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LONDON, December 8, 2005 - HP Laboratories today revealed
the findings of the SE3D Animation Showcase; a year-long,
innovative research project that investigated the potential
of large-scale, flexible computing power. The SE3D Animation
Showcase, an HP Laboratories partnership with Alias and
the Watershed Media Centre, gave 11 groups of animators
an opportunity to create their own 3D short Hollywood grade
animated films using the experimental rendering service
developed at HP Laboratories.
Researchers at HP Laboratories chose the animation industry
as a test-bed for the future of computing services to see
how, in the context of media production, flexible, powerful
utility computing services can change the technology and
dynamics of an industry. Their objective was also to load-test
the computing services in a complex, demanding environment
across multiple users.
The computing services, which were used to enable fast,
efficient rendering of hundreds of thousands of frames by
the animators, were available as and when needed over an
ordinary Internet connection. This model of computing, known
as utility computing, delivers much more flexible, economical
computing because users can tap in to a service and use
as much as is needed – only paying for the amount
of resource used. The customer does not need to own, maintain
and upgrade expensive and specialised computing platforms
of their own.
“Although the concept of computing on a utility basis is
intuitive and appealing, making it real requires solving
three technical challenges: ensuring the service is efficient,
secure and reliable,” said Peter Toft, SE3D project
manager at HP Laboratories, Bristol. “The SE3D Animation
Showcase demonstrates that utility computing across a complex,
demanding, multi-user environment is real and ready today.“
Automation is the key to unlocking the future potential
of utility computing services and ensuring that they are
efficient, secure and reliable. While manual configuration
of many aspects of computing is feasible for small-scale
computing (such as for a medium-sized organisation), it
would literally become unmanageable in the large-scale utility
model. SE3D researchers designed and implemented technologies
that would automate all aspects of the animators’ rendering
service, including system configuration, resource allocation,
failure detection and self-recovery.
The service integrated a number of innovative HP Labs technologies
including:
- Market-based resource allocation: to solve the challenge
of how computing resources are allocated, HP Labs implemented
a fully-automated market-based resource allocation scheme,
analogous to the eBay auction system. Users “bid” for
the computing power they require using assigned credits.
This is the first time market mechanisms for computing
resources have been tested in this way.
- Management by Business Objectives (MBO): automatically
allocated and controlled the computing resources. MBO
allowed the service to accommodate resource failures
and if necessary
to re-optimise resource allocations based on what users
have paid and on what penalties are due for non-delivery
of resources. MBO calculated and applied any refunds
that were due.
- Smart storage: When animators make changes
to their input data, a technology called Elephant Store
uploads the absolute
minimum set of binary changes to the remote service.
This has a dramatic effect on the volume of data that
is transferred,
making highly efficient use of network bandwidth.
- SmartFrog (Smart Framework for Object Groups):
orchestrates all of the software elements that comprise
the utility
rendering service. It installs, starts and manages
all the software
components in the system, allows software configurations
to be changed easily, and detects and recovers from
failures.
One of the most important findings from the project is
that automation is central to utility computing success:
for driving out cost, increasing flexibility and releasing
humans for high-level tasks. Automation technologies in
the SE3D programme were vital in operating the service
efficiently. Operator intervention was rarely required
for the automatic
resource allocation and automatic failure detection and
recovery systems.
The implications of the research are wide-ranging, explained
Toft. “The findings of this project will feed and
fuel HP’s ability to offer utility computing services
to customers. The utility computing model stands to benefit
industries that rely on large amounts of secure, robust
computing power, such as financial services, engineering,
oil and gas, and scientific research.”
Facts & Figures
• 500,000 CPU hours reserved by film-makers in the resource
market
• 500,000 frames of animation rendered
• Service availability of more than 99 percent
• Defended against more than a million attempts to break
in to the service, including 16,000 worm attacks.
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Still from Little Angel by Screenbum
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