 | 518.4 | 345.6 | 0 | 1.0 | 170.9 | Full-height video card Video card A video card, Graphics Card, or Graphics adapter is an expansion card which generates output images to a display. Most video cards offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors... |
| Deskside Supercomputer1 | D870 | 2 | 600 | 2 × 128 (256) | 1350 | 153.6 | GDDR3 | 384 | 3072 | 1600 | 1036.8 | 691.2 | 0 | 1.0 | Deskside system NVIDIA Quadro Plex The Nvidia Quadro Plex is an external graphics processing unit designed for large-scale 3D visualizations. The system consists of a box containing a pair of high-end Nvidia Quadro graphics cards featuring a variety of external video connectors... or Rack unit Rack unit A rack unit or U is a unit of measure used to describe the height of equipment intended for mounting in a 19-inch rack or a 23-inch rack... |
|
| GPU Computing Server1 |
S870 | 4 | 600 | 4 × 128 (512) | 1350 | 307.2 | GDDR3 | 384 | 6144 | 1600 | 2073.6 | 1382.4 | 0 | 1.0 | 1U Rack 19-inch rack A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide, including edges or ears that protrude on each side which allow the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws.-Overview and history:Equipment designed... |
|
| C1060 Computing Processor 2 |
C1060 | 1 | 602 | 240 | 1300 | 102.4 | GDDR3 | 512 | 4096 | 1600 | 933.12 | 622.08 | 77.76 | 1.3 | 187.8 | 2 slot video card |
| S1075 1U GPU Computing Server3,4 |
S1070 | 4 | 602 | 4 × 240 (960) | 1440 | 409.6 | GDDR3 | 512 | 16384 | 1600 | 4147.2 | 2764.8 | 345.6 | 1.3 | 1U Rack 19-inch rack A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide, including edges or ears that protrude on each side which allow the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws.-Overview and history:Equipment designed... IEEE 754-2008 capabilities |
|
| C2050/C2070 GPU Computing Processor |
C2050/C2070 | 1 | 575 | 448 | 1150 | 144 | GDDR5 | 384 | 3072/61445 | 3000 | 1288 | 1030.46 | 515.2 | 2.0 | 238/247 | Full-height video card Video card A video card, Graphics Card, or Graphics adapter is an expansion card which generates output images to a display. Most video cards offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors... IEEE 754-2008 FMA capabilities |
| M2050 GPU Computing Module |
M2050 | 1 | 575 | 448 | 1150 | 148.4 | GDDR5 | 384 | 30725 | 3092 | 1288 | 1030.46 | 515.2 | 2.0 | 225 | Computing Module IEEE 754-2008 FMA capabilities |
| M2070/M2070Q GPU Computing Module |
M2070/M2070Q | 1 | 575 | 448 | 1150 | 150.336 | GDDR5 | 384 | 61445 | 3132 | 1288 | 1030.46 | 515.2 | 2.0 | 225 | Computing Module IEEE 754-2008 FMA capabilities |
| M2090 GPU Computing Module |
M2090 | 1 | 650 | 512 | 1300 | 177 | GDDR5 | 384 | 61445 | 1850 | 1331 | ? | 665 | 2.0 | 225 | Computing Module IEEE 754-2008 FMA capabilities |
| S2050 1U GPU Computing System |
S2050 | 4 | 575 | 4 × 448 (1792) | 1150 | 4 × 148.4 (593.6) | GDDR5 | 384 | 122885 | 3092 | 5152 | 4121.66 | 2060.8 | 2.0 | 900 | 1U Rack 19-inch rack A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide, including edges or ears that protrude on each side which allow the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws.-Overview and history:Equipment designed... IEEE 754-2008 FMA capabilities |
Notes
- 1 Specifications not specified by NVIDIA are assumed to be based on the GeForce 8800GTX
- 2 Specifications not specified by NVIDIA are assumed to be based on the GeForce GTX 285
- 3 A host system/server is required to connect to the 1U GPU computing server by the PCI ExpressPCI ExpressPCI Express , officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards...
card (similar set-up as the Nvidia Quadro PlexNVIDIA Quadro PlexThe Nvidia Quadro Plex is an external graphics processing unit designed for large-scale 3D visualizations. The system consists of a box containing a pair of high-end Nvidia Quadro graphics cards featuring a variety of external video connectors...
) - 4 Core architecture version according to the CUDA programming guide.
- 5 With ECC on, a portion of the dedicated memory is used for ECC bits, so the available user memory is reduced by 12.5%. (e.g. 3 GB total memory yields 2.625 GB of user available memory.)
- 6 Fermi implements the new fused multiply–add (FMA) instruction for both 32-bit single-precision and 64-bit double-precision floating point numbers (GT200 supported FMA only in double precision) that improves upon multiply-add by retaining full precision in the intermediate stage.
- For the basic specifications of Tesla, refer to the GPU Computing Processor specifications.
- Performance figures are for single-precision except where noted.
- NVIDIA Tesla Supercomputers are also available with up to 8x Fermi GPUs from Manufacturers.
See also
- Nvidia Tesla Personal SupercomputerNvidia Tesla Personal SupercomputerThe Tesla Personal Supercomputer is a desktop computer that is backed by Nvidia and built by Dell, Lenovo and other companies...
- GeForce 8 seriesGeForce 8 SeriesThe GeForce 8 Series, is the eighth generation of NVIDIA's GeForce line of graphics processing units. The third major GPU architecture developed at NVIDIA, the GeForce 8 represents the company's first unified shader architecture.-Naming:...
- GeForce 200 SeriesGeForce 200 SeriesThe GeForce 200 Series is the 10th generation of Nvidia's GeForce graphics processing units. The series also represents the continuation of the company's unified shader architecture introduced with the GeForce 8 Series and the GeForce 9 Series. Its primary competition came from ATI's Radeon HD 4000...
- GeForce 400 SeriesGeForce 400 SeriesThe GeForce 400 Series is the 11th generation of Nvidia's GeForce graphics processing units. The series was originally slated for production in November 2009, but, after a number of delays, launched on March 26, 2010 with availability following in April 2010....
- GeForce 500 SeriesGeForce 500 SeriesThe GeForce 500 Series is a family of graphics processing units developed by Nvidia, based on the refreshed Fermi architecture. Nvidia officially announced the GeForce 500 series on 9 November 2010 with the launch of the GeForce GTX 580.- Overview :...
- CUDACUDACUDA or Compute Unified Device Architecture is a parallel computing architecture developed by Nvidia. CUDA is the computing engine in Nvidia graphics processing units that is accessible to software developers through variants of industry standard programming languages...
- GPGPUGPGPUGeneral-purpose computing on graphics processing units is the technique of using a GPU, which typically handles computation only for computer graphics, to perform computation in applications traditionally handled by the CPU...
- OpenCLOpenCLOpenCL is a framework for writing programs that execute across heterogeneous platforms consisting of CPUs, GPUs, and other processors. OpenCL includes a language for writing kernels , plus APIs that are used to define and then control the platforms...
- Stream ProcessingStream processingStream processing is a computer programming paradigm, related to SIMD , that allows some applications to more easily exploit a limited form of parallel processing...