The new E5 series workstations and render nodes are designed for demanding 3D broadcast and film applications.

Lightbeam Systems introduces a new line of its workstations, render nodes, and GPU notes for film and broadcast applications. The company claims the new series delivers up to 10x performance gain over its previous-generation computing systems.

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:

• Four complete NVIDIA Tesla GPUs in a single node
• Up to dual eight-core Intel Xeon processor E5 2600 series CPUs with up to 32 logical cores
• Up to 2048 available CUDA cores
• Up to 2660 gigaflops (2.66 teraflops) of double-precision GPU performance
• 1800W redundant Platinum Level power supplies; 3600W total
• Built-in server management tool (IPMI 2.0, KVM/media over LAN) with dedicated LAN port
• High-performance computing (HPC) application performance gains of up to 10x

Lightbeam says its computers are used in technically progressive studios including Warner Bros., IMAX, Atomic Fiction, Bad Robot, and Fuse FX. Products commonly used on Lightbeam computers include 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.

FuseFX likes Lightbeam

One current Lightbeam Systems customer is FuseFX, the studio behind current TV productions including GLEE, Criminal Minds, Hell on Wheels,  and American Horror Story. VFX Supervisor Jason Fotter says he likes likes Lightbeam Systems because they “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.”