Madison, WI, Dec 1, 1993 ---- ASDG Incorporated, a leader in designing digital special effects technology, announces the creation of a high- performance render server for its award-winning SGI warping and morphing system, ElasticReality (ER).
ElasticReality/RS (ER/RS) is designed to harness the full multiple processing power of SGI's Onyx and Challenge class supercomputers. Once activated, ER/RS becomes a network accessible service. Any ER user on the client's local area network can tap into the power of the render server automatically from their own workstation.
According to the company, ER/RS boosts productivity in two key ways.
First, submitting a job to ER/RS rather than computing it on the local workstation means that an interactive ER "seat" instantly becomes available for other creative work. This interactive "seat" would otherwise have been occupied by the non-interactive rendering process.
Second, ER/RS (using the parallel processing power of an Onyx or Challenge) can compute film resolution warping and morphing effects at 64 bits per pixel or broadcast television effects at 32 bits per pixel, as much as 36 times faster than a single-CPU Indigo or Indy class workstation.
Users can visually monitor the progress of their work through the ER/RS with a small icon which appears on their computer desktop. The icon's imagery actually contains the user's frames as they are completed. ER/RS rings a gentle chime on the user's workstation to let them know when their job has completed. If the user logs off their local workstation, ER/RS can even send them a completion report via electronic mail.
ER/RS carries a list price of $7500 and includes support for more than 15 image file formats. ASDG's interactive warping/morphing system, ElasticReality, is available with a basic node-locked license for $2995 or with a floating license for $3750. Multiple-copy discounts are available.
ER recently received Honorable Mention in AV Video Magazine's Platinum Awards. Chosen from all computer graphics software products for all computers, ER tied with the 3D modeling and animation system from SoftImage for the Honorable Mention.
For more information about ASDG's award-winning digital imaging or digital special effects products for Amiga, Macintosh, Silicon Graphics or Windows platforms, please contact Ms. Gina Cerniglia at ASDG Incorporated, 925 Stewart Street, Madison WI, 53713 or call (608) 273- 6585.
