Abstract:
A graphics card is provided. The graphics card comprises: a Graphics Processing Units (GPU) for data computing; and a wireless controller for wirelessly receiving data from other graphic cards or sending data to the other graphics cards, and communicating with the GPU by bus. The graphic card able provided by the present invention can provide a low-cost solution with more powerful computing capabilities to meet the demands for computing complex problems in the fields of commerce, industry, and science.

Description:
PRIORITY AND RELATED APPLICATION DATA 
     The present application claims the priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 201210149327.6, filed on May 14, 2012, which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates generally to graphics cards, and particularly to graphics cards for collaborative computing through wireless technologies. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Graphics Processing Units (GPU) are the processors designed to handle graphic work on PC, workstations, or gaming machines. The GPU can be integrated into a graphics card.  FIG. 1  shows the architecture diagram of a graphic card  100  in the prior art with GPU  101  as the center chip. As shown in the figure, the graphics card  100  comprises a GPU 101 , a memory chip  102 , a display interface  103 , a motherboard interface  104  and a power chip  105 . The GPU  101  can be used for various types of data processing, and is connected by bus with the memory chip  102 , the display interfaces  103 , the motherboard interface  104  and power chip  105  to communicate with them. The memory chip  102  is used for storing the data needed by the GPU for computing and the computing results. The display interface  103  is used to output the graphic data to a monitor for display. The motherboard interface can be a PCI Express interface and it is used to communicate with the motherboard for data exchange. The power chip  105  is used to provide electrical power for the normal operation of the graphics card  100 . 
     With the development of technologies, the development of GPU general computing technology has attracted quite a lot of concerns. GPU is no longer limited to graphic processing. In the fields of floating-point computing and parallel computing, GPU performances can be tens of times or even a hundred times of the GPU performances and provide more computing power than the GPU for large-scale data computing. However, the data computing power of a single GPU is still limited and the data computing power of a single GPU is about 900 GFlops (Giga Float Operations) at the most. 
     Therefore, there is a need for low-cost solutions with more powerful computing capabilities perform data processing with a computing speed of thousands of GFLOPS, to meet the demands for computing complex problems in the fields of commerce, industry, and science. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is related to a graphics card for collaborative computing through wireless technologies. The graphics card comprises: a Graphics Processing Units (GPU) for data computing; and a wireless controller for wirelessly receiving data from other graphic cards or sending data to the other graphics cards, and communicating with the GPU by bus. 
     Preferably, the card further comprises: a memory chip, configured to store data and connected to the GPU by bus; a output interface, configured to communicate with a output device and connected to the GPU by bus; a motherboard interface, configured to communicate with the motherboard and connected to the GPU by bus; and a power chip, for providing power. 
     Preferably, the wireless controller is configured to modulate or demodulate the received data in accordance with the RF standard using RF carriers. 
     Preferably, the RF standard is one of the following communication standards: IEEE802.11, 802.11n and 802.11ac, Bluetooth or ultra broadband. 
     Preferably, the wireless controller is a chip or circuit that has the function of wireless control 
     Preferably, the card further comprises a master card module, wherein the master card module is used for: sending a help request when encountering too heavy computing loads; ending, if no graphic card is able to accept the help request; sending the data to be processed to a second graphic card if the second graphic card is able to accept the help request; receiving the processing result from the second graphic card. 
     Preferably, the card further comprises a slave card module, wherein the slave card module is used for: determining whether its GPU has free resources when receiving help requests from other graphic cards; rejecting the help request, if its GPU has no free resources; accepting the help request if its GPU has free resources, and receiving data to be processed from the graphic card that sends the help request and processing the received data; and sending the process result to the graphic card that sends the help request, after all the data processing work is completed. 
     Preferably, the motherboard interface is a PCI Express interface. 
     In another aspect of the invention, a computing device is also provided. The device comprises: an input device, for inputting the data needed by the computing; a host, comprising a graphic card, the graphic card comprising: a Graphics Processing Units (GPU) for data computing; and a wireless controller for wirelessly receiving data from other graphic cards or sending data to the other graphics cards, and communicating with the GPU by bus; and an output device, for outputting computing results. 
     Preferably, the graphic card further comprises: a memory chip, configured to store data and connected to the GPU by bus; a output interface, configured to communicate with a output device and connected to the GPU by bus; a motherboard interface, configured to communicate with the motherboard and connected to the GPU by bus; and 
     Preferably, the wireless controller is configured to modulate or demodulate the received data in accordance with the RF standard using RF carriers. 
     Preferably, the RF standard is one of the following communication standards: IEEE802.11, 802.11n and 802.11ac, Bluetooth or ultra broadband. 
     Preferably, the wireless controller is a chip or circuit that has the function of wireless control. 
     Preferably, the graphic card further comprises a master card module, wherein the master card module is used for: sending help request when encountering too heavy computing loads; ending, if no graphic card is able to accept the help request; sending the data to be processed to a second graphic card if the second graphic card is able to accept the help request; receiving the processing result from the second graphic card. 
     Preferably, the graphic card further comprises a slave card module, wherein the slave card module is used for: determining whether its GPU has free resources when receiving help requests from other graphic cards; rejecting the help request, if its GPU has no free resources; accepting the help request if its GPU has free resources, and receiving data to be processed from the graphic card that sends the help request and processing the received data; and sending the processing result to the graphic card that sends the help request, after all the data processing work is completed. 
     In yet another aspect of the invention, a method for collaborative computing through wireless technologies with multiple graphic cards described above is also provided. The method comprises; sending a help request when a first graphic card has too heavy computing loads; ending, if no graphic card is able to accept the help request; the first graphic card sending the data to be processed to a second graphic card if the second graphic card is able to accept the help request; the second graphic card processing the received data; the second graphic card sending the processing result to the first graphic card, after all the data processing work is completed. 
     Preferably, the graphic card further comprises: a memory chip, configured to store data and connected to the GPU by bus; a output interface, configured to communicate with a output device and connected to the GPU by bus; a motherboard interface, configured to communicate with the motherboard and connected to the GPU by bus; and a power chip, for providing power. 
     Preferably, the wireless controller is configured to modulate or demodulate the received data in accordance with the RF standard using RF carriers. 
     Preferably, the RF standard is one of the following communication standards: IEEE802.11, 802.11n and 802.11ac, Bluetooth or ultra broadband. 
     Preferably, the wireless controller is a chip or circuit that has the function of wireless control. 
     The graphic card provided by the present invention can perform collaborative computing through wireless technologies. Multiple of the graphic cards can communicate wirelessly, so as to take full advantage of the GPU computing powers of all the graphics cards within this wireless network. It appears to the user that the performance of the computing device he/she operates is greatly increased. Moreover, the graphics card provided by the present invention can save costs. The computing efficiency is raised through the collaborative computing among the devices, instead of using one strong and expensive computing device. 
     Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings, 
         FIG. 1  shows the architecture diagram of a graphic card in the prior art; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates the block diagram of a graphic card provided by the present invention in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  shows a schematic diagram of the LAN composed of multiple graphic cards with wireless communication capabilities according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention; 
         FIG. 4  shows a flow chart for collaborative computing of multiple graphics cards using wireless communication technologies according to one exemplary embodiment of the invention; and 
         FIG. 5  shows a schematic diagram computing device that can implement the graphics card provided by the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Example embodiments are described herein in the context of graphics cards for collaborative computing through wireless technologies. Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following description is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. Reference will now be made in detail to implementations of the example embodiments as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The same reference indicators will be used to the extent possible throughout the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or like items. 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. 
     In one aspect of the invention a graphic card  200  for collaborative computing through wireless technologies is provided, which can communicate with other graphic cards through wireless technologies.  FIG. 2  illustrates the block diagram of a graphic card  200  provided by the present invention in accordance with one embodiment. The graphic card  200  comprises GPU 201 , a memory chip  202 , a display interface  203 , a motherboard interface  204 , a power chip  205  and a wireless controller  206 . The memory chip  202  is used for storing the data needed by the GPU for computing and the computing results. The display interface  203  is used to output the graphic data to a monitor for display. The motherboard interface can be a PCI Express interface and it is used to communicate with the motherboard for data exchange. The power chip  205  is used to provide electrical power for the normal operation of the graphics card  200 . 
     The wireless controller  206  connects to GPU by bus and communicates wirelessly with other graphic cards with wireless communication capabilities of other computing devices. The wireless controller  206  is configured to modulate or demodulate the received data in accordance with the RF standard using RF carriers. The communication means among the wireless controller  206  and other graphic cards can be wireless communication ways with the wireless transmitting and receiving functions, such as wifi, Bluetooth or ultra-broadband and so on. The communication standards can be the mainstream and the next-generation versions of wireless communication standards of IEEE802.11, 802.11n and 802.11ac. Bluetooth or ultra broadband. In one embodiment, the wireless controller  206  can be productions of Broadcom, such as chip BCM4331 with the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz dual-band and 3 groups of sending and receiving antenna modules to achieve up to 450 Mb/s data transfer speed, or chip BCM4352 supporting dual-stream 802.11ac specification with a transfer speed of 867 Mb/s, or chip BCM4360 with 3 stream 802.11ac specification and a transmission speeds of up to 1.3 Gb/s. 
       FIG. 3  shows a schematic diagram of the LAN  300  according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention. LAN  300  can include multiple graphic cards with wireless communication capabilities, such as a graphics card  301 , a graphics card  302 , a graphics card  303 , and a graphics card  304  etc. The graphics cards  301 - 304  all have wireless controllers so that all of them can perform data communications using wireless technologies.  FIG. 4  shows a flow chart for collaborative computing of multiple graphics cards using wireless communication technologies according to one exemplary embodiment of the invention. Depending on the embodiments, additional steps may be added, others removed, and the ordering of the steps may be changed. 
     In step  401 , a graphic card in LAN  300  is performing data processes. In step  402 , when the computing load of a graphic card in LAN  300 , such as the graphic card  301 , is too heavy, the graphic card  301  can be regarded as the master card in this case and the rest of the graphic cards in LAN  300  are regarded as slave cards. The graphic card  301  can select to send help requests to each graphic card, such as the graphic card  302 , the graphic card  303 , the graphic card and so on, in turn in the LAN using wireless communication means in step  403 . If no graphic card is able to accept the request, then the process ends. Otherwise, if a graphic card, such as the graphic card  303 , is able to accept the request, then in step  405 , the graphic card  301  sends the data to be processed in package to the graphic card  303 . Then in step  406 , the graphic card  303  processes the data accepted from the graphic card  301 . When the graphic card  303  finishes the data processing, then in step  406 , the graphic card  303  sends the result to the graphic card  301 . In step  408 , the graphic card  301  receives the result from the graphic card  303 . Under normal circumstances, the graphic cards in the LAN are not divided into master cards and slave cards. Only when a graphic card encounters a bottleneck of data process and sends a help request, is the graphic card a master card in this case and the other graphic cards are slave cards. 
     In one embodiment, the graphic card  301  comprises a master card module  207  for sending help request when encountering too heavy computing loads. If no graphic card is able to accept the request, then the process ends. Otherwise, if a graphic card is able to accept the request, then the data to be processed are sent to the graphic card that is able to accept the request. Then the processing result is received from the graphic card that accepted the request. In one embodiment, the graphic card  301  further comprises a slave card module  208  for receiving help requests sent from other graphic cards and determines if its GPU has free resources. If it has no idle resource, then the request is rejected. Otherwise, if it has free resources, then the request is accepted and receives data to be processed from the graphic card that sends the help request for process. After all the data processing work is completed, the process result is sent to the graphic card that sends the help request. 
       FIG. 5  shows a schematic diagram computing device  500  that can implement the graphics card provided by the present invention. The device comprises: an input device  510 , a host  520  and an output device  530 . Wherein the input device  510  is used for inputting the data needed by the computing. The host  520  includes a graphics card  521  provided by the present invention, which is used for all types of data computing or collaborative computing with other graphic cards. And the output device  530  is used for outputting computing results. 
     Therefore, the present invention provides a graphic card capable of performing collaborative computing through wireless technologies. Multiple of the graphic cards can communicate wirelessly, so as to take full advantage of the GPU computing powers of all the graphics cards within this wireless network. It appears to the user that the performance of the computing device he/she operates is greatly increased. Moreover, the graphics card provided by the present invention can save costs. The computing efficiency is raised through the collaborative computing among the devices, instead of using one strong and expensive computing device. 
     It should be appreciated that various modifications, adaptations and alternative embodiments thereof may be made within the scope and spirit of the present invention. The invention is further defined by the following claims.