And since we do more work on the GPU, then the performance also scales across GPUs. So if we re-think our algorithms to be multi-threaded, then GPUs can perform an operation much faster than the CPU. Enterprise machines typically have 48-56 cores as well. The GPU has thousands of “lite” cores compared to CPUs having 6-8 heavy weight cores. As we upload our model data to the GPU, we have the flexibility to do more work on the GPU.
It looks like in 2019, your team focused on graphics acceleration and image quality scaling across graphics cards - “scaled to the GPU”. What does that mean? What exactly did you have to do? Our customers are very passionate want to load more and more data every year! We understand that visual changes is very important for manufacturing process and took great lengths to make sure that the technology is stable and safe. We had to be careful when we introduced this technology with graphics industry changing so frequently. The renderpipeline initiative came about due to us keeping a keen eye on industry changes. How did this initiative come about? Based on some SPRs? Industry trends? The end result is that we have much better utilization of GPU for our rendering and scales performance across GPUs. And while we were on this journey, we also looked at modern rendering algorithms and brought them to SOLIDWORKS to improve performance and image quality. We also brought in modern programming paradigms to make our solution “lean and mean”.
We have reduced quite a number of CPU bottlenecks, keeping the GPU happily doing its job at its full potential undisturbed. When we talk about CPU bottlenecks, typically a lot of work is done on the CPU and this prevents the GPU from doing its job as it gets frequently interrupted by the CPU. GPUs are incredibly fast devices but often times not used to its full potential.
The goal is put more focus on the model data and uploading them and their associated data to the graphics card(GPU) memory. This touches everything you typically see in the graphics viewport in SOLIDWORKS. The renderpipeline project is a major initiative with the goal to overhaul our rendering system. I hear the phrase Render Pipeline. What is that? His passion for graphics started at a very young age and is excited to work on industry changing challenges in graphics rendering. Sid is continuing to work on improving customer experience by improving performance and image quality in SOLIDWORKS. He has published patents on human computer interaction and graphics rendering. Sid graduated from University of Florida, Gainesville specializing in digital arts and science with focus on computer vision and graphics and worked with leading professors on computational geometry and ray tracing.