BionicFX announces Audio Processing on NVIDIA GPU

BionicFX has announced Audio Video EXchange (AVEX), a technology that transforms real-time audio into video and performs audio effect processing on the GPU of your NVIDIA 3D video card, the latest of which are apparently capable of more than 40 gigaflops of processing power compared to less than 6 gigaflops on Intel and AMD CPUs.

AVEX works by transforming audio streams into the structure and colors of graphics data. The graphics data is processed on the video card by pixel or fragment shaders that run audio effect algorithms, which read and write to textures in video memory. The final calculations are retrieved from off-screen buffers and decoded into audio.

BionicReverb, the first effect to use AVEX, will debut at Winter NAMM Conference in January 2005. BionicReverb is an impulse response reverberation effect that runs as a plug-in inside VST compatible multi-track recording software.

BionicFX AVEX Overview

1. Individual audio samples are isolated from the audio stream.
2. Samples are transformed into video data elements and structures.
3. Appropriate pixel shader application loaded on the GPU.
4. Secondary audio samples are converted to video textures and loaded on video card.
5. AVEX data sent to the GPU for processing.
6. Iterative processes perform functions and read and write results to textures.
7. Final output of shaded pixels sent to off-screen video buffers.
8. Video data is retrieved and decoded into audio.

So is it fact or fiction? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.