Third Largest Supercomputer... at Weta Digital

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Third Largest Supercomputer... at Weta Digital

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday May 4, 2004 @12:39AM from the rendering-monkeys dept.

Designadrug writes "This story at the BBC details how the worlds third largest supercomputer (conditions apply) lives at Weta Digital - the company that provided CGI effects for The Lord of the Rings movies. The article also goes on to discuss the 500 TeraBytes of data generated for the films and how the epic Battle of Pelennor Fields almost defeated the film itself."

25 of 245 comments (clear)

What platform? by nbvb · 2004-05-04 00:42 · Score: 4, Interesting

All the thing says is that IBM did the manufacturing ... were they xSeries, pSeries or zSeries? :-)

(I doubt the zSeries.... nobody buys 3300 processors' worth of mainframe :)
1. Re:What platform? by OS24Ever · 2004-05-04 00:45 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  It was the IBM eServer BladeCenter
  
  --
  As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
conditions apply by pbjones · 2004-05-04 00:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

and for a limited time only... things change tooooo quickly these, todays supercomputer is tomorrows laptop

--
There was an unknown error in the submission.
1. Re:conditions apply by SmackCrackandPot · 2004-05-04 00:51 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Too right ... but progress is good. My supervisor recently bought a laptop - the embedded video card does hardware bump-mapping as well as multi-texturing. Ten years ago you would have been lucky to afford a workstation with that capability.
  
  Today's roomful of rack-mounted systems is tomorrow's server unit.
  Today's server unit is tomorrow's workstation.
  Today's workstation is tomorrow's desktop.
  Todays's desktop to tomorrow's laptop.
  Today's laptop is tomorrow's PDA.
  Today's PDA is tomorrow's wristwatch.
2. Re:conditions apply by cK-Gunslinger · 2004-05-04 01:55 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  1) Tomorrow + Tomorrow + Tomorrow + Tomorrow + Tomorrow + Tomorrow = 6 days.
  
  2) Longhorn + DNF!
  
  (Score: +1, Obvious)
3. Re:conditions apply by mi · 2004-05-04 02:05 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Second question, what could I use that much processing power on my wrist for?
  
  Reliable and personalized weather prediction? Speech generation and recognition? Carry personal and global archives with you -- with quick searches. Detailed mapping of the surrounding area. Laser/hologram generated games, shows, and other entertaintment pointed at your eyes with quality sound aimed into your ears (so as not to disturb others)? Audio and video communication with anyone on the planet (and beyond)?
  And last, but not least, the spare cycles can still be donated to SETI@Home, protein folding, and other worthy projects of choice -- those will always be able to use more...
  
  --
  In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
File system ? by kbsingh · 2004-05-04 00:43 · Score: 5, Interesting

Be interesting to know what kind of a file system they use one something like this, and while they say loads and loads of data was generated - how and in what format was it actually stored.

MySQL is prolly not the best fit in this situation :)
1. Re:File system ? by noelmarkham · 2004-05-04 00:47 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  e interesting to know what kind of a file system they use one something like this...
  
  My vote goes for FAT16.
2. Re:File system ? by neuroklinik · 2004-05-04 01:41 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  HFS+ has no theoretical limit on file size. It is limited only by the size of the volume (Max 16TB in Panther).
  
  See Apple Knowledgebase article 25557 for more.
Post-project emotional crash by NSash · 2004-05-04 00:45 · Score: 4, Funny

He is confident... "King Kong is covered in hair," he said, "we could be animating that."

Is it just me, or does that sound more desperate than confident?
3rd Largest? by binaryDigit · 2004-05-04 00:45 · Score: 5, Interesting

If they're just counting the number of cpu's available to do a particular task, don't you then have to include things like Googles setup (10000+)?
1. Re:3rd Largest? by EricWright · 2004-05-04 00:47 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I doubt Google has any one "host" with that many CPUs. As I understand it, they have thousands of machines that work (mostly) independently of each other. Google's goal is to perform a very large number of short tasks very quickly. Weta's goal is to perform one very large task as quickly as possible.
2. Re:3rd Largest? by pe1rxq · 2004-05-04 01:03 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Weta's goal is to perform one very large task as quickly as possible.
  
  Maybe not, if you render frame by frame you end up with lots of independ tasks.
  
