In-depth video demo of Teradici's upcoming PC-over-IP multi-VM server offload card

Written on Jan 05 2011 Filed under: Teradici PC-over-IP, Display Protocols, VDI 6,250 views, 7 comments

by Brian Madden

In Brian Madden TV last week, we showed a quick demo of Teradici's upcoming multi-VM server offload card. That demo was only 3min, but we actually recorded a longer 12min demo. Here's a look at the full video interview with Teradici's Ziad Lammam, where's he's able to talk fairly in-depth about the upcoming card.

Highlights of the video include:

• The hardware offload will be dynamic and seamless, meaning that the card will automatically kick-in for the VMs that need it without the user's knowledge.
• The main "effect" of the card is lower CPU for PCoIP encoding, which translates to more VMs per host.
• The card will be released in late 2011.
• A single card will support up to 64 1920x1200 displays
• Teradici will build and sell the card themselves, although they're also working with all the major hardware vendors.
• The main chip is a brand-new chip. It's not the same chip used in the existing 1-to-1 hardware encoding cards.
• They're also talking about mezzanine forms of this card for blade enclosures.
• Using the card will be seamless. Just plug it in to an existing VMware View server. (The software hooks are already built into vSphere and View.)
• Pricing is not yet announced, but expected at VMware Partner Exchange in February.

Comments

dominic_laplante@cascades.com wrote re: In-depth video demo of Teradici's upcoming PC-over-IP multi-VM server offload card

on Wed, Jan 5 2011 11:40 AM

Seems really really nice.   I Can't wait to test it what ever the price is.  Even on a Wan link.

I have a little question, does the card will work with Citrix Xendesktop ?

Thanks

Brian Madden wrote re: In-depth video demo of Teradici's upcoming PC-over-IP multi-VM server offload card

on Wed, Jan 5 2011 11:54 AM

No it does not work with XenDesktop, since XenDesktop does not support PCoIP.

dominic_laplante@cascades.com wrote re: In-depth video demo of Teradici's upcoming PC-over-IP multi-VM server offload card

on Wed, Jan 5 2011 1:13 PM

Ok, but do you know if CItrix is working on a similar product server offload card ?

Cause I think with citrix we can user a graphic card in both end.

Thanks

Brian Madden wrote re: In-depth video demo of Teradici's upcoming PC-over-IP multi-VM server offload card

on Wed, Jan 5 2011 1:39 PM

For Citrix HDX, there are a few options. They have something called HDX 3D Pro which is where you use a graphics card for 3D apps and stuff. (So it uses the graphics card for it's "real" purpose, not for encoding the remote protocol.)

Citrix will also support RemoteFX (if you're using XenDesktop on Hyper-V) which does use a graphics card for the remote protocol encoding.

I wrote an article explaining both of these here: www.brianmadden.com/.../citrix-hdx-3d-vs-microsoft-remotefx.aspx

dominic_laplante@cascades.com wrote re: In-depth video demo of Teradici's upcoming PC-over-IP multi-VM server offload card

on Wed, Jan 5 2011 2:44 PM

Great !  Thanks again.  By the way really like your articles and Brian TV too.

Simon Bramfitt wrote re: In-depth video demo of Teradici's upcoming PC-over-IP multi-VM server offload card

on Mon, Jan 10 2011 7:50 PM

am I alone in thinking that Ziad was being a little optimistic in his interpretation of the CPU utilization reduction shown in PerfMon at about the six minute mark?

His 80% to 30% reduction looks to me more like 70% to 40%.

TiJa wrote re: In-depth video demo of Teradici's upcoming PC-over-IP multi-VM server offload card

on Tue, Jan 11 2011 5:05 AM

I'm surprised that nobody has raised the comment yet that where Teradici is saying "the PCoIP transcoding is not using a lot of CPU", the CPU usage still drops by 40% when the offloading occurs. Doesn't that indicate that the PCoIP software implementation was using all that CPU and not VLC/Windows Media Player as they seem to be suggesting? I agree that this is a particular situation with a lot of video content changing at a fast pace, but still 40% CPU usage for decoding video data is simply astonishing and worrying.

Also, why are they still using Windows XP for their demos? Seriously, Windows 7 has been publicly available to IT pro's since August 2009, which is almost one-and-a-half year ago! Why not use Win7 demos, are they not as performant?

That being said, the dynamic on/offloading of software into hardware PCoIP is amazing and likely just what is needed to ensure a good multimedia experience on virtual desktops at all times.

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