I’m on the road quite a bit and get the opportunity to engage many customers on a range of topics and problems. These discussions provide direct feedback that helps the Server team focus on customer- oriented problems and potential challenges vs. creating technology looking for a home. In earlier blogs, I mentioned how the performance CAGR was not keeping up at the same time we had new emerging problems.Previously, we believed the impact of Moore’s Law on FPGA’s (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) would be more profound than ever – prior it seemed FPGAs were never quite big enough, couldn’t run fast enough and were difficult to program. Technology moves quickly and those attributes of FPGAs have changed lot – they are certainly big enough now, clock rates are up, you can even get an embedded ARM core, and lastly the programming has improved a lot. OpenCL has made it easier and more portable – NOTE: I said easier NOT easy – but the results for the right problem makes it worthwhile.Let me do some context setting on where FPGAs work best – this is not an absolute but rather some high-level guidance. If we take a step back, it’s clear that we’ve been operating in a world of Compute Intensive problems – meaning, problems and data that you can move to the compute because you are going to crunch on it for a result. Generally, this has been a lot of structured data, convergence algorithms and complex math, and general purpose x86 has been awesome at these problems. Also, sometimes we throw GPUs at the problem – especially in life science problems.But, there is a law of opposites. The opposite of Compute Intensive is Data Intensive. Data Intensive is simple data that is unstructured and only used for simple operations. In this case, we want the compute and simple operators to move as close to the data as possible. For example, if you’re trying to count the number of blue balls in a bucket that’s a pretty simple operation that’s data intensive – you’re not trying to compute the next digit of π. Computing the average size of each ball in the bucket would be more compute intensive.The law of opposites for general purpose compute is optimized compute…that one is easy. So, the X-Y coordinate 4 world approximately looks like below showing where various technologies best fit.But why are CPUs not great for everything, and why are we talking about FPGAs today? Well, CPUs are very memory-cache hierarchical centric to get data in and out from DRAM to Cache to registers for the CPU to do an operation – as it takes just as much data movement to do complex math as simple math with a general purpose CPU. In this new world of big unstructured data that memory-cache hierarchy can get in the way.If you think about the link list pointer chasing problem shown to the left here– in a general purpose CPU when you need to traverse the link list every time you do a head/tail pointer fetch due to the data’s unstructured nature you get a cache miss, and thus, the CPU does a cache line fill – generally 8 datum’s. But only the head/tail pointer was needed, which means 7/8th’s of the memory bus bandwidth was wasted on unnecessary accesses – potentially blocking another CPU core from getting datum it needed. Therein lies a big problem for general purpose CPUs in some of these new problems face today.Now, let’s focus on some real world examples:As mentioned earlier, programming is now simpler (simpler – NOT easy). Open Computing Language (OpenCL) is a framework in C++ for writing programs that execute across heterogeneous platforms consisting of CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and FPGAs. OpenCL provides a standard interface for parallel computing using task- and data-based parallelism. A quick example and flow is shown below.Now, I’ll walk you thru two examples that we’ve worked on in the Server Solutions Group to prove out FPGA technology and make sure our server platforms intercept the technology when it’s ready.Problem #1: “Drowning in pictures, save me…..”Say you’re a picture gallery site, social media, etc… who want end users to upload full size images from their mega pixel smart phones, so that they can enjoy them on a wide range of devices/screen sizes – how do you solve this problem? The typical approach is using scale out compute and resize as needed for the end device. However, as shown above, it’s not a great fit for general purpose compute, as it scales at a higher cost and you must manage scale out. Other options are batching processes and saving static images of all the sizes you needed – so it becomes a blowout storage problem. Or, force the end user device to resize, but you must send down the entire image – blowing out your network and delivering a poor customer experience.To avoid any of the above options, we decided to do a real time offload resizing on the FPGA. For large images, we saw around a 70x speedup and about 20x speedup on small images. We replaced 20-70 servers into 1 and saved power, cost, and increased performance – easy TCO. So, now the CPU is handling the request for resized images and delivery but using an FPGA to process the images. Below is high level pictorial.Problem #2: “I have all these images, and I’d like to sort them by feature”Digital content is everywhere, and we’re moving from text search to image search. Edge detection is an image processing technique for finding the boundaries of objects within images. It works by detecting discontinuities in brightness. Edge detection is also used for image segmentation and data extraction in areas such as image processing, computer vision, and machine vision. In this example, we simply wanted to see what we could accomplish on a CPU and FPGA. We started on the CPU with OpenCL and quickly discovered that the performance was not up to par…. less than 1FPS (frames per second). The compiler was struggling so we manually unrolled the code to swamp every core (all 32 of them) and got up to 110FPS. But at 85% CPU load across 32 cores you could barely move the mouse.The next step was the same OpenCL code (different #defines) and targeted an FPGA. With the FPGA and parallel nature of the problem we could hit 108FPS. In the FPGA offload case the CPU was ONLY 1% loaded, so we had a server with compute cycles left to do something useful. To experiment, we went back to the CPU and forced a 1% CPU load limit and found we could not even get 1FPS. Point being that in this new world of different compute architectures and emerging problems “it depends” will come up a lot. Below is the data showing the various results I described.Future ProblemsIn the future, emerging workloads and use cases (below) will continue to drive the need for new and different compute. Every company will become a data compute company and must optimize for these new uses. If not, they are open to disruption by those who embrace change more aggressively. FPGAs can be a part of this journey when applied to the right problem. Machine learning inference is a great example, along with network protocol acceleration/inspection, image processing as shown, and others can benefit from the reprogrammable nature of FPGAs.SummarySo, FPGAs can be really useful and can help solve real-world problems. Ultimately, we are heading down a path of more heterogeneous computing where you will hear “it depends” more than you’ll might like. But, as my Dad says, “use the right tool for the right job.” If you have questions about how to use FPGAs in your solutions contact your Dell EMC account rep. Maybe we can help you to.(The data in this BLOG was made possible by the awesome FPGA team in the Server Solutions Group CTO Office – Duk Kim, Nelson, Mak, Krishna Ramaswamy)
In the few days since Nelson Mandela died, emotional video tributes to the man – from global leaders such as Barack Obama to activists like Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi, major media organisations such as the Guardian and New York Times, and very ordinary people – have flooded the internet. We bring you a selection.The Guardian – 9 December 2013The UK newspaper brings together tributes and condolences, framed with rare historical footage, from South African President Jacob Zuma, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, US secretary of state John Kerry, US President Barack Obama, UK prime minister David Cameron, Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi – and ordinary people on the street.Amnesty International – 5 December 2013“Mandela, a human rights legend.” Amnesty International, the independent global human rights watchdog, documents activists across the world explaining their understanding of Nelson Mandela’s gift to the world: a march towards freedom, human dignity, compassion and forgiveness.US President Barack Obama – 5 December 2013Speaking on the day Mandela died – the news came through just as the US was waking up – Barack Obama said Nelson Mandela’s journey from a prisoner to president embodied the promise that human beings, and countries, can change for the better. He asked that the world give thanks for the fact that Mandela lived – a man who took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice.The Elders – 6 December 2013The Elders are a group of retired and independent global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela. In this video released the day after Mandela’s death, former US president Jimmy Carter, South Africa’s Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu, former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, Ireland’s former president Mary Robinson, and Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India, express their often visible sadness at his passing.Former US president Bill Clinton – 6 December 2013“When you were around him, you wanted to be a bigger person. You knew you could be better than you were.” President Bill Clinton shares memories and reflections in his first interview since the death of his close friend.South African rugby Springboks – 6 December 2013A tribute from South African Rugby, showing the massive impact Nelson Mandela had on the world, South Africa – and rugby. “We will always play for you, Madiba.”BBC News – 5 December 2013“His story is one of the most remarkable of any world leader. Few in history have endured oppression with such little rancour, or overcome the oppressor with such little bloodshed.”The New York Times – 5 December 2013“Mandela’s quest for freedom led from the court of tribal royalty to the liberation underground, to a prison rock quarry and, finally, to the presidential suite of Africa’s wealthiest country.”Musician Peter Gabriel – 6 December 2013“To come out of 27 years in jail and immediately set about building a rainbow nation with your sworn enemy is a unique and extraordinary example of courage and forgiveness. Mandela had seen many of his people beaten, imprisoned and murdered, yet he was still willing to trust the humanity and idealism of those who had been the oppressors. There is no other example of such inspirational leadership in my lifetime.”The Guardian – 6 December 2013“For many he was saint-like. But in fact he was a canny politician.” The UK Guardian newspaper’s video obituary, published the day after Mandela died.Two backpacking US tourists – 6 December 2013Caught unawares and “offline”, as they describe it, on the day after Mandela’s death, two young US backpackers on their way to a tour of Robben Island react emotionally to the news. Slideshow image and video courtesy of News 24. READ MORE • Mandela on Media Club South Africa • Nelson Mandela: the world mourns • Nelson Mandela – a timeline • Barack Obama’s tribute to Mandela • Watch: World reacts to Mandela’s death • Infographic: Mandela family tree • Nelson Mandela’s words of wisdom • The women in Madiba’s life • Tutu leads memorial at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory • High-res photos: In 2010, Nelson Mandela wishes World Cup good luck to Bafana Bafana
You can render much larger compositions—both for preview and for final output—with larger frame sizes and larger source files.RAM previews can be much longer.You can work with higher color bit depths without encountering memory limitations.After Effects can cache more items, which reduce the frequency with which frames and components of frames are re-rendered. Is your computer optimized for After Effects? In this post, we share a simple tip to rev up your processing speeds in AE.If your rendering time is taking longer than expected, a change in RAM allocation may be all you need to speed up After Effects.I confess, when I starting using After Effects a few years back I was befuddled at the long rendering times. My computer was new and had plenty of RAM, but rendering was taking forever. Then, I learned this quick tip that has dramatically altered the performance of the app. Hopefully it’ll do the same for you!Adobe gives you the option to change how much of your computer’s RAM is being used by After Effects (and the other applications in the Creative Suite). Depending on the RAM you have installed in your system, you will want to experiment with your allocation settings. After Effects is 64 bit, which allows you to take full advantage of your available RAM (from Adobe): Modifying your AE RAM allocation settings is simple. Here’s how it’s done:1. Open up After Effects2. Go into your AE PreferencesClick on After Effects > Preferences > Memory & Multiprocessing.3. Change ‘RAM for Other Applications’4. Click ‘Ok’And you’re done! You should see an increase in your rendering speeds in After Effects. If your computer is still going slow you might need either a new graphics card or maybe even a better processor. If you want more info about how to optimize your machine for After Effects check out the system requirements or memory and storage pages on Adobe’s site.Have any tips for optimizing your system for After Effects?Share in the comments below.
