Preparing for FCPX whitepaper

here's an interesting whitepaper from Silverado on the new FCPX,
with info on Grand Central Dispatch, 64-bit code, OpenCL, etc.

[silverado.cc]

the whitepaper is in exchange for your e-mail


cheers,
nick

It is interesting. Although they make the statement right up front that their idea is to sell you the most Mac you can afford, it seems like in the future it will be nigh on impossible to build a system too big. Every scrap of RAM, every cent spent on GPU will be able to be utilised by FCPX. They predict that 64GB of RAM will be a common setup.

So, the skinny is that 64 bit (that's Snow Leopard minimum), Grand Central Dispatch, Open CL and Turbo Boost all work together to distribute processing all over the joint - even using your graphics card to do other work. And this makes everything faster. A lot faster. I mean, if you think it's a long way to the shops .. you have no idea how much faster.

There's also a bit about thunderbolt and SSD, and, spoiler alert - they make things faster too. With caveats about the SSDs.

And a guide to which computers can be upgraded enough to take full advantage of this, which basically is the MacPro, which can expand ram to 64GB, use hyper threading, use Turbo Boost, can have its GPU upgraded, have up to 12TB of internal storage and add PCie 2.0 cards.

Next is the MacBook Pro, which can only use hyper threading and Turbo Boost, and then its the i7 iMac, which also has hyper threading and Turbo Boost. All the rest of the range can't do any of these things.

thanks for the summary, Jude.

interesting in light of the recent "iMacs with Thunderbolt will replace Towers" thread.

all the grunt you can get is great for colorists and finishers.
i wonder how much grunt i'll need for simple cuts n dissolves using FCPX?


nick

I don't know about iMacs...but the 2.3 GHz i7 Macbook Pro has 8 cores folks (4 CPU x 4 Virtual) and now utilizes 16 GB RAM (probably more soon). I have been pounding mine now for a week in FCP / AE / Cinema 4D (8 GB RAM / 512 GB SSD as well) and I have not seen or worked with a faster machine in my career (even faster than my 8-core MacPro edit station / 24 GB RAM at work). I haven't even started utilizing the Thunderbolt port except to run my 27" Cinema Screen (which is also ridiculously gorgeous). You absolutely do not need a MacPro anymore to do high computational work folks. This new 17" MBP i7 maxed out is a Ferrari...

...Finally

...and who are these people offering up this "white paper"? I think they just want your email address to pound you with "On Sale" spam as they are Value Added Resellers. Is there a white paper like this on the Apple website?

To be continued...

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

It's basically just a discussion about what the various new components of the OS do and how to best utilise that with the hardware you buy. And yes, they state clearly in the beginning that their aim is to sell you the most computer they can. But the info is all good and impartial.

Their point is that the iMacs can't do 64GB of RAM or have the GPU upgraded and a couple of other things. With Grand central, Open CL and Turbo ALL the processing can be evenly distributed over all the cores all the time, and changed to only a couple if the task is small to take advantage of Turbo Boost to make them even faster.

For cuts and dissolves, we all know that we could do that on our powermacs using FCP1. So I'm guessing the grunt is not important. This is really a discussion about getting max bang for your buck.

>Their point is that the iMacs can't do 64GB of RAM

Though 32 GB ain't too shabby and is a whole lot more RAM than I have right now ... wish I could afford 64GB of RAM!

>or have the GPU upgraded

Although perhaps this could change?

[arstechnica.com]

grafixjoe Wrote:
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> ...and who are these people offering up this "white paper"? I think they just want your email
> address to pound you with "On Sale" spam as they are Value Added Resellers. Is there a white paper
> like this on the Apple website?


Joe,

No--there isn't anything like this on the Apple website. That's why I wrote it.

In fact--some of the senior FCP execs at 1 Infinite Loop have requested copies themselves.

Torrey

Torrey, aka Silverado,

I hope you're not to spam us or give out our email addresses?

