Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) Selects Angstrom Microsystems™ As Provider of Next Generation Server Render Farm

AMD Opteron™ processors significantly increase compute power of the ILM render farm

Boston -- 4/21/2004 -- Angstrom Microsystems, an AMD Opteron™ processor-based system specialist company, is announcing the deployment of Titan64 SuperBlade™ rendering servers at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a Lucasfilm Ltd. company. These blade servers are powered by AMD Opteron processors (NYSE: AMD) to provide maximum performance and scalability of the rendering server farm. ILM is using the Titan64 SuperBlade servers to enable a significantly more complex and faster generation of movie visual effects.

A Titan64 SuperBlade rack maximizes processing density by packing 65 blade servers with space for 10 switches and other networking gear into one rack. Quality is a hallmark of Angstrom Microsystems; its blade servers are designed to minimize failures by, among other design features, blade cooling without the use of small, fragile fans and blowers.

“We have been very pleased by the quality of the Titan64 SuperBlade servers and Angstrom’s exceptional service,” said Martin Weaver, Manager of Systems Engineering at Industrial Light & Magic. “Angstrom’s engineering focus and ability to deliver quality AMD Opteron processor-based systems have enabled us to focus on our core business – creating industry leading visual effects.”

“Angstrom’s unique engineering capabilities have made rendering highly reliable and enabled rapid deployment of our Titan64 SuperBlade render farm,” said Eric Bermender, Systems R&D Engineer at ILM.

The Angstrom Titan64 product line takes advantage of the AMD Opteron processor’s 64-bit computing power. With the AMD Opteron processor’s unique architecture, including an integrated memory controller and streamlined chip-to-chip communication in the form of HyperTransport™ technology, Angstrom enables faster special effects generation and a smooth migration path from legacy 32-bit software to more memory-intensive 64-bit applications.

“The AMD Opteron processor enables high performance computing for both 32-bit and 64-bit applications and is a significant factor in our success in this market,” said Lalit Jain, CEO of Angstrom Microsystems.” Angstrom is proud to announce our selection by the premiere visual effects house, Industrial Light & Magic.”

“ILM is well-known for pushing the envelope of technology and art. They simply require best-in-class performance from their hardware,” said Charlie Boswell, marketing director of AMD’s Digital Media & Entertainment group. “The balanced architecture of AMD Opteron processor-based custom blade servers from Angstrom is delivering that performance edge to ILM today. ILM is joining the ranks of entertainment industry heavyweights who are staying one step ahead creatively by deploying AMD Opteron processor-based systems in their digital pipelines. The world awaits to see how their creative minds put them to use.”

About Angstrom Microsystems
Angstrom has recently announced the world’s first and world’s densest 4-processor AMD Opteron processor-based blade server: the Titan64 QuadraBlade. Angstrom Microsystems (www.angstrom.com) specializes in the design and manufacturing of AMD Opteron™ processor-based blade servers and workstations. Its rendering customers include Rhythm & Hues, Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic. Angstrom has earned a reputation for quality, service, and engineering innovation in the server space. Its high performance AMD Opteron and AMD Athlon™ processor-based blade servers lead the industry in quality, price and performance.

About Industrial Light & Magic
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is a Lucasfilm Ltd. company serving the digital needs of the entertainment industry for visual effects. ILM has been awarded 14 Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and received 17 Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards.