GPU-Powered Planetarium Renders 64MP Projection 108
MojoKid writes "The Adler Planetarium has finished a major two-year upgrade project that's replaced the facility's forty year-old Zeiss Mark VI projector with a 'Digital Starball' system designed by Global Immersion Ltd. The new digital system is powered by an array of NVIDIA Quadro GPUs. The specs behind the system are impressive. The 71-foot dome of the Grainger Sky Theater now contains a score of military-grade projectors with an 8kx8k resolution. The final 64 megapixel image is generated by an array of 42 NVIDIA Quadro GPUs and offers an unprecedented degree of real-time modeling horsepower. The planetarium's model of the universe was created in part from high-definition photos captured around the world and via the Hubble telescope."
Re:Military grade? (Score:4, Insightful)
It works for geeks, too - have you never gotten excited over "carrier-grade networking equipment" or so?
I don't think I have ever seen any product marketed at "prosumers" with the description "carrier-grade". That said, there is definitely a tendency among geeks to want their home switch to be a 24-port rack-mountable layer 3 switch instead of some random unmanaged 8-port desk switch marketed at regular consumers. But this can't just be explained by the "geeks are just as big idiots as Joe Sixpack" argument.
If you're a professional who works with the "pro gear" every day and you also have an interest in the same things as a hobby there is a very real chance you want to have equipment at home which is, if not as good as the equipment you use at work, at least approaching the quality of feature-richness of the expensive gear you use at work.
In college I knew a chemical engineering major who was obsessive about chemistry the way many computer geeks are obsessive about computers and electronics and while his "home lab" wasn't on-par with the university's labs he still had thousands of dollars worth of lab equipment and chemical compounds that he had either scavenged and repaired or purchased with his own hard-earned money. By your logic he should've been using the pots and pans he had in his kitchen to not be an idiot...
Re:Military grade? (Score:4, Insightful)
requires special training to operate
Clearly you were not in the military. Military Grade means "GI proof" as in simple and indestructible. That also means its incredibly heavy. So these projectors probably weigh about 500 pounds each and have no controls other than a power switch and no indicators other than"call civilian contractor for service" and possibly a power light.
The only people harder on equipment than GIs, are the oil field roughnecks. Give those guys a screwdriver, they'll work all day to return a metal pretzel. Its a miracle any oil gets pumped at all.