We need XGrid for iLife

[sigamy]

I have a 1Ghz G4 iMac and an 800mhz G4 iBook. I create movies with iMovie and then encode with iDVD.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to use the processors of both machines when rendering effects in iMovie or when encoding MPEG2 in iDVD?

Will we ever see Xgrid move down to consumer-level apps? How hard would this be to implement?

With the Mac mini intro you could create your own server farm that would fit in a suite case...

 

[MongoTheGeek]

I have a 1Ghz G4 iMac and an 800mhz G4 iBook. I create movies with iMovie and then encode with iDVD.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to use the processors of both machines when rendering effects in iMovie or when encoding MPEG2 in iDVD?

Will we ever see Xgrid move down to consumer-level apps? How hard would this be to implement?

With the Mac mini intro you could create your own server farm that would fit in a suite case...

XCode does this already without XGrid.
You can download and install XGrid now.

Apps have to be built to use it. I haven't looked at the API's for it but I doubt its any worse than AppleSeed was. AppleSeed was dirt simple to use.

 

[mrgreen4242]

XCode does this already without XGrid.
You can download and install XGrid now.

Apps have to be built to use it. I haven't looked at the API's for it but I doubt its any worse than AppleSeed was. AppleSeed was dirt simple to use.

I guess what he is saying is will iLife apps ever be coded to take advantage of XCode's load sharing APIs. That would be really, really slick. With the Mac Mini, I can see that even a small/average household could have 3 Macs pretty easily... a "family" PM or iMac, "dad's" laptop (or mom, whoever travels or needs to bring work home etc), and "Jr.'s" mini with the old PC monitor attached. Being able to tap all those machines extra clock cycles to do DVD rendering or some massive video life conversion etc. would be a VERY cool feature from both a tech and a marketing standpoint...

"Get a Mini for the kids. Not only will it keep them off you machine and let them do homework, etc, but also you can add that machine's power to your current Mac for editing and encoding digital video!"

Rob

 

[jayscheuerle]

Will we ever see Xgrid move down to consumer-level apps?

Ha! Most consumers (myself included), would have no idea what you are talking about..

 

[robbieduncan]

I believe that XGrid is being built into Tiger. Once Tiger ships this sort of painless distribution of parallel tasks may start to appear in iLife.

 

[mkaake]

Ha! Most consumers (myself included), would have no idea what you are talking about..

of course, most of them also wouldn't have known the benefit of having iMovie HD...

just because people aren't aware of the advantages does not mean that it's not a great idea...

 

[trainguy77]

that would be great!!!As i have 3 macs in my house!

 

[ibilly]

Think Logically...

Here's a little reason that it willo never be a big priority to do so: Networking. Firewire and gigabit ethernet are the only things that are even close to fast enough to make a remote processor (excepting the fibre caor, or whatever it a $600 option on PM G5s) remotely useful. Busses used to be a big bottleneck on macs. A computer, or networked computers, only can move as fast as their slowest link. The only realistic way to do this would be sending off VERY large packets of information over whatever the user is connecting the macs with. FireWire is short ranged and very complicated for sending non-data. Gigabit ethernet is far from implimented on all mac lines. The apps (Xgrid for handling the data packets, and any supported app for splitting up the job) would have to be re-writen, or have major coding additions for this niche use. See why it is unlikely to be seen in the future?

 

[3Memos]

I believe that XGrid is being built into Tiger. Once Tiger ships this sort of painless distribution of parallel tasks may start to appear in iLife.

I can see a stack of mac minis now.