NEWS BRIEFS
Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS — SGI has expanded its ongoing relationship with Walt Disney Feature Animation (WDFA) by providing more than 500 Silicon Graphics visual workstations to the studio, including the recently released Silicon Graphics Octane2 visual workstation. The purchase gives WDFA powerful new computing power. Most recently, Disney utilized a full range of SGI workstations and servers to create digital characters and special effects for such visually driven feature films as Gone in 60 Seconds, Mission to Mars and Dinosaur as well as the upcoming 102 Dalmatians, due in theaters in the U.S. in November.
With more visualization power than any other UNIX workstation, Silicon Graphics Octane2 brings together the most robust implementation of SGI VPro graphics, an optimized crossbar architecture, the latest high-performance MIPS RISC processor, and multiple industry-first features for power users in technical and creative professions. Disney is providing these workstations to its entire digital content creation team, who will use the workstations for 3D modeling, painting and animation on upcoming feature films.
“SGI has been part of the Walt Disney magic for nearly two decades and will certainly continue to be an integral part of our production activity in the future,” said John Carey, vice president of technology, WDFA. “The SGI product line scales from the desktop to large multiprocessor server solutions in a way that no other single vendor can match. That combined with its world-class service and support makes SGI the best choice available for the creation of the sort of content that makes Disney the undisputed world leader in digital production.”
“Walt Disney Feature Animation represents one of the most powerful implementations of content creation computing in the industry,” said Greg Estes, vice president and general manager, Telecommunications and Media Group, SGI. “This significant investment and commitment to our technology – more than 500 Octane and Octane2 visual workstations – tells us that our entertainment customers, such as Walt Disney Feature Animation, are counting on us to provide the visual graphics products that drive the future vision of their companies.”
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