Comment Feed for Channel 9 - Grid Computing with 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles http://media.ch9.ms/ch9/8719/cc465bd9-a9f2-4f96-b1b5-e20d23428719/AlanSmith2012_220.jpg Channel 9 - Grid Computing with 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles In this interview I talk to Connected Systems MVP Alan Smith about using a lot of resources in Windows Azure. He shows a demo of using 256 cores to render images. Rendering 3D ray-traced animations is a task that requires massive compute power. Creating a 256 node render farm that is capable of producing high definition high quality 3D animations would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and take months to provision. Creating this environment in Windows Azure costs around $30 per hour, and takes a few minutes to provision. In this session the power of Windows Azure Compute will be demonstrated live on stage, with the creation of a render farm using 256 worker roles to render a 3D animation creating using Windows Kinect, and a text-based ray-tracer. The principles used in the architecture of this solution can be applied to many other scenarios, and will be covered in detail, along with tips and advice for creating your own grid computing applications.   Follow me on @bjorn_eriksen and Alan Smith on @alansmith en Thu, 23 May 2013 17:44:45 GMT Thu, 23 May 2013 17:44:45 GMT Rev9 Re: Grid Computing with 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles
I have written a blog post with a description of the architecture of the 256-core ray tracer. Feel free to ping me if you have questions.

http://geekswithblogs.net/asmith/archive/2012/06/25/150043.aspx

Alan

posted by Alan Smith

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Grid-Computing-with-256-Windows-Azure-Worker-Roles#c634848137707052543 Tue, 02 Oct 2012 22:29:30 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Grid-Computing-with-256-Windows-Azure-Worker-Roles#c634848137707052543 Alan Smith Re: Grid Computing with 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles would be nice to see the jobs parallelized, but may be limited by the renderer you're using.

eventhough this example (256 worker roles, ~1 hour) would only equate to about 30$USD cost... any size studio would and does run 24/7 at times... this could be very cost prohibitive.  I estimated this to be around 22K$ USD/mo. (?)  that's really expensive.

posted by tswalker

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Grid-Computing-with-256-Windows-Azure-Worker-Roles#c634848490188581315 Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:16:58 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Grid-Computing-with-256-Windows-Azure-Worker-Roles#c634848490188581315 tswalker Re: Grid Computing with 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles
Yes, I agree. I think that ray-tracing technology has vastly improved since PolyRay was created in the mid 90's. The reason for using it was it was that it helped to launch my IT career.

The 256 roles for $30 / hour can really be applied to any task that requires heavy compute for a short time period, not just ray-tracing. The price does not compete with scenarios where you use the roles 24/7, but when you need that power for short time periods it makes the cloud look very attractive.

Regards,

Alan

posted by Alan Smith

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Grid-Computing-with-256-Windows-Azure-Worker-Roles#c634848494306896004 Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:23:50 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Grid-Computing-with-256-Windows-Azure-Worker-Roles#c634848494306896004 Alan Smith Re: Grid Computing with 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles Great post, thanks Alan

posted by Bogac

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Grid-Computing-with-256-Windows-Azure-Worker-Roles#c634849568495106665 Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:14:09 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Grid-Computing-with-256-Windows-Azure-Worker-Roles#c634849568495106665 Bogac Re: Grid Computing with 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles
If you liked this demo, plase vote for it in the Azure Fast competition: http://www.meetwindowsazure.com/fast

Thanks.

Alan

posted by Alan Smith

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Grid-Computing-with-256-Windows-Azure-Worker-Roles#c634869591036164506 Sat, 27 Oct 2012 18:25:03 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Grid-Computing-with-256-Windows-Azure-Worker-Roles#c634869591036164506 Alan Smith