DreamWorks switches from AMD to Intel
Sorry AMD but future animations developed by DreamWorks Animation will be rendered using large rendering farms consisting of Intel processors instead of AMD ones. DreamWorks decided to drop AMD processors in favor of Intel ones citing better performance as well as a more “promising roadmap.” The animation studio cited the upcoming Intel Nehalem processor and Larabee graphics chip as reasons why the studio was proceeding with the ol’ switcheroo.
But wait, there’s more! In addition to adopting Intel processors, DreamWorks will be receiving software help from Intel. The chip giant will re-architect and optimize DreamWork’s proprietary animation tools to better operate on Intel multi-core processors. Yup - typical Intel Developer Relations strategy. Lend a helping hand in software development in return for some Intel processor adoption. There’s nothing better for Intel than to have a company say their software runs best on the Intel platform.
While this might not seem like much of a setback for AMD, it does indicate that DreamWorks is 1) interested in more processing power and 2) interested in increasing overall efficiencies. If the studio utilizes roughly 5,000 cores for its rendering farms, then one can deduce that they have somewhere between 1250 to 2500 servers depending on whether they are using dual core or quad core systems (or older dual or quad processor setups). Since we know Intel is focusing on packing more cores on a single die, it’s reasonable to deduce that DreamWorks is looking to pack more power per server as well as save on power consumption by either reducing the number of server boxes or maintaining the same number with more cores.
Hey - if this makes Shrek look even more realistic, then cool!
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