DreamWorks Animation dumps AMD chips in favour of Intel
by Stevie Smith - Jul 9 2008, 11:04
Intel is in, AMD is out, as DreamWorks Animation push towards full 3D feature films. Image: DreamWorks.
Intel Corporation, the world’s leading chipmaker, has this week revealed a strategic partnership with DreamWorks Animation SKG through which it will provide the studio with Intel-based processing power via a full range of high-performance computing products and tools in order to help more fully evolve the studio’s new 3D animated creations.
According to the two parties, it is hoped that the new alliance will play a contributing role in “revolutionizing 3D filmmaking technology,” which will begin with DreamWorks Animation’s next feature-length creation “Monsters vs. Aliens,” which is currently in production ahead of its scheduled US release in March of 2009.
Notably, the Intel and DreamWorks deal displaces Sunnyvale-based Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which had supplied the animation studio with its creative dual-core Opteron CPU muscle since 2005.
From Intel’s standpoint, the partnership will see it delivering “processing technologies, including future chips with multiple cores” to assist DreamWorks in its endeavour to produce all of its animated features in stereoscopic 3D from next year onwards.
“By converting its computing infrastructure to an Intel-based system, DreamWorks Animation will enable its artists to work with new, state-of-the-art 3D authoring tools to render higher quality images more quickly and to modify them with greater ease,” commented Intel in an official statement.
Outlining the greater complexity of working in full 3D to The Associated Press, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said that, unlike traditional computer animation (Shrek, Madagascar, Kung-Fu Panda, etc.), 3D requires twice the computing power as the viewing audience receives separate images in either eye, which can leave artists facing up to 16 hours to process a single frame of movement.
“Our artists, to a large degree, actually work blind,” he revealed. “They send it out [for processing] and have to wait overnight to actually see what they’ve done.”
However, according to Katzenberg, the introduction of Intel’s chipsets into around 1,000 workstations (Nehalem processor - 8 cores) and 1,500 servers (Larrabee processor - 10 to 100 cores) DreamWorks will see overnight processing reduced to hours and then minutes.
He also said the studio hopes to see its artists working with 3D frames in real-time within a handful of years or less.
Santa Clara-based Intel has said that its software engineers will be dispatched to DreamWorks Animation to provide the necessary application optimisation required for the studio to smoothly integrate Intel’s advanced processing technology.
“This alliance unites the best in computer-generated moviemaking and computing performance to deliver a new level of in-theater entertainment,” enthused Paul Otellini, Intel Corp’s president and CEO. “The high level of inventiveness at DreamWorks Animation has positioned it as a leader in entertainment technology, and incorporating the Intel platform allows them to deliver incredibly rich digital 3D content to the big screen -- raising the bar for the [animation] industry as a whole.”
AMD, the world’s number-two processor manufacturer, has stated that it hopes to work with DreamWorks again some time in the future.
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