Man City midfielder Bernardo Silva: Gabriel Jesus goals will do him goodby Paul Vegas10 months agoSend to a friendShare the loveManchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva was pleased for Gabriel Jesus after his two goals in victory over Everton.The opener marked the striker’s first Premier League goal since August.”It was good after the defeat against Chelsea to give an answer,” Bernardo explained. “It was not an easy game.”To have difficult games against Hoffenheim and Everton, it was good to come back from that.”The next two months are hard, we need to be focused and fit, get as many wins as can to recover first position and go as far as we can in other competitions.””We are happy with Jesus’ two goals and hopefully he can score more and win more titles.” About the authorPaul VegasShare the loveHave your say
TagsTransfersAbout the authorPaul VegasShare the loveHave your say Norwich midfielder Alex Tettey shuts down Rosenborg talkby Paul Vegasa month agoSend to a friendShare the loveAlexander Tettey insists he’s happy where he is at Norwich City.The midfielder, 33, is consistently being linked with a return to Norway at Rosenborg.But he told VG: “It is important that what is written is true, and that it is not portrayed that I’m hunting anything. “I’m not chasing a contract with Rosenborg, I’m not chasing to portray it as ‘I’ll be back, make room for me’. Absolutely not.”Tettey added: “I love Rosenborg, they mean a lot to me, but I don’t want to go to Rosenborg as a 34-year-old who everyone just wants to remember how he was before. It gives me nothing, it gives the club nothing, it gives the fans nothing.”
Cardale Jones Softball SwingUpdate: It turns out Joey Bosa doesn’t suck at softball. He hit a home run during the intra-team scrimmage.Earlier: Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones is a gifted athlete – that’s been made clear over the past five or six months. But he doesn’t seem to have much talent for hitting a softball. Friday, OSU’s Instagram account posted a funny video of Jones completely whiffing on a high-arc softball pitch. One of his teammates took footage of it, and even slowed it down to show how much he missed the ball by.Thankfully, Ohio State fans don’t really have to worry here. Whatever 35+ softball team he joins two decades from now might want to, though.
