Renderman officially announced
I can't remember seeing it listed anywhere, so... we all knew it was happening from the G5 intro movie thang.. good thing we got that 8gb of ram 
Apologies if it was shown already?
from renderman.pixar.com
Pixar's RenderMan Pro Server Available for the Macintosh
EMERYVILLE, CA, September 9th, 2003 - Pixar Animation Studios officially announces the availability of RenderMan® Pro Server for the Macintosh, bringing Pixar's Academy Award® winning rendering technology to the Apple community._
RenderMan® Pro Server will include the latest release of Pixar's RenderMan 11.5, featuring technology developed during Pixar's Finding Nemo and should be available fourth quarter, 2003.
Apologies if it was shown already?
from renderman.pixar.com
Pixar's RenderMan Pro Server Available for the Macintosh
EMERYVILLE, CA, September 9th, 2003 - Pixar Animation Studios officially announces the availability of RenderMan® Pro Server for the Macintosh, bringing Pixar's Academy Award® winning rendering technology to the Apple community._
RenderMan® Pro Server will include the latest release of Pixar's RenderMan 11.5, featuring technology developed during Pixar's Finding Nemo and should be available fourth quarter, 2003.
Comments
p.s. Does Arn post here at all?
Dudes and dudettes, like is no one interested in this?
Originally posted by gsxrboy
Hehhehe, far out I even beat Macrumors to the table on this one... Hi Arn thx for dropping by to see us
p.s. Does Arn post here at all?
Dudes and dudettes, like is no one interested in this?
Of course we are...I was just stoked and speechless.
This could mean that Pixar will eventually migrate to OS X and G5s. And this definitely means that OS X is a seriously kick-ass OS.
Originally posted by kim kap sol
...This could mean that Pixar will eventually migrate to OS X and G5s. And this definitely means that OS X is a seriously kick-ass OS.
Pixar has already stated that they intend to move the entire shooting match over to G5s & OS X...
I believe it was at the Shake Users Group meeting at Siggraph this year?!?
Also recall a comment (from the recent Pixar stockholders meeting?) reinforcing the move to G5 workstations, AND commenting that the renderfarm would be moving over to the Apple hardware platform...
Interesting side note, Pixar has those 'new' digs, HUGE campus, and it is ALL paid for! And the money for Finding Nemo is JUST starting to roll into their coffers...!
Now if Apple could just buy Maya, work a deal to make RenderMan the default renderer in Maya, and include unlimited node licensing for the Mac OS X platform...
Apple would truly take over Hollywood!
;^p
Originally posted by fahlman
You must remember that Pixar isn't going to install a bunch of G5 towers stacked on desks to be their render farm, or even in some non-standard racks. This is a hint that there will one day, soon I hope, be a G5 blade server.
Never expected Pixar to make a renderfarm out of a bunch of G5 PowerMacs...
But a renderfarm of G5 Xserve Cluster Nodes would work...
Although, the current renderfarm is Xeon blades...
So yeah, maybe Apple G5 blades in the future...!?!
Would be sweet!
;^p
Originally posted by MacRonin
Never expected Pixar to make a renderfarm out of a bunch of G5 PowerMacs...
But a renderfarm of G5 Xserve Cluster Nodes would work...
Although, the current renderfarm is Xeon blades...
So yeah, maybe Apple G5 blades in the future...!?!
Would be sweet!
;^p
Excuse my ignorance here. But, what are the differences between a regular server and a blade. I've heard mention of them in the past, but never knew what people were talking about. Is it a particular class of server?
Imagine a xServe RAID, now remove the hard drives and put in...let's say HT (HyperTransport) daughter cards with G5, 4GB, and whatever else might be needed for such a card to work.
If it breaks, you yank it and put another one in. Depending on processor speeds and numbers (the heat output) will determine how many blades (the above daughter cards) will be put into the unit. A dozen is a safe estimate, depending on what kind of back-end and management systems are required for connectivity.