The Real "Death Star" Data Center

Isabel Wang has a pointer to a C/Net story about LucasFilms' data center in San Francisco. It's a 13,500-square-foot facility that includes a "render farm" - a cluster of computers that work around the clock to process synthetic images - as well as file servers. All told, the center contains more than 3,000 AMD processors. The C/Net story is accompanied by a slide show with photos.

As Isabel notes, the real kicker is the connectivity. The LucasFilm network features 300 10 gigabit Ethernet ports and 1,500 1-gig ports. Every digital artist within the company has a desktop with gigabit connectivity. After all, it takes a boatload of bandwidth to destroy Alderaan or make the Kessel run in 12 parsecs.