Wall Street Turns to Video Game Tech
Wall Street Turns to Video Game Tech
June 19, 2008
The street of dreams is paying attention to video game tech these days, and not just in terms of potential investments.
Wall Street & Technology reports that the same graphics processors (GPUs) employed in modern game consoles are powering specialized financial displays.
Frank Tan, a Deutsche Bank options trader, told WS&T:
With the advancement of computer gaming and graphics technology like PlayStation and Xbox, these graphics cards are a lot more capable [than ever]. The idea is to use the GPUs for financial calculations rather than playing games and generating graphics...
First, there is the sheer number of messages and data coming in... Every time the underlying price changes, or if there is a shift in the options quotes, the options prices... have to be recomputed. The GPU has the capability to solve the second computational issue. Before GPU technology came out, in order to solve this problem in real time, you would have to buy supercomputers.
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Posted 07/04/09 at 09:24pm
PHX Corp: For those that want to know what i watching it's called man vs cartoon(a.k.a fixing Wile E. coyote's Mistakes one trap at a time by EMERTEC)
PHX Corp: For those that want to know what i watching it's called man vs cartoon(a.k.a fixing Wile E. coyote's Mistakes one trap at a time by EMERTEC)
Posted 07/04/09 at 08:20pm
GoodRobotUs: Went out for my Mum's 65th Birthday, which is the only relevance 4/7 has in the UK for me ;)
GoodRobotUs: Went out for my Mum's 65th Birthday, which is the only relevance 4/7 has in the UK for me ;)
Posted 07/04/09 at 08:18pm
Andrew Eisen: Beach + fireworks + root beer + strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, whipped topping, and pound cake = my Fourth of July!
Andrew Eisen: Beach + fireworks + root beer + strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, whipped topping, and pound cake = my Fourth of July!
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:58pm
GoodRobotUs: Which seems to be the only point Jack proved, that some people find some games offensive. i.e. Nothing.
GoodRobotUs: Which seems to be the only point Jack proved, that some people find some games offensive. i.e. Nothing.
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:57pm
GoodRobotUs: The discussion was supposed to be whether games were dangerous not 'Do you find some games offensive'...
GoodRobotUs: The discussion was supposed to be whether games were dangerous not 'Do you find some games offensive'...
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:55pm
GoodRobotUs: Some agreed, some didn't, but it was their choice to make, not the governments.
GoodRobotUs: Some agreed, some didn't, but it was their choice to make, not the governments.
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:55pm
GoodRobotUs: By asking the audience their opinion, he more or less proved that it's a matter of personal choice
GoodRobotUs: By asking the audience their opinion, he more or less proved that it's a matter of personal choice
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:55pm
GoodRobotUs: Meh, he ended proving Mark's point for him
GoodRobotUs: Meh, he ended proving Mark's point for him
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:26pm
Erik: Jack if you are reading this you are a LIAR. There is no legal weight to the MPAA's ratings.
Erik: Jack if you are reading this you are a LIAR. There is no legal weight to the MPAA's ratings.
Posted 07/04/09 at 07:24pm
JDKJ: I still think my buddy the midget who rides a unicycle backwards while juggling four bowling pins would have been a much bigger hit with that crowd. And he can make up statistics and misinterpret studies, too.
JDKJ: I still think my buddy the midget who rides a unicycle backwards while juggling four bowling pins would have been a much bigger hit with that crowd. And he can make up statistics and misinterpret studies, too.
Posted 07/04/09 at 06:33pm
Alyric: Of course, Mark falls into the common trap about Columbine, which had nothing to do with bullying, etc. See: http://slate.msn.com/id/2099203/?GT1=3256 for a more thorough explanation.
Alyric: Of course, Mark falls into the common trap about Columbine, which had nothing to do with bullying, etc. See: http://slate.msn.com/id/2099203/?GT1=3256 for a more thorough explanation.
