Computer Graphics World

8 May 2009 Autodesk has launched Autodesk Soft- image 7.5 software for visual effects and game production, and with the release, has renamed the Softimage XSI Soft- ware, acquired from Avid Technology, to Autodesk Softimage. The 7.5 version offers new timesaving features, such as a multithreaded Syfl ex cloth simulator and an integrated Mental Ray 3.7+ renderer featuring improve- ments to the binary-space partitioning for faster rendering, multiple fi nal gather- ing refi nement passes, and new motion- based displacement to facilitate the creation of high-fi delity images. Also new is UV unfolding technology, which enables artists to unwrap poly- gon models with just a few clicks and is well suited for complex organic models that would be diffi cult to unwrap manu- ally. Softimage 7.5 also provides UV edit- ing tools that help artists quickly create and edit UV maps. The product boasts scene compatibility with Version 7.0, so that scenes saved in the new release will also load into the previous release. Version 7.5 of Autodesk Softimage (formerly Softimage XSI Essentials) and Autodesk Softimage Advanced (formerly Softimage XSI Advanced) are available now. Softimage 7.5 (Windows) is priced at $2995, while Softimage Advanced 7.5 (Windows) costs $4695. Customers of 7.0 with active maintenance contracts will be migrated to 7.5 with Autodesk Subscription. Autodesk Subscription is available for purchase at $795 per year for Softimage and $1235 per year for Softimage Advanced. Autodesk Enhances, Renames Softimage PRODUCT: MODELING•ANIMATION The markets for workstation and professional graphics couldn't avoid the pain that virtually every market on the planet felt in the fourth quarter of 2008. Jon Peddie Research (JPR) analyst Alex Herrera has completed analysis of the quarter and reports that the market—like so many others, technology-based or not—took a substantial hit with respect to units, and even more so with respect to revenue. Thanks to the deep economic malaise that set in across the globe, the workstation market suffered a decline of 9.9 percent (year over year), with a total of 764,300 workstations shipped. And with the quarter seeing defl ation occur even in markets where prices ordinarily only go up, workstation ASPs, no stranger to quarterly declines, took an extra deep discount, dropping 13.4 percent. The nosedives of both units and ASPs conspired to paint an even poorer picture for revenue, which dropped 21.9 percent to $1.58 billion. Not long ago, Dell looked poised to dominate the market for workstations the way Intel does for processors—by a wide margin. Back in 2004, Dell commanded about 46 percent of the market, with number two HP far behind, at around 27 percent. But the market leader saw its share slide in '05 and '06, declining to a low around 37 percent. Thanks in part to the resurgence of its exclusive platform part- ner Intel, Dell was able to regain its footing and settle back in the low 40 percent range. But that didn't mean the company was distancing itself from HP. On the contrary; while Dell bounced and held on to share, HP kept its foot on the gas, steadily pick- ing up points quarter after quarter. Last year saw HP's biggest gains, with the company moving from 33.4 percent in the fi rst quarter, up to 38 percent by the fourth quarter, just a couple of scant percentage points behind Dell. But in terms of revenue, JPR's analysis showed HP actual- ly nudging ahead of Dell in Q4 '08 by roughly the same margin, putting the two effectively in a dead heat. HP and Dell recently unveiled new workstations that may bolster their numbers this quarter (see pgs. 10 and 12, respectively). The fourth quarter was tough on the workstation market, but it was even less kind to the closely related market for professional graphics hardware, which saw shipments drop by 32.1 percent (year over year). And while both market leaders Nvidia and ATI (the graphics arm of AMD) shared in much of the pain, the latter could at least take some consolation in seeing the positive impact its resurgent product offerings were having in the market. Nvidia continues to dominate the industry, controlling 86.3 percent of all units shipped (including both professional mobile GPUs and add-in cards), while ATI could only claim 12.1 percent. But considering that the two rivals' shares in the previ- ous quarter were 90 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively, ATI had fi nally managed to put an appreciable dent in Nvidia's armor, interrupting the near non-stop share growth the latter had posted dating back to 2004. Now in its fi fth year, JPR's "Workstation Report—Professional Computing Markets and Technologies" serves as a reference guide for hardware and software vendors and suppliers in the workstation and professional graphics markets. The bi-yearly reports can be purchased at www.jonpeddie.com. Workstation, Graphics Markets Suffer NEWS: WORKSTATIONS

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