Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/161463
Siggraph News Nvidia intros Quadro K6000 GPU S AN JOSE, CA — At SIGGRAPH 2013, Nvidia (www.nvidia.com) unveiled the Quadro K6000 GPU, what it describes as "the fastest and most-capable GPU ever built." The Quadro K6000 GPU delivers five-times higher compute performance and nearly double the graphics capability of its predecessor, Nvidia's Quadro 6000 GPU. It also features the some of the largest and fastest graphics memory available. Combining breakthrough performance and advanced capabilities in a power-efficient design, the Quadro K6000 GPU enables organizations, such as Pixar, Nissan, Apache Corporation and The Weather Channel's WSI division, tackle visualization and analysis workloads of enormous size and scope. Key performance features and capabilities include 12GB ultra-fast GDDR5 graphics memory, which lets designers and animators model and render characters and scenes at unprecedented scale, complexity and richness; and 2,880 streaming multiprocessor (SMX) cores, which deliver faster visualization and compute horsepower than previous-generation products. It also supports four simultaneous displays and up to 4K resolution with DisplayPort 1.2. Ultra-low latency video I/O and support for large-scale visualizations is also possible. Nvidia also launched a new line of professional graphics GPUs for mobile workstations at SIGGRAPH. They deliver some of the highest levels of performance and graphics memory ever available on mobile platforms, says Nvidia. The Quadro K5100M anchors a new line of workstation notebook graphics that includes the Quadro K4100M, K3100M, K2100M, K1100M, K610M, and K510M GPUs. Quadro GPUs are designed, built and tested by Nvidia to provide the high reliability, compatibility and dependability that professionals require. They are certified and recommended by more than 150 leading software application providers worldwide. The Quadro K6000 will be available beginning this fall from Dell, Lenovo and other major workstation providers. The new Quadro mobile workstation graphics product line will also be available beginning this fall from major mobile workstation OEMs. The Foundry, Pixar form technical alliance A NAHEIM, CA — At SIGGRAPH, The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk) and Pixar Animation Studios announced that they have entered into a technical collaboration to bring Katana and RenderMan together, creating a proven toolset for high-end lighting and rendering. Katana is The Foundry's lighting tool, while Pixar's RenderMan has long been recognized as a standard in visual effects and animation rendering. Both were recently used together on the Disney/Pixar short The Blue Umbrella, which is now playing in theaters with Monsters University. The successful outcome involved significant dedicated engineering effort from both parties, not only to better support RenderMan workflows, but to build new features into Katana itself. As a result of the technology partnership, Katana will now include a full RenderMan license as standard, along with a base set of shaders and free Katana batch render licenses. The results of these efforts will be released to all customers inside future releases of Katana. The continuing developments help position Katana and RenderMan together as a proven rendering and lighting solution, though both will remain open and agnostic. 40 Post • August 2013 www.postmagazine.com Maxon intros Cinema 4D Release 15 F RIEDRICHSDORF, GERMANY — Maxon (www.maxon.net) was at the SIGGRAPH show last month showing its Cinema 4D Release 15, which includes enhancements to modeling, text creation, rendering and sculpting tools. The new features will be available for both Mac OS X and Windows releases. Rendering enhancements include the new Team Render, which delivers quick control over an entire network to take advantage of all surplus processing power. A new irradiance caching algorithm allows for faster approximation of global illumination. An all-new interactive beveling tool provides improved manipulation and control over object edges and curves for adding depth and dimension to designs. Improved typographic tools include new kerning and tracking tools that can be applied with MoGraph effectors or used in Xpresso and edited at any time. Improved dynamic sculpting tools ensure artists can sculpt with finesse. Cinema 4D also includes many new productivity-boosting features, such as a texture manager that allows artists to fix broken texture links and wrangle bitmaps with ease; and a new grass material tool that allows users quickly and easily simulate and add grass to any object. A camera crane rig offers customers a dependable, productionfriendly solution to easily simulate real-life. Cinema 4D Release 15 is scheduled to ship this September.