Posted 07/04/09 at 06:32pm
PHX Corp: Read this http://www.destructoid.com/sgc-09-liveblogging-the-jack-thompson-debate-138502.phtml#ext
PHX Corp: Read this http://www.destructoid.com/sgc-09-liveblogging-the-jack-thompson-debate-138502.phtml#ext
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:54pm
PHX Corp: JT is afraid of such ban then advocates it That's what i call a total Hypocrite
PHX Corp: JT is afraid of such ban then advocates it That's what i call a total Hypocrite
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:50pm
PHX Corp: AE: JT is a -Bleeping- Jackass
PHX Corp: AE: JT is a -Bleeping- Jackass
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:07pm
Andrew Eisen: JT "knew it would be a good audience." Not what he said on Tuesday.
Andrew Eisen: JT "knew it would be a good audience." Not what he said on Tuesday.
Posted 07/04/09 at 05:01pm
Andrew Eisen: VG cause violent behavior. VG companies influence behavior to get sales. Yeah, that makes sense. (To be fair, the Twitter feed makes deciphering JT's point pretty tough.)
Andrew Eisen: VG cause violent behavior. VG companies influence behavior to get sales. Yeah, that makes sense. (To be fair, the Twitter feed makes deciphering JT's point pretty tough.)
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:52pm
Andrew Eisen: Yes, it's been proposed but as far as I know it has not been passed. Big difference.
Andrew Eisen: Yes, it's been proposed but as far as I know it has not been passed. Big difference.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:50pm
Cheater87: http://www.gamezine.co.uk/news/formats/xbox360/all-violent-video-games-be-banned-in-germany-$1301757.htm
Cheater87: http://www.gamezine.co.uk/news/formats/xbox360/all-violent-video-games-be-banned-in-germany-$1301757.htm
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:49pm
Andrew Eisen: Far as I know, Germany has not banned all violent video games.
Andrew Eisen: Far as I know, Germany has not banned all violent video games.
Posted 07/04/09 at 04:44pm
Cheater87: Jack wants the US to follow Germany's total video game ban.
Cheater87: Jack wants the US to follow Germany's total video game ban.
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Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
I find this rather amusing. Most people forget that Graphics Cards are just CPUs with specialized purposes.
I wouldn't be surprised if they start using the PS3's Cell-Processors too. It is, by all accounts, a marvel of computer engineering.
...so why can't they just use a regular CPU, instead?
They could, but CPUs are designed to handle many tasks. A GPU is designed to do one thing and do it well, so it's going to be better at it than a CPU of equivalent cost and/or power.
Basically, the cards are designed to do a particular kind of mathematics very very quickly indeed, and those mathematics are heavily involved in Financial equations as well, for example, working out where 2 projection lines cross in a financial model is not a million miles from finding out where 2 vectors intersect in a 3D Graphics environment.
the architecture is a lot different from a cpu. they process things differently.
GPUs do a lot of floating point calculations, which most financial data is composed of. So they are ideal for crunching this type of data.
Yup, this isn't the first time the GPU has been used for non-graphical work, but it's still pretty clever ;)
I think with the Cell processor's capabilities we'll be seeing things like this a lot more often. Sure, the Cell is a CPU and not a GPU, but when you see them using the Cell to power the current world's fastest supercomputer, you'll see a lot more people realizing that its not just for games. I wouldn't be surprised if the business world started taking stock of Cell processors and started using them more heavily for servers.
IBM already sells mainframes that use them.
Yea, but as far as I know they aren't widespread yet. What I was meaning is that in a few years it wouldn't surprise me if Cell processors became a dominant force in the server world. It only makes sense that IBM would use, and most likely convert to solely using, them over time since they were a major player in their developement.
I just have a feeling we'll start seeing other companies using them as well. For instance, Cisco might start using them in routers or we'll be able to build our own Cell-based servers like we can with Opterons and the like. Of course, homebrew servers using Cell processors is a bit of a stretch for the time being at least, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if I saw a major IT company like Cisco pick up on them for use in large scale routers, such as core routers, over the next couple years.
Suuuure they need video cards capable of running crysis to do math on. And I needed my amiga to "help me do homework"
Ironically I really DID do homework on it but I got it for gaming.
I'm a bit surprised at this track though, I'd have thought multicore CPUs with specialised software designed to use one core for general use & then others for floating point stuff.
I think it's a question of Price to be honest, when the solution is already available, why spend more money than you need to?