Studio Chooses Intel for Chip Pact (Shrek picks HP)

Wall Street Journal ^ | 7/8/08 | DON CLARK

[BurbankKarl]

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. has chosen Intel Corp. to supply chips and other technology for its big computer-animation operations, a shift that will cost Advanced Micro Devices Inc. one of its most prestigious customers.

The pact is expected to replace the studio's computing hardware -- which now includes 1,500 Hewlett-Packard Co. server systems and 1,000 workstations that use AMD microprocessors -- with new H-P systems that use Intel chips. DreamWorks Animation said the resulting increase in computing power would substantially shorten the time needed for many computing chores and aid the studio's planned shift next year to 3-D animation. "For our artists, the impact is going to be really nothing less than monumental," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation's chief executive.

Financial terms aren't being disclosed. Mr. Katzenberg stressed that the move was based on capabilities of two forthcoming generations of Intel chips. "They are radical game-changers for the entire field of computing," he said.

Intel's next major chip family, code-named Nehalem, is expected to offer as many as eight processors and hit the market in the second half of 2008. Intel about a year later is expected to deliver a chip dubbed Larrabee that can be used to manage graphics in computers and other chores that could help customers such as the animation studio.

Besides helping speed up the studio's hardware, Intel will send a team of programmers to help DreamWorks Animation adapt its software to exploit Intel's new chips and aid in the shift to creating 3-D effects, said Paul Otellini, Intel's CEO. DreamWorks, in turn, will help Intel develop technologies that could find their way into chips used in personal computers and portable devices.

[Terpfen]

Tough luck, AMD. Maybe you shouldn’t have let your roadmap fall behind.

[ikka]

DreamWorks Animation said the resulting increase in computing power would substantially shorten the time needed for many computing chores and aid the studio's planned shift next year to 3-D animation.

They have found that doing animation a la Pixar (though Pixar is IMHO still head and shoulders above what they are doing) is more profitable than using live actors, I suppose.

[ShadowAce]

[antiRepublicrat]

They still need actors for voice, they just don’t need the green screens, props, sets, stuntmen and expensive locations.

[rarestia]

Nehalem! Quick Path InterConnect! AMD dragged their feet. They're still toying with multiple core technologies, and Intel has octo-core procs in design at 32 nm now. It'll be a long row to hoe for AMD.