Deploying virtualised workstations for CAD, engineering, and design professionals is a complex problem. NVIDIA GRID and GRID VCA solutions address the issues of complexity and costs for CAD professionals and IT managers.

Virtual desktops and thin-clients are nothing new to IT departments. Virtualisation makes computing resources available to more employees in more locations at a lower cost. Virtualisation allows for more efficient maintenance and support. Virtualisation enhances data security and protection of a company's intellectual property since data is not physically stored on remote or mobile PCs. Finally, virtualised computing environments provide a more ergonomic work space. Virtualised remote workstation solutions provide a particularly attractive return-on-investment by making a powerful, but expensive computing resource – the professional graphics workstation – available to multiple users, in multiple locations, 24 hours a day.

The adoption of virtualised workstations has been slow. Deploying virtualised workstations for CAD, engineering, and design professionals was a complex problem due to the requirement to provide high-performance 3D graphics. Implementing remote workstations meant developing specialised IT expertise, mastering the software stack for a virtual machine, and investing in unique solutions. More importantly, virtualisation remained an elusive goal since a single GPU needed to be allocated to a single user placing additional limits on remote workstation solutions.

NVIDIA GRID and GRID VCA solutions address these issues of complexity and costs for CAD professionals and IT managers.

NVIDIA GRID : complete virtualised graphics solutions for the cloud

NVIDIA GRID is available as two products with unique benefits. Companies with an existing data centre infrastructure are able to provide their employees with remote, virtual graphics workstations by installing GRID in their servers or by selecting NVIDIA GRID solutions from Original Equipment Manufacturers. These GRID servers provide virtual workstations for users with demanding, graphics-intensive applications and make the workstation available on the company network or from a remote workplace. The power of GRID solutions allows users to run graphics-hungry 3D CAD applications like Autodesk Inventor & Revit, PTC Creo, and Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks.

The second GRID product, the Visual Computing Appliance, or GRID VCA, provides a complete, turn-key virtualisation solution. Companies with a limited IT infrastructure can now implement virtual workstations for professional, graphics-intensive applications. The GRID VCA is a complete GRID virtual workstation solution in a 4U, rack-mounted form-factor. The GRID VCA launched with two configurations, one supporting 8 GPUs and a second supporting 16 GPUs.

Using the GRID and GRID VCA solutions, designers, engineers and architects can create complex CAD models without the need for a dedicated, local workstation. This remote graphics workstation gives users the same rich graphics experience they would get from an expensive, dedicated workstation under their desk.

NVIDIA Kepler GPUs will support vGPU technology

GRID is compatible with the widely used Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions from Citrix, Microsoft, and VMware. NVIDIA's patented GRID platform uses optimised H.264 video encoding on the GPU to capture and compress the 3D application for fast streaming. This keeps your company data secure since your project designs never leave the server room. And the GPU-optimised compression of the display data improves the user experience with lower application latency and a more responsive system. Original Equipment Manufacturers, including Asus, Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM and Supermicro, offer GRID servers today. Also, the French car manufacturer; Peugeot, is using GRID successfully. In the near future it will be possible to virtualise GPUs using NVIDIA’s GRID vGPU technology. Multiple virtual machines will have simultaneous access to a single physical GPU. This increases utilisation of the virtual workstation and improves the return on investment for companies using GRID solutions.

At the heart of any system with GRID technology are NVIDIA GPUs. Based on the latest Kepler architecture the GRID K1 graphics card offers four GPUs with a total of 768 CUDA cores. Even more powerful is the GRID K2, which has been designed with two GPUs and a total of 3072 CUDA cores for maximum performance.

NVIDIA GRID delivers local workstation graphics performance from a remote, virtual workstation

Support and certification for professional 3D applications (ISV certification)

Users of professional CAD systems and managers of engineering IT departments understand that application testing and certification are critical. NVIDIA GRID technology delivers a certified hardware and software stack for your virtual graphics computing environment. And NVIDIA works closely with developers of CAD applications to test and certify virtualised solutions for those applications. For example, PTC announced the certification on an NVIDIA GRID solution for five leading Creo applications at PTC Live Global in Anaheim, California. The applications included PTC's flagship Creo Parametric product. Applications from Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes, Siemens, and others are also certified.

Conclusion : NVIDIA GRID is a solution for remote CAD workstations

Adoption of virtualised remote workstations offers important competitive and cost advantages to companies, but it has lagged far behind the virtualisation of the enterprise desktop PC. The requirement for high-performance 3D graphics meant companies faced a high learning curve and high costs to implement more complex, specialised solutions.

NVIDIA GRID solutions solve the problems of cost and complexity by providing a tested and certified hardware and software solution for virtual workstations. Certified application testing with CAD developers provides additional assurances for performance and system reliability.

The NVIDIA GRID K1 and K2 address the cost issues of dedicated solutions by allowing companies to turn existing systems into remote virtual workstations. The NVIDIA GRID VCA addresses both cost and complexity issues for companies with limited IT resources, as it provides a turn-key solution which allows these companies to gain the competitive advantage which remote CAD workstations provide at an affordable cost and without a high learning curve for the IT department.

GRID and GRID VCA provide virtual workstation solutions for remote users and maximize the return-on-investment by making a high-performance computing resource available 24 hours a day to expert users around the globe. With the addition of NVIDIA's vGPU technology, the goal of a truly virtualised graphics workstation can be reality.