Hardware Talk :: Sound and graphix cards to assist cpu?



BTW X-fi is a sound card, but it takes all kinds of instructions....
Well yes... nvidia bought voodoo's technology (though SLI means differently now I think)
Using different gpu's is like saying to use different cpu's on the same board...

I don't see how this would attract people to Linux since these features came out on Windows, if not first (or unavailable under Linux). (And SLI is currently quite flaky under Linux)

I see that the X-fi card has extra processing power, but I haven't seen info that allows programmability of it other than sound-related use.
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why not lend some of that power to help the cpu?

In a sense, that's what it does by offloading sound/video from system requirements of the CPU. I know you're talking about using it as a co-processor; like hats has already answered, that's a work in progress with some of the newer hardware (see link below).
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Even if they were cheap cards, they would give an awesome boost when there is 11 of them...

Eleven cards in seven PCI slots?
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Does anyone know how to do this?

Not yet. I also think the jury's out about how functional this will be in the long run -- a la the hammer:jackhammer analogy (a jackhammer is an immensely more powerful tool than a regular hammer, but it's not a better tool for driving a nail into a specific juncture of two pieces of wood). For now it looks like it's best suited for clustering. For an example, see "Why Use CUDA technology?" (which looks like is supported on RHEL4 and WinXP):
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/cuda.html
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...would Seriously bring people to Linux

I'm not sure that will do much beyond enterprise-level clustering and companies or universities looking for cheaper super computing options -- (edit) who are already using Linux or for whom Linux is already an option.

Many people are holding off from upgrading to Vista because it requires either a brand new computer or some serious upgrades (including video card if they want Aero). I don't see how they'd be lured by a distro recommending two or more video cards for a mini/home GPGPU cluster when Linux is a viable option with the hardware they already own and they're already reluctant to add new hardware (video cards).

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X-fi is a sound card, but it takes all kinds of instructions

I think at that level, it would be more efficient -- cheaper and easier -- to either upgrade a CPU or even to overclock (which I don't recommend). That's what I would do because I see that as solving one "problem" (slow CPU/motherboard) with another (using a different piece of hardware to solve the original "problem" which remains in place).

And even if you do offload a few CPU cycles to a sound or video chip, you're still confined by things like FSB speed, etc. On older systems, probably not worth the hassle. On newer systems (XP-level +), it could be more useful but that takes me right back to the point above about the reluctance people have to adding extra hardware as well as the point about using video cards to solve a mobo "problem" (if it is a problem).
Gaming, people, gaming... Cube 2, new unreal tournament, Wow or F.E.A.R or something on Wine... And which costs less? A new cpu, or an old video card? For the cpu you also need to get a cooler.. And a card is way easier to install than a cpu...

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Eleven cards in seven PCI slots?
7 pci, 1 agp, 1 pci-e, 2 integrated, that makes 11 cards

So it's not possible to use old gfx and sound cards for cpu instructions.
But how about combining them for graphics and sound respectively? I could see some people getting a second hand gfx card if that raises their Wow fps from 10 to 25 or something...
It's actually cheaper to buy and install new cpu's or gpu's, since the cost in developing the technology to utilize all of that would be too high, not to mention too complicated (too many different kinds), and that the performance increase, if any, would be marginal with the use of old hardware.

If you're talking about gaming, people who want multi graphics card setups and performance can only look at Windows right now.  The use of Wine greatly offsets the performance. And (as I have already stated) the use of multi graphic card solutions for consumers aren't going that well for Linux yet.  However, we can look forward to this as developments advance.
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