ENGINEERING

At NAB today, AMD and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. announced a three-year strategic alliance naming AMD the Preferred Processor Provider for DreamWorks Animation and enabling the company to experience significant advantages in their computer-generated ("CG") filmmaking process. As the Preferred Processor Provider for DreamWorks Animation, AMD will provide the AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture for DreamWorks Animation's next-generation enterprise servers, workstations, render farm nodes, enterprise desktops and enterprise laptops. The new agreement with DreamWorks Animation also includes marketing opportunities for AMD to utilize characters from DreamWorks Animation motion pictures as well as work with DreamWorks Animation to promote upcoming film and home video releases. "The benefits of working with AMD have already had a substantial impact on our business, which is why selecting them as our preferred processor provider and building a strong partnership makes sense," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks SKG and CEO, DreamWorks Animation SKG. "AMD technology will bring new levels of detail and new capabilities to our animated feature films. We're also very excited about the future of AMD's technology and products." "Innovators like DreamWorks Animation are discovering that AMD helps them break free of the limitations of today's computing solutions," said Hector Ruiz, AMD chairman of the board, president and CEO. "They choose AMD because of our clear leadership in both 64-bit computing and dual-core technology. AMD64 technology-based solutions will enable DreamWorks Animation's artists to expand their creative capabilities and continually push the boundaries of today's state-of-the-art digital animation process." The AMD Opteron processor provides breakthrough performance that enables artists to create images never before realized, and as a result, create some of the most technologically advanced CG animation movies. For example, DreamWorks Animation's May 27, 2005 release "Madagascar" will include the largest crowd of furry characters in a CG film to date, with more than 900 moving creatures in a single scene. Prior to this movie, animal characters were often heralded as one of "the holy grails" of animation because of the complexity of animating fur in the CG world. As a result, utilizing furry characters in movies was limited to a handful per scene due to the complexity of the geometry. The faster rendering times and increased memory bandwidth made possible by the AMD Opteron processor have allowed DreamWorks Animation to meet this enormous challenge, and became an important creative component of "Madagascar." The AMD Opteron processor has already made significant contributions at DreamWorks Animation. This includes providing new levels of computation power enabling in the production of its hit motion picture "Shark Tale," the contribution to new animated innovations in the upcoming film "Madagascar," and the overall benefits to the operations of the company's complex data centers. AMD and HP have jointly created systems for animation studios and plan to continue this successful collaboration with DreamWorks Animation. In addition to expanding its AMD and HP-based render farms, DreamWorks Animation is also utilizing the AMD Opteron processor-based HP xw9300 Workstation, a system that is enabled for the upcoming AMD64 dual core technology. The use of these workstations builds on the unique technology partnership HP and DreamWorks Animation formed in 2001 to explore new, creative frontiers and redefine the art of filmmaking. Rendering is the process of completing one scene by adding detailed texture, lighting, shading, etc. The significant performance improvement delivered by the AMD Opteron processor can dramatically reduce render times, allowing artists to see the finished product much more quickly, further explore their creativity and maintain their creative rhythm and tempo. Faster rendering drives productivity and reduces the creative hurdles to animation, ultimately delivering unique and more visually stunning animation.