From Graphics to AI: The GeForce Legacy
NVIDIA’s journey into accelerated computing began 25 years ago with GeForce, a brand that introduced the programmable shader. This invention, initially for graphics, made accelerators programmable for the first time.
This foundational work paved the way for CUDA five years later. NVIDIA made a major investment to bring CUDA to every computer, often on the back of GeForce products, despite the financial challenges at the time.
GeForce played a pivotal role in the “big bang of AI” about 10 years ago. It enabled researchers to discover that GPUs could accelerate deep learning tasks. Later, about eight to ten years ago, NVIDIA introduced RTX, a complete redesign of its architecture.
RTX fused programmable shading with hardware ray tracing and a new idea: using AI to revolutionize computer graphics. This fusion of 3D graphics and AI continues to evolve, demonstrating how advancements in one field can drive innovation in another.
Neuro Rendering: Fusing Graphics and Generative AI
The latest evolution in graphics technology, neuro rendering, exemplifies the fusion of 3D graphics and artificial intelligence. Technologies like DLSS 5, NVIDIA’s neural rendering technology, combine controllable 3D graphics, which represent the structured data of virtual worlds, with generative AI’s probabilistic computing. This blend allows for the creation of highly realistic and controllable content.
This concept of fusing structured information with generative AI is expected to extend far beyond graphics, influencing various industries. Structured data provides the “ground truth” necessary for trustworthy AI applications. By combining the precise control offered by structured data with the creative abilities of generative models, NVIDIA aims to enable new forms of content creation and problem-solving across diverse fields.
Accelerating Data Processing for AI
The rise of AI demands accelerated processing of vast amounts of data, both structured and unstructured. Structured data, often found in data frames like those processed by SQL, Spark, Pandas, Snowflake, Databricks, and Google Cloud BigQuery, represents the ground truth of business operations. AI and future intelligent agents will increasingly rely on these data structures, requiring major acceleration.
Unstructured data, comprising about 90% of all data generated annually—including PDFs, videos, and speeches—has historically been difficult to query or search effectively. This is because indexing unstructured data requires understanding its meaning. AI now offers a solution by using multi-modality perception to comprehend the meaning of unstructured content and embed it into searchable structures.
To address these needs, NVIDIA has developed two foundational libraries: QDF (CUDA Dataframe) for structured data and QVS (CUDA Vector Store) for unstructured, semantic data. These libraries are designed to integrate deeply into existing data processing ecosystems.
For instance, IBM is accelerating its Watson X data SQL engines with QDF. This has allowed companies like Nestle to process supply chain data five times faster at an 83% lower cost. Dell has also partnered with NVIDIA to create the Dell AI data platform, integrating both QDF and QVS.
In the cloud, NVIDIA accelerates Google Cloud’s Vertex AI and BigQuery, leading to major cost reductions, such as nearly 80% for Snapchat’s computing needs. Accelerating data processing delivers benefits in speed, scale, and cost efficiency.
Beyond Moore’s Law: The Accelerated Computing Advantage
The traditional pace of computing improvement, often associated with Moore’s Law, has slowed. This law described the doubling of performance every couple of years, effectively reducing computing costs over time. However, a new approach is needed to achieve major advancements.
Accelerated computing provides these “giant leaps forward.” NVIDIA positions itself as an “algorithm company,” continuously optimizing algorithms that run on its large installed base of GPUs.
This ongoing optimization, combined with the widespread adoption of its architecture, consistently reduces computing costs while increasing speed and scale for users globally. This dynamic encourages new growth and innovation across various applications and industries.
Ecosystem and Cloud Integration
NVIDIA’s strategy includes deep integration with the world’s cloud services and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The company builds its accelerated computing platform with a suite of libraries, such as RTX, QDF, and QVS, that sit on top of its core architecture. These libraries are then integrated into cloud platforms like Google Cloud and AWS.
This approach allows NVIDIA to accelerate diverse workloads, from Vertex AI and BigQuery on Google Cloud to machine learning frameworks like PyTorch and Jackson XLA. By providing these accelerated solutions, NVIDIA effectively brings customers and their demanding AI workloads to cloud service providers.
This collaborative model ensures that a wide array of developers and enterprises, including companies like Base 10s, CrowdStrike, Puma, and Salesforce, can use NVIDIA’s technologies within their preferred cloud environments. The company aims to accelerate computing for everyone, continuously expanding its reach and impact.
