Platforms and operating systems: making the right choice; The switch to 64-bit architectures is an important step as more complex projects are tackled by production studios - Post positions - Brief Article

Post, Jan, 2002 by Paul Salvini

Understanding the history of operating systems and platforms in the computer graphics industry is key to choosing the right solution to suit your needs. In the early-to mid-1990s, professional-level 3D animation solutions were available only on SGI workstations, which ran the IRIX operating system, SGI's own flavor of Unix. In addition to the SGI workstation's ability to handle accelerated graphics, this solution was appealing from the standpoint that a single vendor -- SGI -- had created and integrated the hardware, graphics and operating system, ensuring a stable, robust system required for such challenging applications.

By the late-1990s, SGI had competition. The speed and capabilities of Intel-based PCs running Windows NT had become impressive, competitive with the performance of SGI's workstations and at a significantly lower cost. Studios, animation shops and visual effects facilities interested in accruing the savings of purchasing lower-cost workstations found PCs to be irresistible.

However, switching to a Windows-based workstation included a compromise. Though users didn't sacrifice performance, they did need to integrate their new PCs into an existing production pipeline. After all, digital production is much more than a group of workstations churning out computer-generated imagery.

Workstations, file systems and render-farms all need to work together. Studios found that Windows-based PC workstations didn't seamlessly integrate into the existing environment built around Unix.

A DISAPPOINTING RESULT

Not only was existing equipment Unix-based, but a facility's internal expertise and knowledge was also heavily weighted toward Unix. These costs of integration cut dramatically into savings gained from the lower-cost workstation -- a disappointing result for those who had hoped that the Windows-based PC would provide an economic advantage.

At that time, no other credible solutions were visible on the horizon, but the integration difficulties were prompting many in the industry to ask if it was possible to run some flavor of Unix on these low-cost workstations. That's when the Linux operating system came to the attention of some in the animation/CGI community. There was only one major problem: Linux didn't have accelerated 3D graphics support, which meant it wasn't a suitable candidate as a workstation for our industry.

At that point, we decided to break the impasse and port our 3D animation software package Houdini to Linux. It was a risk, but we believed it was only a matter of time before the business case was clear to the rest of the industry.

Linux made sense because people were having too many problems with integration costs and the opportunity was very clear. By 1998, several third-party software companies were offering accelerated X (the X Window System) and OpenGL for Linux -- these offerings made it possible to finally test the capabilities of Houdini under Linux.

LINUX VALIDATES HUNCH

The initial results were very encouraging and Houdini was demonstrated on Linux at SIGGRAPH 1999 in Los Angeles. Hewlett-Packard also noticed the growing potential of Linux in 1999 and was able to port its own X and OpenGL implementations from HP-UX (combined with driver technology from its Windows workstation line) to create a high-performance Linux-based visual workstation. Since then, our early hunch has been validated and Linux has enjoyed steady growth. In the past two annual meetings, the Visual Effects Society has strongly encouraged vendors to support Linux, and other software providers have followed by porting solutions to the Linux operating system.

One important trend is 64-bit processors. Today's low-cost PCs, running either Windows or Linux, are generally 32-bit machines. The PC community is just beginning to enter the 64-bit world with the release of the Itanium and the associated 64bit versions of Windows XP and Linux.

The switch to 64-bit architectures is an important step as more complex projects are tackled by production studios. For example, scenes involving highly detailed characters are already pushing the 2GB and 4GB memory limits.

The most recent news in the 3D workstation market is Sun Microsystems 64-bit workstations running Solaris. Side Effects Software announced at SIGGRAPH 2001 that the next version of Houdini will be available for Sun workstations. Right now, customers are beta testing Solaris hardware in their facilities. Being Unix-based, Solaris systems will also integrate easily into existing production environments.

One of the benefits to be found with Sun is that, as with SGI, a single vendor is responsible for the base hardware, the graphics card and the operating system.

CONCERN ABOUT COSTS

There has been some concern in the industry that, just as Windows-based PCs appeared to be a panacea but ended up proving to be more expensive than anticipated, Linux may also end up having a higher cost of ownership because it depends on the integration of many different pieces coming together. Companies like Hewlett Packard and IBM have done an excellent job of offering integrated hardware packages that they support but concern remains for others using Linux and doing their own hardware/software integration.