PIXAR to switch to G5's??

I found this interesting--of course, completely my personal speculation

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/jun/23quotes.html

Pixar
“After running our RenderMan benchmarks, we can now say that the Power Mac G5 is the fastest desktop in the world,” said Ed Catmull, Pixar’s president.



I'd love to see Pixar port Renderman to OSX commercially, and even more so love to see Pixar start using G5's as their workstations and/or render servers.

Its also interesting to note that the new Quicktime Codec, Pixlet was specifically requested from Pixar for full frame playback without distortion. (why the HELL they didnt have that before is beyond ME!)

It just seems like Pixar has invested a lot of interest in Apple products (regardless of who is the CEO of both companies) both with porting a test version of Renderman to OSX and having an interest in a quicktime codec. Before long, animators and effects artists alike are going to be pounding out the new blockbuster on a G5.

Im not necessarily talking about their render servers (even though that would be neat to see) but I'm talking mainly about their workstations. Animators and effects artist need a powerhouse computer when animating complex characters or complex simulations. Its only natural that they switch to a fast 64 bit processor to use in their workstations. They used to use the SGI processor (which were 64 bit SMP's), and have since moved away from those desktops. Whay not replace their existing (and possibly aging) workstations with G5's?

Dont forget, even TD's (technical directors) need Renderman on their desktop to tweak lights, shaders, etc. Its only overnight and on breaks that the hundreds of images are rendered on their servers. Their actual on-the-job productivity could really beef up if they can tweak those lights and shaders in half the time because they dont have to wait on their computer to test render a frame.

Peformance on the user end is almost always worth the price. Sure, they probably wont by 2000 G5 XServe's to render on, but they may buy their entire animation or effects department a whole slew of new workstations!