Fusion-io, a designer of solid-state storage solutions, on Monday announced its participation in the Siggraph 2011 international conference on computer graphics and interactive technologies. Fusion-io is collaborating with a number of companies, including Nvidia, Thinkbox Software and Tweak Software, to accelerate entertainment production with solid-state drives.

"Entertainment artists who use Fusion's ioMemory technologies can now spend more time creating and less time waiting for content to load, playback and render. Multiple SSDs configured in a RAID can provide basic throughput, but struggle to provide the low latency required for delivering interactivity in powerful content creation applications. By working with our innovative partners we are helping studios and artists unlock their creativity. Now, not only can artists do more faster, but with the flexibility offered by Fusion-io and our partners, studios can focus on the artistry that separates good from great," said Vincent Brisebois, a product manager at Fusion-io.

In the Nvidia booth at Siggraph, the Fusion-io video wall showcases how Fusion ioMemory technology combined with the Nvidia QuadroPlex 7000 visual computing system provides the throughput necessary to play 12 full HD (1080p) uncompressed video feeds simultaneously off a single workstation with interactive graphics processing unit (GPU)-based color correction. The video wall demonstration will be running on an HP Z800 workstation equipped with the Nvidia QuadroPlex 7000 and Fusion ioMemory modules.

At Autodesk booth, Fusion ioMemory technology will accelerate demonstrations of Autodesk Composite software, which is included in the Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Softimage software applications. The Autodesk software packages feature integrated 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and compositing tools that enable artists and designers to quickly ramp up for production.

Fusion ioMemory will be also integrated into a Supermicro SuperServer 8046B-6RF server in the Thinkbox Software Pacific Rim suite at the Fairmont hotel. This system provides increased speed and efficiency in demonstrations of Krakatoa, Thinkbox's production-proven volumetric particle rendering, manipulation and management toolkit. Krakatoa provides a pipeline for creating, shaping and rendering vast quantities of particles at unprecedented speed to represent natural phenomena like dust, smoke, silt, ocean surface foam, plasma and even solid objects.

Tweak Software will be utilizing ioMemory technology from Fusion-io to accelerate its flagship RV software. RV supports dual stream output for stereo playback, embeds audio in the SDI signal, and takes advantage of RV's flexible tools for review, editing, collaboration, an notation and comparison of media. At Siggraph 2011, RV will be demonstrating its integration package that combines RV's real-time playback with the compositing abilities of The Foundry's Nuke software and Fusion ioMemory. The integration allows artists to save various iterations of their Nuke renders on the ioMemory and then immediately play them back in real-time in RV.

Tags: SSD, Fusion-io, ioMemory, Nvidia