Press release from Lightbeam Systems:

LAS VEGAS, NV -- Lightbeam Systems introduced the Lightbeam E5 series of professional workstations, render nodes and GPU nodes based on the latest Intel Xeon processor E5 2600 series, NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics, and NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. Designed to accelerate high-performance computing (HPC) applications such as Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max, NewTek LightWave 3D, Maxon Cinema 4D, Nuke, Adobe Creative Suite, MARI, Mental Ray, V-Ray, V-Ray RT, Final Render and Bunkspeed PRO, the Lightbeam E5 series delivers up to a 10x performance gain over previous-generation computing systems.

See the new Lightbeam Systems E5-16200 workstation powering NewTek LightWave 11 in the NewTek booth #SL5111 (South Hall) at NAB, April 16-19, 2012 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Studios such as Warner Bros., IMAX, Atomic Fiction, Bad Robot, Fuse FX, and many others rely on Lightbeam Systems workstations and render nodes to streamline productivity and improve workflow. Jason Fotter, VFX Supervisor, FuseFX explains: “When working on major broadcast television productions like ‘GLEE,’ ‘Criminal Minds,’ ‘Hell on Wheels,’ and ‘American Horror Story,’ a straightforward, powerful and customized hardware system can make all the difference. Lightbeam Systems continues to deliver one of the easiest-to-set-up rendering pipelines in the industry—providing not only rack-ready hardware, but also delivered with pre-installed and updated software configured to our specific network settings. These benefits alone greatly help FuseFX meet an increasingly demanding production schedule.” Fotter continued, "Lightbeam also provides outstanding support and research when customizing hardware for specific purposes. The Lightbeam E5 series, utilizing the Intel Romley 16-core power with 64 rendering nodes, shows just how quick-to-market this company can react to and deliver CPU and GPU processing leaps.”

The Lightbeam E5 Series Revealed

Built for the most demanding performance needs, compressed budgets and mission-critical production deadlines, the Lightbeam E5-16200 and Lightbeam E5-820 workstations offer up to 16 physical CPU cores and 32 logical CPU cores. The E5-6450R and E5-4850R quad render nodes offer up to 64 CPU cores in a 2U form factor, and the E5-1620GPU and E5-1220GPU quad GPU render nodes provide up to 2048 NVIDIA^® CUDA^® GPU cores with up to 16 CPU processor cores.

The Lightbeam E5-16200 and E5-820 workstations feature:

• Intel Xeon processor E5 2600 series Romley CPUs offering up to 768 GB of RAM and state-of-the art PCI Express 3.0 architecture
• Up to dual eight-core Intel Xeon processor E5 2600 series CPUs with up to 32 logical cores
• NVIDIA Quadro 6000 professional graphics with Scalable Geometry Engine™ technology designed to remove graphics limitations by delivering 1.3 billion triangles per second
• Support for up to four double-wide graphics cards and/or GPUs

The Lightbeam Systems E5-6450R and E5-4850R 2U quad render nodes offer:

• Four complete, independent nodes with up to 16 physical cores and 32 logical cores, and up to 256 GB RAM per node using Intel Xeon processor E5 2500 series
• Up to 64 physical cores, 128 logical cores, and up to 1024 GB of total memory
• 2U form factor with four fully independent, highly advanced hot-swap nodes and fully redundant power supplies
• 1620W redundant platinum level hot-swap power supplies; 3240 watts total
• Optional Mellanox ConnectX QDR (QRF) / FDR (FRF) InfiniBand controller
• Built-in server management tool (IPMI 2.0, KVM/media over LAN) with dedicated LAN port
• Performance gains of up to 3X over previous generation render nodes

The Lightbeam Systems E5-16200GPU and E5-12200GPU quad GPU systems, developed for dedicated advanced GPU processing include: