Datacenter

But this license agreement is overlay vague about how NVIDIA defines a "datacenter deployment" if this would also count as university research clusters, etc. The only explicit exception is for crypto-currency/blockchain farms. NVIDIA hasn't provided any official comment yet given the holiday weekend

Someone "closes", someone "opens".

Someone "closes", someone "opens".

Personally I need some more context to begin to understand what you meant. It looked like a statement that you quoted with no followup questions about it.

I think its about the question whether or not researchers are allowed to use a new Nvidia Titan V for their Boinc based projects... which makes much sense for double precision calculations. Or if they are forced to buy a much dearer Tesla instead.

Here is the Nvidia statement: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/27/nvidia-limits-data-center-uses-for-geforce-titan-gpus.html

GeForce and TITAN GPUs were never designed for data center deployments with the complex hardware, software, and thermal requirements for 24x7 operation, where there are often multi-stack racks. To clarify this, we recently added a provision to our GeForce-specific EULA to discourage potential misuse of our GeForce and TITAN products in demanding, large-scale enterprise environments. NVIDIA addresses the unique mechanical, physical, management, functional, reliability, and availability needs of servers with our Tesla products, which include a three-year warranty covering data center workloads, NVIDIA enterprise support, guaranteed continuity of supply and extended SKU life expectancy for data center components. This has been communicated to the market since the Tesla products were first released. We recognize that researchers often adapt GeForce and TITAN products for non-commercial uses or other research uses that do not operate at data center scale. NVIDIA does not intend to prohibit such uses.

Nvidia still leaves the definition of a "data center" open ... and opens a backdoor at the same time by the "non-commercial uses or other research uses that do not operate at data center scale" clause. I would assume that most Boinc projects are non-commercial and therefore the new EULA limitation not applicable to them.

And for the lucky of us who can afford a Titan V ... GRC mining is also still allowed here by the way.

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I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

Nvidia still leaves the definition of a "data center" open ... and opens a backdoor at the same time by the "non-commercial uses or other research uses that do not operate at data center scale" clause. I would assume that most Boinc projects are non-commercial and therefore the new EULA limitation not applicable to them.

IMO, most of the volunteers don't own a datacenter, but the admin of a boinc project that use gpus, for sure rules a datacenter.
So they are not allowed to use geforce, neither for testing.
But it's just my opinion, I'm not a lawyer.

We recognize that researchers often adapt GeForce and TITAN products for non-commercial uses or other research uses that do not operate at data center scale. NVIDIA does not intend to prohibit such uses.


Even so I would assume that the first term applies...

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I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

What you quote is a statement of a spokesperson, but the license only talk about datacenter. So I still think that geforces can't be used in data centers until nvidia changes the license.

What you quote is a statement of a spokesperson, but the license only talk about datacenter. So I still think that geforces can't be used in data centers until nvidia changes the license.

I think they meant 'and still warranty the product' not use but 'use under warranty'. I'm guessing it's similar to a car manufacturer not repairing your engine if it explodes while trying to find the max speed on a race track, YOU CAN but don't expect them to replace it if it fails.

Maybe you are right but the license allow the blockchain jobs. As far as I know, blockchain is a heavy task for gpus, so if nvidia fears a heavy load for geforces, it's strange that blockchain is allowed but datacenter loads are prohibited.
Of course, I can always be wrong.

They are just washing their hands (if possible) from warranty and support obligations if the GeForce and TITANS are used in "data center" applications, whatever that is. But that in itself does not prohibit their use in such applications.

And they further state:

We recognize that researchers often adapt GeForce and TITAN products for non-commercial uses or other research uses that do not operate at data center scale. NVIDIA does not intend to prohibit such uses.

The BOINC projects we do such as this one are "non-commercial".

What are you worried about?

EDIT: I don't know anything about Bitcoin, except that I don't do it. That could be a "commercial use".

EDIT: I don't know anything about Bitcoin, except that I don't do it. That could be a "commercial use".

Actually I would think Bitcoin would fall under a "for profit" as it's for monetary gain, not video gaming, therefore would fall into their restrictions.

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EDIT: I don't know anything about Bitcoin, except that I don't do it. That could be a "commercial use".

Actually I would think Bitcoin would fall under a "for profit" as it's for monetary gain, not video gaming, therefore would fall into their restrictions.

No, actually the section 2.1.3 Limitations is very clear about that. Mining is expressively allowed...
https://www.geforce.com/drivers/license/geforce

[.......No Datacenter Deployment. The SOFTWARE is not licensed for datacenter deployment, except that blockchain processing in a datacenter is permitted......]

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I would love to see HCF1 protein folding and interaction simulations to help my little boy... someday.

EDIT: I don't know anything about Bitcoin, except that I don't do it. That could be a "commercial use".

Actually I would think Bitcoin would fall under a "for profit" as it's for monetary gain, not video gaming, therefore would fall into their restrictions.

So we need something like Bitcoin Utopia to come back again, you crunched bitcoins but then donated the proceeds to Boinc Projects, stats sites etc.

So we need something like Bitcoin Utopia to come back again, you crunched bitcoins but then donated the proceeds to Boinc Projects, stats sites etc.

No because we have gridcoin and bitcoin utopia is not coming back.

What are you worried about?

I don't crunch with geforces anymore, so I can't be worried. Just talking about the new license, just in case I do a comeback to nvidia.

So we need something like Bitcoin Utopia to come back again, you crunched bitcoins but then donated the proceeds to Boinc Projects, stats sites etc.

Interesting, maybe this can be a solution.