In the future, everyone will have their own Jeopardy-style video walls. Or at least that's the future AMD envisions.Posted on 09/11/2009 10:52:36 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
In the future, everyone will have their own Jeopardy-style video walls. Or at least that's the future AMD envisions.
In addition to new notebook chipsets, AMD today introduced Eyefinity, a new technology that allows for up to six displays to be driven off of one video card.
Eyefinity will make its way into upcoming DirectX 11-based ATI Radeon graphics cards, the company has announced. With Eyefinity, you'll be able to arrange up to six displays per graphics card in any configuration, using either landscape or portrait mode.
How insane can this get, you ask? At a media event aboard the USS Hornet in Alameda, CA, AMD demonstrated 24 monitors hooked up to a single PC, driven by four Eyefinitiy-based cards. The four GPUs--each driving six 24-inch Dell LCD monitors--powered a 3D flight simulator across all 24 screens.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
fyi
Whoa ...
The rear of a Eyefinity-equipped PC driving six monitors via six DisplayPort connectors.
bttt
Flight simulators on that...
You could have instrument panels dedicated to screens. This makes me happy.
ATI Eyefinity review - Now you can run six monitors in HD from a single graphics card
AND:
Beginnings of the Holodeck: AMD's DX11 GPU, Eyefinity and 6 Display Outputs
44 square feet of FreeRepublic.
I have 3 screens on my laptop at work.
Laptop 15 inch screen (center and primary), laptop second display drive is a 19 inch LCD to my right (secondary) and a USB 2.0 Triton driven 19 inch display on my left.
The Triton display has a horrible refresh rate, so movies are a definite no-go. But, for typing letters, or cutting and pasting from that display to my primary - it’s almost perfect.
So, material I refer to frequently for reference goes on my left hand screen, center for working on, right hand screen for research and simulations.
Can’t imagine going back to 2 screens.
DisplayPort Next Generation Video Connector for Personal Computers
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Over the years, the computer industry has seen a wide number of different video connectors. The VGA standard helped bring high resolution and color displays away from the first TV video connectors. DVI introduced us to digital displays that allowed for greater color and clarity. Finally, the HDMI interface integrated a digital video and audio signal into a single cable for use with home theater and even PC displays. So, with all of these advancements why is the industry now producing the new DisplayPort interface? That's precisely what this article looks to explain.
Each of the three major video connectors has problems that limit their use with future computer display. Even though they have addressed some of the issues, some still remain. Let's take a look at each of the formats and the problems that they have:
I want a setup like that....and going thru a KVM switch....
CinemaView Displays With Mini DisplayPort Connectors
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The next generation of CinemaView displays will be equipped with Mini DisplayPort connectors alongside a TV add-on. The new models will be larger than its predecessors and will start with the 24-inch model. The new screen now features four USB ports, 2ms of response time and 1,000:1 contrast ratio. The price still remains at $499 each, but its launch has been moved back two months to October 2009.
Meanwhile, the new CinemaView 47 is a hybrid TV/PC display that comes with similar resolutions as that of a dedicated computer display, although it relies on Mini DisplayPort for input.
Collins claims new Mini DisplayPort LCDs, tuner
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updated 08:25 am EDT, Fri July 17, 2009
Collins America today revamped its yet-to-be-released CinemaView displays built for newer Macs with Mini DisplayPort connectors as well as a TV add-on. The new display line is overall larger and will start with the 24-inch model; as before, the CinemaView 24 will bear similarity to 
Completely new to the display lineup is the CinemaView 47, a crossover TV and PC display. It produces the same resolution as the dedicated computer display but at its namesake larger size while still using just Mini DisplayPort for input. Four USB ports are also built in to the set, which has a slightly slower 4ms pixel response but a 4,000:1 contrast ratio. It won't ship until January and should cost $1,499 when it arrives.
The tuner, known as the CinemaView TV, carries dual cable HDTV tuners and outputs to HDMI and Mini DisplayPort to provide either Apple or Collins displays with TV, including picture-in-picture. It also takes in video from as many as four separate HDMI sources, Mini DisplayPort, component or RCA. It will come with an RF remote and is scheduled to appear in January for $399.
Hmmm, the KVM could be a rub. There are several goood KVM switches out there that have a USB port on them. In USB data transfers, there are types of data packets, as well as in ethernet; all data is not created equal.
Consider, when you transfer a Word document, you don't know or really care if page 3 goes before page 1, order doesn't matter - as long as the document winds up at the destination correct, and in a reasonable period of time.
However another form of data is what we call 'isochronous'. This data is stuff like music, video, and voice communications. Here, the ultimate goal is to get the data to the destination in the order it was sent. If a packet of data gets lost, that's fine ... we'll call that a dropped frame ... the human brain will integrate between one syllable to the next and figure out what was said or sung, or the eye will integrate and figure out what pictures before and after were, and your brain will fill in the missing data. With Isochronous data, missing data is acceptable, where in normal data the data MUST be correct.
So, the question as to whether you could use a KVM switch on this, is how does the KVM treat the video data from the USB port. I -rarely - have had to unplug and re-plug my USB Triton because the monitor lost video synch to the laptop. We are talking 3x in the past 6 weeks of daily use. I don't know if the KVM will create problems or not .... that depends how the KVM firmware treats the USB isochronous data traffic. Normally, the KVM is expecting regular data from a keyboard or mouse; not a video output.
With Linux support to follow sometime in 2189.
One use for this new technology comes to mind ...powering an array of six teleprompters for Obama so we don’t have to watch his head move side to side in oratorical pong.
Well...the KVM switch may have to go.
LOL! ...
Did a google search on the Triton 2.0 USB. The unit is going to set you back $70 - $80. Resolution max is 1280x1024x32 which is prefectly respectable. Refresh rate is whatever bandwidth is available through the USB channel. Again, for holding a spreadsheet, reading a document or any non-3D work it’s perfectly acceptable.
I would not encourage this solution for movies or gaming - it’s not going to keep up with your video card.
But for the laptop - it really rocks.
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