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Incredible Video: Drawing a 'Mona Lisa' in 80 Nanoseconds! watch!

youtube.com — The mythbusters compared a CPU vs a GPU and the GPU drew an ACTUAL mona lisa drawing using paint balls in 80 nanoseconds.

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 29, 2008

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  • kinggimped, on 08/29/2008, -10/+794MILLISECONDS. 1,000th of a second.

    Not nanoseconds. That's one thousand MILLIONth (1,000,000,000th) of a second.

    C'mon.
  • Chairboy, on 08/29/2008, -28/+452There's one funny thing about this demonstration that I haven't seen anyone else mention. The CPU example is actually more technologically advanced than the GPU one. The GPU getup is a grid of PVC tubes fed by a single manifold that has a solenoid valve. The only actual moving part is the solenoid valve, and it has two states, on and off. The tubes were pre-loaded by hand, and there are no actual 'smarts' in the device.

    The 'CPU' example, on the other hand, is a computer controlled, servo-aimed gun that executes a stored procedure of coordinates and commands. Twin axis, CNC type control... it's much, MUCH more advanced than the 'GPU'.

    Sure, I eat babies and am a horses ass and all for pissing on this wicked coolness, but this is ironic. And not in the Alanis Morissette sense, in the real one.
  • alexkball, on 08/29/2008, -7/+234Savage-Hyneman '08!
  • dralter, on 08/29/2008, -8/+203I have the full presentation by Jamie and Adam at NVISON 08 and viewable in "High Quality"

    http://digg.com/hardware/Mythbusters_Adam_Jamie_at ...
  • Gigabutt, on 08/29/2008, -2/+182How did the word "Mythbusters" not make it into the title??
  • IUCGC, on 08/29/2008, -0/+153If there's one thing I hate about digg, it's misleading/improperly spelled headlines. It can't be THAT hard to copy/paste.
  • JFallon126, on 08/29/2008, -3/+134Actually you both offered helpful analysis. Except you also managed to sound like a prick.
  • random12345, on 11/16/2008, -5/+130It can still draw better than I can... I'm referring to the 1st one. :(
  • ZeeZee2k, on 08/29/2008, -0/+121My LCD cant even draw a dot in 80 nanoseconds.
  • em00guy, on 08/29/2008, -12/+129So that's how Banksy does it!
  • SasquatchBill, on 08/29/2008, -34/+151I think that was the point, and you missed it.

    A CPU is built to do a bunch of different processes. It maybe more 'technologically advanced' than a GPU, but it isn't job specific. Something built specifically for the job is simpler but can do that particular job much quicker, even if fulfilling a way more advanced requirement.

    The irony here is your comment's attempt at being clever and observant.

  • bweltondav, on 08/29/2008, -5/+109Adam + Jamie + giant pressurized paintball CANNON= guaranteed entertainment.
  • shck, on 08/29/2008, -9/+103BOOM HEADSHOT!
  • inactive, on 08/29/2008, -7/+95Well, as with most things "scientific" the mythbusters do, it's flawed – but no one gives a ***** because it's totally awesome.
  • kidwithsword, on 08/29/2008, -9/+95I want one... to use in paintball matches.
  • jameshighmore, on 08/29/2008, -1/+70So, you're saying the GPU is a series of tubes..?
  • theMADone, on 08/29/2008, -9/+76Somebody let Bush know, the mythbusters have weapons of mass destruction.
  • StuartGibson, on 06/14/2009, -1/+66I can help you out. At the end of the sentence where you used colon open parenthsis try using colon close parenthesis. This will give you the desired "smiley face" effect shown in the video.
  • MarkyNouj, on 08/29/2008, -0/+65Homer Simpson invented a more compact version for prostitutes years ago...
  • IH8PelicanFarts, on 08/29/2008, -4/+66I prefer to see elephants paint. Those wacky elephants.
  • alexjsolis, on 08/29/2008, -0/+53It was a marketing ploy for Nvidia held at the Nvision event. The point being that GPU is much more important being that it can create a "Mona Lisa" where as the CPU could only make a smiley face.

    It makes people want to buy better graphic cards.
  • m0nt3, on 08/29/2008, -5/+54that is why i like mythbusters, that right there.
  • sirjoebob, on 08/29/2008, -2/+49They proved that they are badass.
  • twizhimself, on 08/29/2008, -7/+50that was AWESOME!!!!
  • inactive, on 08/29/2008, -15/+55Cool, but seeing the Mythbusters shill for Nvidia makes be a bit sad.
  • Phil13, on 08/29/2008, -0/+36"Mythbusters 'draw' the Mona Lisa in 80 milliseconds" would make too much sense, that's why.
  • luke16, on 08/29/2008, -0/+34Have you tried drawing a dog in front of it?
  • fxu1989, on 08/29/2008, -0/+31You wouldn't need reload... shoot everyone at once, even your own teammates.
  • moocow1452, on 08/29/2008, -4/+33So, what did that prove?
  • dajuggernaut, on 08/29/2008, -3/+31i for one welcome our mythbusters overlords
  • cawpin, on 08/29/2008, -3/+31Gee, another Digg spammer dupes a lesser known digger.
  • DesignNerd, on 08/29/2008, -0/+26that's a hell of a reload time.
  • OneLess, on 08/29/2008, -5/+29I want...to be them.
  • dajuggernaut, on 08/29/2008, -3/+26and YES the mythbusters got it to run Crysis.. :)
  • barfooz, on 08/29/2008, -2/+24Billion means different things to different countries.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion
  • welliamwallace, on 08/29/2008, -0/+21I hope you mean 10^-9
  • GeorgeStone2, on 08/29/2008, -0/+20It was under a sheet. You can gauge size pretty well from that..
    Oh, and that's what she said.
  • Khorpo, on 08/29/2008, -1/+19NERD WAR
  • Narrwald, on 08/29/2008, -0/+16I'd digg you up if you had only posted the middle paragraph.
  • CapeKid, on 08/29/2008, -0/+16The mythbusters got their start shilling. They have made robots for a bunch of comercials.
  • FlyCO, on 08/29/2008, -0/+15I presume you've never watched Mythbusters
  • vawksel, on 08/29/2008, -2/+17Yeah, and CPU is technically MUCH more sophisticated and advanced than a GPU.

    The GPU is more like dozens, hundreds or thousands (depending on the GPU) little mini CPU's that's instruction set is very simple, just massively parallel.

    It was a very good comparison for a demo of a paintball "bot" analogy to a CPU vs GPU.



  • xyqxyq, on 08/29/2008, -2/+16...in my pants.
  • dn11, on 08/29/2008, -3/+17yes sir. those ATI cards could at best paint a Rembrandt on a good day.
  • rowlodge, on 08/29/2008, -2/+16so an nvidia 8800gts is what i should get?
  • spamthecatcher, on 08/29/2008, -2/+16Why did it need to prove something?
  • diabolicedict, on 08/29/2008, -1/+14Have you read the title? Nano != Micro.
  • tierneyb, on 08/29/2008, -0/+13If you have to ask...
  • HayString, on 08/29/2008, -3/+15Or, you could say, the time it takes a paintball to travel 10 ft.
  • griz, on 08/29/2008, -1/+13It's a simple comparison of parallel vs serial data paths. It's also just frickin' cool.
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