Apple to Offer Cluster Rendering?

[MacRumors]

Thinksecret reports that Apple will soon bring distributed, cluster-based rendering to its line of pro video applications.

This distributed rendering would allow users to take advantage of a cluster of networked computers.

Such capabilities appears as if it would advantageous to both larger cluster owners as well as home users. One example offered is the use of two Powerbooks in the field.

[BurntCalc]

About time! This is gonna be huge for editors. Final Cut and all the apps will have a significant edge over the competition. Since this is my business, I'm really excited.

[oliverlubin]

how does xgrid come into play with this idea? is it just an off-shoot of that?

[173080]

Nice, more reasons to get more Macs.

[BornAgainMac]

This is an excellent way to sell more Macs and you can have tomorrow's Mac today as far as rendering speeds.

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Originally Posted by oliverlubin

how does xgrid come into play with this idea? is it just an off-shoot of that?

Im pretty sure its based on that technology.

This is REALLY sweet guys!

[aussiemac86]

This sounds pretty cool, does anyone have an idea of like what percentage of processing power you can utilise over a ethernet connection though.

[ClimbingTheLog]

Originally Posted by oliverlubin

how does xgrid come into play with this idea? is it just an off-shoot of that?

Sure - it's inevitable that all of Apple's CPU-intensive apps will get gridded. Probably 10.4 will have all the hooks necessary for iMovie, et. al. to be gridded too.

Of course if you're not on gigabit ethernet some things might not make sense to grid.

[Mr. Anderson]

This is fantastic! I wonder if it will just be for Apple's apps or we'll be able to use it for 3D animation as well...

D

[iGav]

It's about time... Apple really needs this for FCP, as it's totally nailed by Media 100's 844/X, the lack of Qmaster is holding FCP back purely because of the lack of rendering performance.

What I'd like to see is Apple to offer some kind of inbuilt hardware acceleration or an Apple designed Magma style expansion chassis, capable of running multiple processor acceleration cards without the need to buy several PowerMac G5's or Xserves for dedicated editors and motion graphics people.

Then we'd see FCP becomming more popular, and certainly challenging the high end Avid and Media 100 systems.

[iGav]

Originally Posted by Mr. Anderson

This is fantastic! I wonder if it will just be for Apple's apps or we'll be able to use it for 3D animation as well...

D

Qmaster already handles Maya

[KC9AIC]

Distributed computing is definitely a good thing for Apple. Can you imagine a couple of people in a school computer lab editing video at blazing rates because they are borrowing processing power from the kid checking his email? It will eliminate wasted power, and mean that you can no longer annoy everyone else in the lab by playing Tetris for hours on the fastest computer they have.

[thatwendigo]

Yet, when xSan debuted and I made a nice, long post about how Apple was going to go big on ditributed computing, nobody batted an eye... Lovely.

This really fits in with the direction that their products have been taking, especially since the release of the xServe and xServe RAID, along with keeping gigabit ethernet standard on pro machines. What you're going to see in design and art houses now is a front end with G5 towers that do the basic modeling and setup, storing the files off on a behind-the-scenes TB drive that's shared to them all. When done, you send your task to the render farm and let it churn it and spit it back onto the company's RAID array. From there, you access it using your FibreChannel card and make any necessary corrections, feeding it back through the render queue if necessary.

My next prediction:
In the next two years, apple will offer a home-office type device with similar functionality but less speed. It will be a chassis running IPoverFireWire and 10/100/1000 Ethernet (possibly even 802.x wireless), with room for, say, four hard drives on an SATA bus. There will be an embedded controller running a derivative of xSan, and it will cost arond $300-500 for the device. The size will be just a bit bigger than LaCie's Bigger Disk, and it will function as a simple network hub so that you don't really need anything other than a cable/DSL/satellite modem.

[ccuilla]

This would be pretty nifty for times when my wife is doing some iMovie stuff...and my laptop is just sitting there doing nothing. Off-load some rendering across the network. Too sweet. Let's hope it applies to consumer level apps too.

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally Posted by iGAV

Qmaster already handles Maya

I'm on Lightwave and there is a distributed rendering system that comes with it - but its a pain to set up.

How does Qmaster work?

D

[Windowlicker]

what can I say.. this is just great! wonder how it works over an ethernet network. I mean, how much does it affect it compared to say fibre channel?

[toontra]

Would it be possible to include pro-audio apps (eg Logic) in this? The idea of having 2+ comps clustered whilst mixing would be great - some of the new 3rd-party virtual instruments and convoluted reverbs are mighty CPU-hungry!

[gileschin]

This is amazing! All this technology! Fantastic capabilities! Way ahead! Only Apple can do it!

[whooleytoo]

This must be great news for budget-sensitive companies/institutions, especially when it comes to upgrading.

If a lab of media usage Macs are too slow, instead of having to upgrade the lot, just add a couple more G5's to the grid. Cheaper, and more flexible.

[trebblekicked]

good news, provided it's true, and i don't see why it wouldn't be. apple's been throwing a lot at pro vid users this year, and they seem to be thinking a lot about productivity and efficiency. it's nice to see them treating FCP as part of an overall system, not just a standalone piece of software.

[GrannySmith_G5]

Originally Posted by thatwendigo

Yet, when xSan debuted and I made a nice, long post about how Apple was going to go big on ditributed computing, nobody batted an eye... Lovely.

Stop being so modest. Don't worry, you can post your opinion with as much confidence as you wish. No one will think you are an ego maniac.

[FlamDrag]

Wow, this would be great if I can get some extended use out of my old Pismo and Sawtooth with my new(ish) powerbook.

This is the first thing in a long time that I want NOW. My imagination runs wild...

[thatwendigo]

Originally Posted by toontra

Would it be possible to include pro-audio apps (eg Logic) in this? The idea of having 2+ comps clustered whilst mixing would be great - some of the new 3rd-party virtual instruments and convoluted reverbs are mighty CPU-hungry!

I'd say it's likely to come to fruition soon, when xGrid is nailed down and the plugin architecture has been finished and is ready. Then, Apple can release plugs for their major pro apps, and you can have the client machines churn away at secondary tasks while you work.

Originally Posted by GrannySmith_G5

Stop being so modest. Don't worry, you can post your opinion with as much confidence as you wish. No one will think you are an ego maniac.

Hey, I can't help it if I was right about both the Centrino on desktop (which people dismissed) and xSan meaning we'd see even more clustering apps (which people didn't respond to). Now, to see if I can go on with my iMac predictions...

[MongoTheGeek]

Its already in XCode so moving it to other processor intensive programs shouldn't be too rough.

[Earendil]

This is going to be awesome! Already my 1.25PB has to wait through iMovie rendering. Yet, within this house my Dad has a 867PB, and my mom has an 867G4 Tower (which she uses for email! ). my little siblings also have a little rev b iMac running at 233mhz, I culd plug that into the rendering network just to cheer the other computers on

G4 1.25gh
G4 867
G4 867
-------------
G4 2.9ghz

No, it won't be the same, but let me dream
Oh to have the PC friends over and show them how "blazing fast" my PB is at rendering. I can mention a bit later, on a completely different note, that I can network the rendering tasks

Now can we get this sweet technology working on the current line of games?

Earendil