Pixar replacing SGI machines with IBM Linux workstations

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
<a href="http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-825823.html"; target="_blank">http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-825823.html</a>;

[about ten paragraphs in]



IBM has lured some prestigious customers along the way. E*Trade is moving to a Linux-only operation, starting with IBM Intel servers that replace Sun Microsystems systems, Zeitler said. Digital-animation studio Pixar is replacing the SGI machines used to animate "Toy Story 2" and "Monsters, Inc.," with IBM Linux workstations, Zeitler said.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    well thats not surprising SGI is dumping IRIX and moving on to Linux as a primary OS many Hollywood FX houses are moving on to cheaper pc based hardware running RH Linux and Maya. As it turns out they are a more cost affective solution.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    As long as they are not using Win XP as their OS of choice that's fine with me
  • Reply 3 of 3
    [quote]Originally posted by apocalypse:

    <strong>well thats not surprising SGI is dumping IRIX and moving on to Linux as a primary OS many Hollywood FX houses are moving on to cheaper pc based hardware running RH Linux and Maya. As it turns out they are a more cost affective solution.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    <a href="http://www.sgi.com/workstations/fuel/"; target="_blank">They are?</a>





    I think people have a lot of confusion over how Pixar gets the work done. Pixar has a "render farm" that they use to render the frames of the movie. These comptuers need not even have a graphics card becuase Pixars Renderman is software rendering. You can run it on anything at all. Price performace is what's key here. A fast cheap Linux box would do very well in this setting.



    Now all the modeling and keyframing and all that stuff done by people using software tools is a different part of Pixar. They need a fast 3D workstation. That's where SGI holds the high ground.



    I'd be willing to bet that ZD net got it wrong. That IBM is moving into the Render farm and not on to animators' desktop.
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