Sony and IBM take on digital content creation with Cell work

[London Geezer]

As someone said, it's all in the software. If Alias and others make Cell version of their apps, then i think that will be a signal. Strong signal. They wouldn't bother otherwise. Most of them don't even bother with Macs!!

I don't think a Cell workstation would be any faster than any other, if at all, without highly optimised software.

And we all know how "optimised" Maya is nowadays for PC. Errr...

Personally, unless something happens (sony buying or more of those companies for example, and get them to optimise their software for Cell) i don't see much hope for a Cell workstation.

 

[McFly]

What about CELL worstation running OS-X?
Ok..that's just a dream..

Just a dream? Damn!

or

OS X running on a 1TFlop class machine? Where can I place my order?

Fredi

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

Isn't Softimage the artist's choice these days?

 

[London Geezer]

Isn't Softimage the artist's choice these days?

Depends on what you do really. And the studio you work in. And don't forget, all these packages are fairly similar in what they do (loosely speaking), so switching from one to the other is not too hard. Only takes a while to get used to the interface and the ins and outs of the program..

 

[Phil]

I don't think a Cell workstation would be any faster than any other, if at all, without highly optimised software.

I don't think it would matter if an individiual CELL would be more powerful.... think of the possibility of each bought CELL workstation upping the performance and productivity of your company... The more workstations you have, the more performance you could allocate over the network.

 

[London Geezer]

I don't think a Cell workstation would be any faster than any other, if at all, without highly optimised software.

I don't think it would matter if an individiual CELL would be more powerful.... think of the possibility of each bought CELL workstation upping the performance and productivity of your company... The more workstations you have, the more performance you could allocate over the network.

....The more cash u have to splash out....

 

[Pepto-Bismol]

PC's are just ubiquitous and I can't see a company shelling out 20K+ for individual workstations + how ever much Alias/Wavefront want to rip you off for the Cell version of Maya.

I agree. Given the level of expertise with current hardware and software, trying to retool everything for Cell is ludicrous, particularly when it does not have a customer base.

So if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

I think the best way to evangelize this technology -- well, initially anyway -- would be through emulation. Cell will probably have to emulate popular hardware and software architectures faster and more efficiently than could be done otherwise.

Given the ease with which IBM has been snapping financial and research institutions into computing grids and the nefarious (grid-like) operation of Cell, this notion doesn't seem too far-fetched.

• Charles Schwab
  Charles Schwab responds to market conditions and customer needs with its new Grid production environment, providing significantly improved performance and higher quality results.
  
• IN2P3 (Institut National de Physique Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules)
  French research institute improves performance of research projects and enhances collaboration of European technical community.
  
• NLI Research (Nippon Life Insurance)
  Reduced processing time for financial risk calculation from around 10 hours to about 49 minutes.
  
• RBC Insurance
  RBC Insurance needed to dramatically improve its compute-intensive valuation process. An IBM Grid solution helped virtualize applications and infrastructure to help reduce processing time from hours to minutes.

Source: IBM

 

[David_South#1]

nAo,

Apple just last week started hiring for a DSP, Vector, Scalar programmers that would be recompiling optimizing & porting Mac OS X code.

Whether this is a routine task for G5 that is just hired for rarely, or linked to the fact that Sony wants a Mac OS capable lead programmer for Cell work is unknown.

Just thought the news might further tantalize you.
Check Apple.com hiring for these skills and you'll find the opening.

 

[Farid]

nAo,

Apple just last week started hiring for a DSP, Vector, Scalar programmers that would be recompiling optimizing & porting Mac OS X code.

Whether this is a routine task for G5 that is just hired for rarely, or linked to the fact that Sony wants a Mac OS capable lead programmer for Cell work is unknown.

Just thought the news might further tantalize you.
Check Apple.com hiring for these skills and you'll find the opening.

Two possible scenarios here (Three if we count the scenario "NO OSX on Cell Workstation", of course)

What could be reasonable is, OSX being used as a GUI/os for the Cell Worstation.

Or, Apple switching from PPC to processors using Cell...
Maybe, since Mac are used mainly for art creation, the Cell architecture could fit the Apple needs.

Actually if the PPC emulation on a processor using the Cell architecture is fast enough, it could be a good move for Apple to use thoses CPU.
Since old programs will be compatible with the new CPU via emulation, and the new versions of thoses programs will be optimized for Cell...

OK... It won't going to happen , but it could have been fun.

 

[j^aws]

nAo,

Apple just last week started hiring for a DSP, Vector, Scalar programmers that would be recompiling optimizing & porting Mac OS X code.

Whether this is a routine task for G5 that is just hired for rarely, or linked to the fact that Sony wants a Mac OS capable lead programmer for Cell work is unknown.

Just thought the news might further tantalize you.
Check Apple.com hiring for these skills and you'll find the opening.

Two possible scenarios here (Three if we count the scenario "NO OSX on Cell Workstation", of course)

What could be reasonable is, OSX being used as a GUI/os for the Cell Worstation.

Or, Apple switching from PPC to processors using Cell...
Maybe, since Mac are used mainly for art creation, the Cell architecture could fit the Apple needs.

Actually if the PPC emulation on a processor using the Cell architecture is fast enough, it could be a good move for Apple to use thoses CPU.
Since old programs will be compatible with the new CPU via emulation, and the new versions of thoses programs will be optimized for Cell...

OK... It won't going to happen , but it could have been fun.

The other scenario is that Apple is going to introduce Xgrid (Grid Computing technology) into it's furure OS release and compete with cell workstations?

Link to Source

Sony should just license OSX and recompile it for CELL. and Apple should just license CELL and create their own worksations. Guy's... can't you just get along...

 

[Qroach]

Isn't Softimage the artist's choice these days?

Not in game development. 3dsmax leads the charge, then I'd say Maya brings up a far second with softimage coming third. The main reason 3ds max is still up there is becuase most development houses don't want to switch and need to write new version of thier tools.

From what I've heard form other developers, many like Maya because it's a very powerful package, but softimage already has exporters written for it that dumps all the needed information in plain text. I've also heard comments like, "if we were to start our tools from scratch, or were a new developer, we'd pick Maya over 3dsmax".

 

[London Geezer]

Isn't Softimage the artist's choice these days?

Not in game development. 3dsmax leads the charge, then I'd say Maya brings up a far second with softimage coming third. The main reason 3ds max is still up there is becuase most development houses don't want to switch and need to write new version of thier tools.

From what I've heard form other developers, many like Maya because it's a very powerful package, but softimage already has exporters written for it that dumps all the needed information in plain text. I've also heard comments like, "if we were to start our tools from scratch, or were a new developer, we'd pick Maya over 3dsmax".

Maya is the most powerful app out there, it's what movie studios use for their special effects. FFTSW was entirely done with Maya (and other apps, including Square's own tools too of course), LOTR special effects were done in Maya. Many others too.
The only thing is that it's very user-unfriendly, if you've ever had the "luck" to work with it, a first look would leave you like that. Whereas other apps like Cinema4D are much more appealing and easy to pick up and go, although in the end they will probably not give you the same high end results Maya can potentially give you.

WRT game development, 3DSMax is by far the most used, probably because games do not need the kind of quality one can see in The Matrix trilogy, LOTR, FFTSW special effects...