Thanks in advance,

Russ

Russ Blaise Wrote:
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> Torrey, aka Silverado, I hope you're not to spam us or give out our email
> addresses?

Russ,

We don't sell, rent, or distribute our private lists. Our last major blast was November 2010.

In a perfect world, we would be contacting folks about 2-3x per month with FCP info, but the reality is that we just don't do it that frequently.

Torrey
-----------------------------------------------
Torrey Loomis
President & CEO - Silverado Systems, Inc.
(916) 760-0032 ? FAX (916) 404-5258
torrey@silverado.cc
Web [www.Silverado.cc]
Blog [silveradosys.blogspot.com]
Twitter [www.twitter.com]

It's kind of funny being in Australia and getting signed up to these things. Of course there's not really any way I'm going to buy a system from you guys. The walk home would take *ages*. So sending me sales information is pointless and annoying. Is your mailing list smart enough to figure that out?

This is not a 'you guys suck' point I'm trying to make. It's just that I wish mailing lists were better filtered somehow.

Like all emails from all legitimate companies there is an "unsubscribe" at the bottom or top of each email. Just click on it and all is good.

Michael Horton
-------------------

True, and I knew I opted in by giving them my email. I just wish that marketing was cleverer in general.

I just calls 'em like I sees 'em. This just sounds too much like someone that is taking advantage of the excitement of the FCP community for the upcoming FCPX to peddle their warez.

If Apple wants it, why not post it up for all in the LAFCPUG Membership to benefit from instead of gathering email addresses to pound people with marketing pitches?

Spam is spam = unwanted email. Signing up for an email list gets you email you don't want...and that's spam. I have "unsubscribed" from annoying spam vendors before and the hits just keep on comin'. Some unscrupulous vendors use the "Unsubscribe" button to send you to another part of their website.

I'll pass & wait for a "white paper" from someone that is not trying to sell me something, sorry & thanks.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Jude Cotter Wrote:
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> It's kind of funny being in Australia and getting signed up to these things.

Jude,

One of our last 24.0 TB RAID systems went to a client in Australia. They had to deal with offloading the entire contents of their Xsan in the midst of the Brisbane floods. Russia and Brazil are kinda hard for shipping, but Australia is pretty easy.

TL

grafixjoe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just calls 'em like I sees 'em. This just sounds too much like someone that is taking advantage of the excitement of the FCP community for the upcoming FCPX to peddle their warez. If Apple wants it, why not post it up for all in the LAFCPUG Membership to benefit from instead of gathering email addresses to pound people with marketing pitches?


Joe,

When we got our RED #21, we distributed over 40.0 TB (terabytes, not gigabytes) in free R3D material to people who wanted to work with media while they were still waiting for their cameras.

We've posted up plenty of system stencils and free planning docs in the past. We have no problem providing free information to the community. Our history of doing this goes back years.

Some of these larger projects take a tremendous amount of effort and research. I have no problem requesting information from those who want these resources. Its no different than Apple, Adobe, Nvidia, or any other company who requests registration for a class or webinar. The information is also the basis of curriculum for an ongoing series of courses we are offering at Silverado. You can see them here:

[seminars.apple.com]

I know most people can't attend in person, so we offered the same information in PDF format. Not sure I would consider that the same as "peddling warez."

Torrey

And as I already said the article itself was very clear about its intention, which I appreciated, and it was unbiased. So it wasn't like I felt I was being scammed. I just personally hate being on mailing lists in general. I get hundreds, and they all go right to the trash. But it definitely wasn't peddling.

Hey Torrey,

I sent you a PM. Please check when you get the chance.

cheers,

Marcus.

Quote
Jude Cotter
I just personally hate being on mailing lists in general. I get hundreds, and they all go right to the trash.

That's my bottom line as well.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Jude Cotter Wrote:
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> I just personally hate being on mailing lists in general. I get hundreds, and they all go right to the trash.

Jude,

I found your email and I'll make sure you aren't placed on the list.

Tor