Racks And Racks Of Computers

The issue here is raw power--the power to process millions of lines of code, which represent each and every pixel that is seen on the movie screen by audiences. To build these large, distributed processing farms is especially challenging for vendors and VARs alike.

IBM and HP compete in this space, but both have proprietary hardware to handle the higher-density gear. IBM's HS20 is one of the highest-density blade servers currently available; up to 84 Xeon processors can be fitted inside a standard 45U-tall rack.

"IBM's problem is that if Intel released a new chip tomorrow, we could easily slot it into our equipment," Mecucci says. "They would have to produce an entirely new design that would take months to deliver."

HP's offering is called the Proliant BL20p G20; RackSaver offers the MegaDense RS-1100VM-88. These are not your father's clusters, to be sure.