HPCwire: FilmLight Wins Four Academy Awards Using Supermicro Technology

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February 22, 2010

FilmLight Wins Four Academy Awards Using Supermicro Technology

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 22 -- Super Micro Computer, Inc., a leader in application-optimized, high-performance server and storage solutions, today announced that its hardware engineering helped FilmLight, a leading UK motion picture entertainment company, earn four Academy Achievement Awards today from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.

The awards, given out Saturday evening at the Academy's Scientific and Technical Awards at The Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, recognized FilmLight's achievements in digital film technology. The awards included:

A Technical Achievement Award to Mark Wolforth and Tony Sedivy for their contributions to the development of the Truelight real-time 3-D look-up table hardware system.
A Scientific and Engineering Award to Dr. Richard Kirk for the overall design and development of the Truelight real-time 3D look-up table hardware device and color management software.
A Scientific and Engineering Award to Wolfgang Lempp, Theo Brown, Tony Sedivy and Dr. John Quartel for the development of the Northlight film scanner.
A Scientific and Engineering Award to Steve Chapman, Martin Tlaskal, Darrin Smart and Dr. James Logie for their contributions to the development of the Baselight color correction system.

FilmLight has quickly developed from a start-up to become the widely recognized and respected brand leader in digital film technology, a fact clearly represented by this recognition.

Supermicro hardware engineering is at the heart of the system running FilmLight's Baselight System. All Baselight systems run on Supermicro quad-socket and dual-socket designs. Baselight FOUR and EIGHT are high-bandwidth, high-performance creative workstations designed specifically to accelerate the operation of Baselight to provide real-time operation at up to 4K resolution. Using an innovative approach, speed increases are achieved in direct proportion to the number of processors, with no bottlenecks.

"By harnessing the superb design and function of the Supermicro product, we have been able to create a solution which is an open and yet highly flexible and scalable architecture," said Steve Chapman, FilmLight co-founder. "The key benefit of using Supermicro is the ability to adapt to the latest complimentary technologies such as hard disc, graphics and processor products with the added bonus that generic hardware brings a new economy."

"The advancements in film technology that FilmLight has delivered are incredible," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "We are honored that they have chosen our server technology and that their work has been recognized with such prestigious awards."

"These awards represent the culmination of many years of commitment and hard work by FilmLight staff to develop these tools to support filmmaking in the 21st century," said FilmLight co-founder Wolfgang Lempp. "We feel honored and humbled and wish to express our sincere gratitude to the Academy and its members. These awards will serve as inspiration and commitment in our ongoing effort to provide filmmakers with new tools to create incredible imagery."

In contrast to other digital film production technologies, the multi-node Baselight architecture provides true parallel operation of all hardware components, substantially improving performance. Each node processes a strip of the digital input frame and a proprietary video engine then combines the processed strips to form a single frame. This method of parallel processing removes the latency inherent with other approaches and allows the full power of each node, including its graphics processor, to be used all of the time. The result is better product, faster production time, and better control over creative content.

FilmLight products are used by most leading post production facilities and broadcasters worldwide, and have been used in the production and re-mastering of hundreds of front-line feature films, including Casino Royale, The Godfather Trilogy, Minority Report, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and each of the films in the Harry Potter series, as well as countless television shows and commercials.

FilmLight is a two-time recipient of the Queen's Awards for Enterprise, the UK's most prestigious award for business performance. Additionally, FilmLight founders Wolfgang Lempp and Steve Chapman were awarded a Technical and Scientific Achievement Award in 2005 by the British Kinematograph Sound & Television Society (BKTS).

About FilmLight

FilmLight is a manufacturer of film scanning, color grading and color management systems that are helping to transform film and video post production and setting new standards for quality, reliability and performance. The company's products are in use every day by leading post production facilities around the globe as essential components in their digital intermediate, commercials and video production pipelines. Fuelled by some of the industry's brightest minds, FilmLight is committed to delivering innovative tools that allow creative professionals to work at the forefront of the digital media revolution. Founded in 2002, FilmLight is headquartered in London, where its research, design and manufacturing operations are centered. Sales and support are conducted through regional service centers located in London, Los Angeles, Chicago, Sydney, Auckland and Singapore, and through qualified partners worldwide.

About Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Supermicro (NASDAQ:SMCI), the leader in server technology innovation and green computing, provides customers around the world with application-optimized server, workstation, blade, storage and GPU systems. Based on its advanced Server Building Block Solutions, Supermicro offers the most optimized selection for IT, datacenter and HPC deployments. The company's system architecture innovations include the Twin server, double-sided storage and SuperBlade product families. Offering the most comprehensive product lines in the industry, Supermicro provides businesses of all sizes with energy-efficient, earth-friendly solutions that deliver unmatched performance and value. Founded in 1993, Supermicro is headquartered in Silicon Valley with worldwide operations and manufacturing centers in Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.supermicro.com.

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Source: Super Micro Computer, Inc.

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