Advanced Micro Devices this week introduced its AMD FirePro S10000 compute accelerator card designed for both high-performance computing (HPC) workloads, workstation deployments and remote graphics intensive applications, a rather unique positioning.

AMD FirePro S10000 server graphics card is based on two Tahiti graphics processing units with 6GB of GDDR5 memory with ECC and delivers 5.91 TFLOPS of peak single-precision and 1.48 TFLOPS of double-precision floating-point performance. The card is mostly aimed at high-performance computing applications and is a direct rival for Intel Xeon Phi and Nvidia Tesla. Nonetheless, the product is claimed to ideal for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and workstation graphics deployments.

The FirePro S10000 fully supports leading virtualization technologies, including Microsoft RemoteFX for powering multiple users running common office applications from one GPU, as well as direct GPU pass-through support for VMware ESXi/ESX and Citrix XenServer that enables users running more advanced workstation graphics applications (one GPU per user model). In addition, the card has four mini-DisplayPort connectors as well as dual-link DVI connector to enable multi-monitor workstations that need serious graphics horsepower.

“The demands placed on servers by compute and graphics-intensive workloads continues to grow exponentially as professionals work with larger data sets to design and engineer new products and services. The AMD FirePro S10000, equipped with our Graphics Core Next Architecture, enables server graphics to play a dual role in providing both compute and graphics horsepower simultaneously. This is executed without compromising performance for users while helping reduce the total cost of ownership for IT managers,” said David Cummings, senior director and general manager of professional graphics at AMD.

The universal FirePro S10000 accelerator will be available from various partners of AMD. AMD had only one supercomputer design win ith its FirePro S10000, unlike its rivals Intel Xeon Phi and Nvidia Tesla K10 and K20, which numerous power leading-edge Top 500 supercomputers these days. Powered by FirePro S10000, the Sanam supercomputer is the world's second most energy-efficient supercomputer.

Tags: AMD, ATI, FirePro, Southern Islands, GCN, 28nm, Tahiti