Nvidia, VMware Join to Pipe High-quality 3D Graphics from the Cloud

GTC Nvidia and VMware have announced that the graphics company's grid technology is now available on the virtualization giant's desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) platform to deliver 3D graphics to enterprise desktops through cloud service provider. Additionally, the two companies are working together to bring Nvidia's virtual GPU technology (vGPU) to VMware's ESX-based system – an offering they say will be available to select early customers by the end of this year, with general availability coming in 2015.

vGPU will extend the DaaS offering by supporting GPU sharing with VMware virtual machine, allowing up to eight users per GPU, with graphic commands going directly to the GPU, which will handle the appropriate memory allocations to ensure low-latency, high-quality 3D graphics to each cloud user, the companies claim.

Jeff Brown, vice president and general manager of Professional Visualization and Design at NVIDIA (News - Alert), said,"Working with VMware, we're offering customers flexible access to GPU computing power via onsite virtualized environments or in the cloud. It will help enterprises improve employee productivity, while efficiently managing their hardware resources."

Unmatched Performance Across Users and Clouds is built on the NVIDIA Kepler architecture and NVIDIA GRID GPUs offer industry-leading graphics performance combined with low-latency display technology to optimize performance on virtual desktops.

 Sumit Dhawan, vice president and general manager of End-User Computing at VMware, said in a statement, "It enables businesses to drive innovation via instant mobile access and collaboration across users worldwide by delivering exceptional 3D quality graphics applications from the cloud. With VMware and NVIDIA working together, customers and service providers benefit from working with two industry leaders in their respective fields."

The VMware Horizon DaaS Platform enables service providers to deliver complete virtual workspaces, including desktops and 3D graphics applications. NVIDIA GRID technology with VMware Horizon DaaS Platform is available immediately to service providers and customers.