Nvidia puts CUDA on Macs

Graphics chip manufacturer Nvidia has released the first beta version of its Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) for Mac OS X to download. Programmers can use CUDA to develop applications that use the high parallel processing power of GPUs as accelerators on Macintosh systems.

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Version 1.1 beta of the CUDA SDK and toolkit requires Mac OS X 10.5.2 and a graphics card with a GeForce 8 chip. In addition to the GeForce 8800 GT and the professional graphics card Quadro FX 5600 in Mac Pro, the mobile GeForce 8600M GT chip used in MacBook Pro is also supported. However, Nvidia recommends only using the variant with 256 MB of video memory for CUDA. The graphics chipset manufacturer did not provide any information about compatibility with Tesla accelerators.

For around six months, users of Windows and Linux have already been able to use the Shader ALUs on GeForce 8 graphics chips as coprocessors for parallel calculations. Nvidia's developer portal CUDA Zone says that most of the applications published to date are in the fields of molecular dynamics and astrophysics. Its main competitor, AMD, also has a GPGPU (general purpose GPU) that doubles calculation accuracy in its FireStream 9170. Intel will enter the growing market of coprocessors when it releases its Larrabee.

(jbe)