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Pixar Switching to Mac OS X

Posted by pudge on from the ipixar dept.

DavidRavenMoon writes "MacCentral reports that Pixar technologist Dr. Michael Johnson says Linux, Sun and Windows-based systems are being replaced by Mac OS X. 'The studio's entire team uses Mac OS X not only for creative work, but for workflow and custom application development.'"

4 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. 180 Degree turn around? by malducin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It wasn't long ago that Pixar actually started to make the switch to Linux, it was reported in several places. Has Steve Jobs given an edict? While it might be fine it sounds rather abrupt. I wonder if everyone is satisfied.

    Here is the quote from the CGW article from September 2001 (which requires free registration):

    A studio just beginning the Linux transition is Pixar Animation Studios. Vice president of research and development Darwyn Peachey says, "This is the platform that will replace SGI in the CG industry. There's been a lot of progress made since last year. Nobody is wondering 'if' anymore." SGI as a hardware platform is being displaced by high-performance PCs, but the company isn't going away. SGI is actively supporting Linux, both on its hardware and through the Linux port of Maya by subsidiary Alias|Wavefront. Because Linux runs on PC, SGI, and Sun machines, it enables studios to support just one OS. Like DreamWorks, Pixar faced a massive job in porting its existing code. Pixar finished the Linux port of all its internal software, about two million lines, in May. RenderMan command line tools have been available on Linux since 1999. RenderMan Artist Tools, for use with Linux Maya, are now in beta testing. "Porting went very fast, averaging 2000 lines of code per developer day," says Peachey. "The port to Linux is straightforward, where Windows is difficult." Pixar has more than 500 SGI desktops and uses Sun servers for its renderfarm. About 30 Linux machines are in use for software development, and 20 Linux machines are used in production. By fall, at least 100 Linux desktops are expected to be used in production. Pixar's next film, Finding Nemo (release date summer 2003), is to be produced primarily using Linux systems.

    Here is the link:

    Linux Invades Hollywood

    The most puzzling thing is if they plan to substitute the SUN renderfarm, as one of the things they like is that they can pack a lot of power in slim racks (14 CPUs on each last time I heard). Maybe they got more space at Emmeryville now ;-). As recent as last holiday season SUN touted its hardware shortly after the release of Monster's Inc.:

    SUN story on Monsters Inc.

    Tom Duff sometimes posts around here, maybe he can comment? It's rather interesting.

    1. Re:180 Degree turn around? by malducin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Someone mentioned it to me but I wasn't sure if it was true or someone pulling my leg. Now I learned something today.

      Still I wonder if this came out as an edict from Jobs. I wonder if they would get the same performance per cubic unit from the G4 racks as from the SUN ones. They didn't have much space left when they were at Point Richmond, so space considerations for the renderfarm were important. And if I remember right Pixar had a deal with SUN, though probably it doesn't mean anything. One more piece of the puzzle though it still doesn't fit nicely. After all it was less than a year ago that they gave that info that they were moving to Linux and rewriting almost everything for it. Darwyn Peachey is one of the top people there. If that's the case then I guess there was a lot of wasted effort. though since all is *nix it probably wasn't so bad.

      Or maybe it's like the fabled ILM/SGI agreement in which supposedely ILM couldn't mention ever any use of hardware beside SGI in exchange for a sweet deal, even though they were using other stuff there. Maybe that'll be the case, only OS X will be publicized even though some other stuff might be on the background. Time will tell.

  2. Pixar software ran on NeXT by grouchomarxist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One interesting thing to remember is that Pixar software used to run on NeXT. They probably pulled some code out of the archives as part of work on Mac OS X.

  3. OSX on AMD guinea pigs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Here's a thought...where could Steve Jobs seed prototype hardware that really doesn't need Carbon support. What about OS X running on AMD boxes and running homegrown Pixar apps written in or ported to Cocoa?

    I'm one of those non-technical artist types but it seems that would be a natural environment for Steve to quietly try some new stuff that uses the best of both worlds.