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"I also wanted to make certain we'd have the RIP, the trap server, the file server, and the OPI (open prepress interface) swap all running on the same box. Experience has taught me that the more you transfer high resolution graphics files over a network, the more you hamper productivity. My qualifying factors convinced me that the Silicon Graphics Challenge L(TM) network resource server was the answer we were looking for.
"With a UNIX server and several workstations," De Milo continues, "we can have all our processes running on the server, while we're controlling everything at a workstation. In the Challenge L server we have a centralized, scaleable server with all the features that we'd hoped for: multiple processors, a migration path, substantial room for more memory, and plenty of I/O slots."
De Milo integrated all his components with an FDDI network. "A high resolution file hits the network only three or four times in the production cycle with our workflow," he says. "When it does, it moves at 160MB per minute. Between that and Silicon Graphics' faster data bus, we don't have to sit around waiting for transfers and saves."
De Milo's breakfast may have gotten cold by now, but he's definitely warmed to his subject. "There are those who will tell you that you can do prepress on a desktop system," he comments, "and that you can do effective trapping using the less sophisticated software, but when you're working with a file that can be 130 to 200 megabytes in size, you've got to be able to quickly write it, read it, handle it, operate on it, and transfer it. You can't do that on the desktop systems or PCs right now, and I seriously doubt that you'll be able to in the foreseeable future."
Performance limitations are not something David De Milo worries about any longer. Thanks to his innovative thinking, and his Silicon Studio solution, prepress tasks at Newbridge Communications are about to get faster, better and a lot less expensive.