SAN JOSE, CA, Sep 30, 2009 - Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, kicks off the sold-out GPU Technology Conference by telling to ignore him in the flesh but to focus instead on the 3D image of himself on the big screen. That should be no problem for the ubergeeks in the audience, who judging by the lush graphics clearly prefer fantasy to reality.
We are treated to an overly buxom fairy and a red fire truck that we are told is a zillion polygons.
NVIDIA's fairy, Dawn, introduced a few years ago as a technology preview, never seems to get old.
"A billion dollars later, i get some eye candy," jokes Jen-Hsun.
Ah, a self-deprecating CEO-- much appreciated over some stuffed shirt business type.
We also get CG images of bodies being flung against and through a wall. "I see so much joy that could be derived from this," says Jen-Hsun. Green water splashes around in an invisible box, drawing oohs and ahs from an audience that must appreciate the underlying mathematics. It doesn't look quite right to me -- the surface appears pockmarked, I think because it is based on thousands of balls -- a lot until you consider real life water is based on trillions of molecules. I realize I'm expecting too much...
It's physics-based, we are told, as if that is going to shut me up.
Lest NVIDIA be dismissed for being frivolous, Jen_Hsun steers our attention to more serious matters. What could be more serious than cancer? David Robinson, CEO of TechniScan explains how NVIDIA's graphic speed has been instrumental in analyzing data from breast cancer scans. "Any cancer can be cured -- if it is detected early enough."