  Jeroen
  
  --
  Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
3. Re:3rd Largest? by galen · 2004-05-04 02:16 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The system is called Massive. During one of the early runs they noticed the guys in the back (on both sides) were wandering off. The problem was that they couldn't 'see' the action so they wandered around randomly looking for opponents. The effect was that it looked like they were running away. The problem was solved by giving the agents something similar to the ability to hear. Thus they could sense the action over greater distances and act accordingly.
  
  I've seen this misrepresented so many times it's begun to bug me. I believe all the information I just dropped is available on the Extended Edition DVDs special features (probably FotR). If not, then I'm sure a Google search will turn it up.
only number is processor number by musikit · 2004-05-04 00:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

the whole article only mentions the processor number to quantify it being a super computer. no tera-flops/seconds. nothing else. they may have the 3rd largest number of processors actively running at one time but a super computer that does not make.
1. Re:only number is processor number by JAPrufrock · 2004-05-04 00:55 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  No kidding. Especially since it sounds more like a renderfarm than a single "supercomputer". Then there's the data storage. That's nothing (though I say it myself). Go to high-energy physics for serious storage/processing centers. Little ol' me uses ~15 TB from 4 months of work, and I'm nothing compared to some people's requirements. I use up about 0.4% of our mass storage here (rough guess). WETA's cool - but not in supercomputer/HPC land.
So anyone can build the largest? by BondGamer · 2004-05-04 00:50 · Score: 5, Funny

If I collected 5121 computers (486s) and connected them all together I would have the largest supercomputer in the world?
Not just graphics by surgeonsmate · 2004-05-04 01:00 · Score: 5, Interesting

Weta also did the model work. I was over in Wellington some months ago and the model for Barad-dur was on display in the foyer of the national museum. About twenty feet high and superbly detailed. Awesome.
They also built the models for the ships used in Master and Commander, but the computer graphics were handled elsewhere.
After seeing these films, I'm going to be very keen indeed to see what these Kiwis can come up with next!
Top500 by FU_Fish · 2004-05-04 01:00 · Score: 5, Informative

*cough* Top500 List *cough*
More digital effects = less realism? by dpbsmith · 2004-05-04 01:05 · Score: 4, Interesting

"The Return of the King, which had more than 1500 special effects shots in it. By contrast the first movie had only 400 and the second 900."

The funny thing is that personally I lovedthe first movie, really liked the second, and... well... the third movie was pretty good too but seemed a little long.

Many factors could have contributed to this, but after hearing all of Jackson's encomia to model work and miniatures in the DVD "documentaries," I have to wonder whether the increased use of digital effects contributed in some subtle way to some loss of mood or atmosphere or reality in the third movie.

--
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Based solely on processor count by jsin · 2004-05-04 01:13 · Score: 5, Funny

I'm sure that there are landfills that beat this setup...

--

second society
Wetta@home by WillRobinson · 2004-05-04 01:14 · Score: 4, Insightful

Maybe something along the lines of paying for processing time, on millions of computers would get the work done like seti@home.
DVD set by erroneous · 2004-05-04 01:16 · Score: 5, Funny

Personally, I'm looking forward to the 2005 release of the 100000-DVD-set with all 500TB of extra footage and of making of documentaries.

--
erroneous: look me up in a dictionary
Look out! Here comes new zealand! by nfabl · 2004-05-04 01:20 · Score: 5, Funny

2 posts ago they were building stonehenge, now they have the 3rd largest supercomputer in the world.

I for one...
Not quite true. by anzha · 2004-05-04 02:08 · Score: 4, Informative

Saying the WETA render farm is the third largest machine in the world based on the number of processors is wrong. Just check the latest top 500 list and a quick skim points out that Lawrence Livermore National Lab's ASCI White (8192) and ASCI Blue Pacific (5808), Lawrence Berkeley National Lab/NERSC's seaborg (6656), Sandia National Lab's ASCI Red (9632), and Los Alamos National Lab's ASCI Blue Mountain (6144) all have more processors as well as the two already listed.
Also interesting that WETA Digital is listed as #44 on the list too, huh? They only listed a Xeon cluster though with 1080 processors. (prolly not be the same machine, but...).
I love technical articles from the popular press about technical subjects. They do soooo much in depth research. I hope that they don't hurt themselves.
*Disgusted look*

--
Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?