The NVIDIA GRID VCA is the world's first visual computing appliance.

Judged as of March 2013. True: no product sold before the GRID VCA (announced at GTC in March 2013) was a self-contained appliance delivering GPU-accelerated visual computing (remote graphics or virtualized GPU workstations) to multiple clients, and contemporaneous or historical sources treat it as the first of that category. Mostly true: it was the first under NVIDIA's own definition, and earlier products were only loosely comparable. Mostly false: earlier products did substantially the same thing (e.g., GPU-based remote visualization appliances from NVIDIA, such as Quadro Plex/VCS, or from other vendors) but differed in some respects. False: an earlier product clearly fitting the 'visual computing appliance' description existed and was marketed as such.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Nvidia Begins Shipping its Quadro Plex 1000 Visual Computing System | Computer Graphics World Computer Graphics World (CGW) · 3 October 2006 Own record

   “Santa Clara, Calif. - Nvidia Corporation is now shipping the Nvidia Quadro Plex 1000, the world's first dedicated visual computing system (VCS).”

2. E2 NVIDIA Unveils Industry's First Visual Computing Appliance NVIDIA · 19 March 2013 Own record

   “SAN JOSE, CA - GTC 2013 -- NVIDIA today introduced the industry's first visual computing appliance -- enabling businesses to deliver ultra-fast GPU performance to any Windows, Linux or Mac client on their network.”

3. E3 Nvidia kicks off GTC 2013 with fresh roadmaps, new products - ZDNET ZDNET · 19 March 2013

   “To reach that audience, Nvidia announced an appliance server—it’s first end-to-end system—called GRID Virtual Computing Appliance (VCA).”

4. E4 NVIDIA Quadro Plex Visual Computing System - Engineering.com Engineering.com (Design World) · 25 November 2008 Own record

   “Featuring four Quadro GPUs in a high-density 1U chassis for high-performance remote graphics and offline rendering applications”

NVIDIA's March 2013 release calls the GRID VCA the industry's first visual computing appliance (E2). But earlier announcements show the Quadro Plex 1000, a 'dedicated visual computing system', shipping in 2006 (E1), and a Quadro Plex visual computing system with four Quadro GPUs in a 1U chassis for remote graphics by 2008 (E4). The 2008 Quadro Plex product, a four-GPU 1U chassis for remote graphics (E4), is the kind of earlier NVIDIA product the criteria name as making the claim mostly false. The evidence does not set out in detail how these products differed from the GRID VCA; E1 and E4 describe them as visual computing systems rather than appliances. ZDNet (E3) describes the VCA as NVIDIA's first end-to-end system and does not address whether it was an industry first.