Pixar Switches to Mac OS X and G5s

fmorgan writes "No big surprise here: when Apple introduced the G5 at 2003 WWDC, it become more a question of 'when' Pixar will move to G5s, than 'if'). At the same conference, Apple showed a new codec for Mac OS X named 'Pixlet,' developed with Pixar. In last year O'Reilly's Mac OS X conference, there was a presentation on how Pixar moved their desktop/office environment to Mac OS X. Now it seems it's the main production work: 'Apple's Don Peebeles said that Pixar has used Linux and Intel-based architecture in 2003, but that Pixar was switching to Mac OS X and G5 workstations for its production work: Peebles went on to say that this switch was "a move that no doubt made common CEO Steve Jobs very happy."'"

Comments

Didn't this happen a while ago?

[The Lost Supertone]

I seem to remember someone from Pixar saying that they were moving over to G5 work stations. As for the Render Farm I believe they just purchased a whole lot of 2.8Ghz Xeons (if I remember correctly) and so it would probably not make sense for them to go and buy a ton of Macs for that right at the moment. Besides Steve knows when Apple's upgrade schedule is. They will buy Dual 3Ghz or 4Ghz Xserves before they need to render the next Pixar release I bet.

Re:Renderman!

[levork]

Pixar isn't changing the farm. As for RenderMan, the current release is already available for OSX in a beta form.

Re:For the price

[vasqzr]

Virginia Tech's "Big Mac" has proved the G5 to be very powerful in a cluster.

G5 not Consumer

[CoolMoDee]

umm.. the G5 isn't a consumer machine. It is a professional workstation. Apple's consumer machines are the iBook/eMac/iMac. Pretty much Anything with an X or Power infront of it are professional machines.

Re:*Shrug*

[gobbo]

Well, Pixar can afford to buy Apple stuff, *and* Apple have someone on the inside.... I think it'll work out alright, Apple doesn't make bad stuff, just stuff that isn't worth what they are charging...

Oh puhleez, that's so 1999! Have you priced out performance / price ratios for tier 1 manufacturers? G5's do smackingly well, especially against Dells and the like, often coming out much cheaper before considering things like support costs and reliability and resale. Pixar isn't going to build their own bargain bin beige boxes. Look at VirginiaTech's shopping research, they paid full price to Apple and it was still cheaper/faster than Dell.

Re:Looking at G5's for my data center too

[Raindance]

Actually more modern Intel processors run an 800mhz frontside bus.

However, your point is well taken that the G5 architecture seems to impliment a better memory architecture.

Re:Steve Jobs as CEO can redefine "necessary"

[thatguywhoiam]

Steve Jobs isn't a particularly staunch fan of GNU/Linux, nor of software freedom

What about this?

Re:Could see this coming....

[BoomerSooner]

Your pipe isn't fat enough. I was doing an audit of GTE billing in the late 90's and was looking for some of the biggest bills. Sure enough Dreamworks had a very large bill for their pipes (something like 30 OC-3's or something). Pretty big for a non-telco related company.

Note: my memory isn't that good so if someone wants to shed some more detail I'd be interested in an update!

Re:Looking at G5's for my data center too

[EriktheGreen]

To clarify the bus speed issue, the front side bus in any Xeon or P4 system must be shared by all CPUs, meaning that 800Mhz FSB effectively is a 200Mhz fsb for four cpu machines. I suspect the situation is worse with hyperthreading turned on, since that tends to increase utilization of the FSB, at least in theory.

Opterons on the other hand have an integrated memory controller on die, and each cpu in a multi-cpu system has its path to core memory.

I suppose you could just get all single cpu machines, but that would be even more expensive than multi-cpu Xeons, and far more expensive than the Opterons... Erik