The Ohio State men’s hockey team may have found its season captains at last. Juniors Curtis Gedig and Travis Statchuk and sophomore Ryan Dzingel served as team captains last weekend for the fifth straight series. The contests marked the first games in Columbus since Dec. 15, and the Buckeyes swept the Lake Superior State Lakers to push their record to 10-11-5 overall and 9-6-3-1 in CCHA play. OSU has been rotating captains for the majority of the season, having different members of the team wear the ‘C’ on their chests essentially every two series. As the second half of the season gets under way and the Buckeyes look to put together a string of victories before the CCHA tournament, coach Mark Osiecki said he is close to deciding which of his players will be captains through the end of the season. “We’re getting closer to potentially naming permanent captains,” Osiecki said Wednesday. “We are sticking with the three guys we’ve had. I think they’ve earned that right.” Osiecki also said Gedig, Statchuk and Dzingel have “done a nice job” during their time as captains over the course of January. Dzingel leads the Buckeyes with 10 goals and is second on the team with 13 assists. Those 23 points lead OSU, which beat Lake Superior State 3-2 on Friday and 6-1 on Saturday. The sophomore forward from Illinois has played in every game this season, and he scored the final goal of the weekend against the Lakers while assisting on two others. Statchuk was a late scratch to the game Friday night after falling ill in the afternoon. He and Gedig are two of five juniors on coach Osiecki’s team who see considerable playing time. Statchuk scored his goal of the season against Northern Michigan on Nov. 16, and he is among the team leaders in face-off percentage, having won 43 percent of his 342 attempts. He is tied with Gedig and Dzingel for most games this season serving as captain. Gedig leads OSU defensemen with seven points and scored his second goal of the season Saturday night against Lake Superior State. The junior from British Columbia said he is happy to finally see some home games on the schedule. “I love the (Schottenstein Center), love the atmosphere,” Gedig said. “It’s good because we don’t have to worry about catching up on school because we are traveling.” Osiecki said he feels confident that the leaders on the team will begin to solidify themselves during this upcoming stretch of games, six of which OSU will play at the Schottenstein Center. “We’re getting closer to having some leaders step up in that (locker) room and we’ve talked about that since day one,” Osiecki said. “Guys need to understand that everyone can be a leader in their own way. That’s starting to emerge a little bit better as we move forward.” Gedig said the team needs to come in with the mindset that “it’s already playoffs” and that they are “so close” to breaking out offensively. The Buckeyes’ nine goals against the Lakers over the weekend were tied for the most they had scored in a series all season. Junior forward Alex Szczechura scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season less than four minutes apart on Saturday. He said scoring that many goals will help the team’s confidence for the rest of the season. “We haven’t been the highest scoring team, but this weekend goals were coming all night,” Szczechura said. “So that’s definitely a confidence booster for us.” The effort, Osiecki said, has been there all season, though. “I think our guys have had the right attitude all the way through,” Osiecki said. “We haven’t had to say much during practice, trying to ask them to bring up the level of competitiveness.” Captains for the upcoming weekend series against Notre Dame will be released Wednesday. The Buckeyes are set to host the Fighting Irish at 7:05 p.m. on Friday at the Schottenstein Center.
Sinisa Mihajlovic has sued Sporting Lisbon for €11m in damages citing wrongful dismissal and reputational damage.Mihajlovic was signed by President Bruno de Carvalho but he was then deposed by Sporting Lisbon’s Board of Directors.A new President was put in place who then fired Mihajlovic just nine days later. And he never even had the chance to arrive for pre-season training.Sporting Lisbon now confirm that Mihajlovic is suing them for €11.195m. Football Italia reports.“I can confirm that I was sacked without just cause by Sporting CP just a few days before the start of the contract that would’ve tied me to the club for three seasons.” Mihajlovic told La Gazzetta Dello Sport.Tottenham did not have the credentials to buy Fernandes George Patchias – September 5, 2019 Sporting president Varandas says Tottenham did not have the credentials to fulfill the bid for Bruno FernandesIn an interview with Sporting Lisbons president Frederico…“In the middle of June, I went to Lisbon to negotiate with the Sporting directors for my personal terms and those of my staff. On June 18, we signed a three-year contract that was due to start on July 1.“A few days later, President Bruno de Carvalho was removed from his post by the Board of Directors and on June 27 the club annulled my contract, claiming I had not passed the trial period set in the Portuguese rules for contracts.“However, they cannot say that because at that moment the contract hadn’t even started yet and I was still on vacation in Sardinia…“In 30 years of my career, as player and then Coach, I’ve never seen anything like it. I will have my rights respected, that you can count on.”
The British publication, FourFourTwo, have broadcasted the words of Spain national team head coach Luis Enrique concerning Atletico Madrid midfielder Rodri.According to the former Barcelona manager, the 22-year-old hotshot has all characteristics to become a ‘new Sergio Busquets.’Although Rodri is yet to establish himself as a regular starter at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano following his summer’s arrival from Villarreal, Enrique seems to be a huge fan of the prosperous youngster.“I have already spoken about their similarities,” he told a news conference.“It’s not good to give too much praise and he is very young, but Rodri comes across as very professional and prepared mentally.“He can reach Busquets’ level and maybe surpass it. Who knows what limits he has?”Robert Moreno says he would step aside if Luis Enrique asks him Manuel R. Medina – September 3, 2019 The Spanish national team manager, Robert Moreno, took the job after Luis Enrique stepped down because his nine-year-old daughter passed away after a bone tumor.Rodri will be better than Barcelona icon Busquets – Luis Enrique https://t.co/ohoDJdkoz2 pic.twitter.com/VRS5qnE5za— Goal Nigeria (@GoalcomNigeria) October 4, 2018Now it’s up to the Rodri to give his answer on the field, but a comparison with a figure such as Busquets can only be flattering.The highly-rated midfielder will in the Spain squad for the matches against Wales and England along with Busquets, as well as, his two Atletico companions, Saul Niguez and Koke.