彭蒙惠英语：Hollywood Studios Are Hot Customers（在线收听）

Hollywood Studios Are Hot Customers

By Dean Takahashi /

©2004 San Jose Mercury News,

Knight Ridder Newspapers.

Distributed by Tribune Media Service

Hewlett-Packrd (HP) is striving to become the king of entertainment technology with the computing services it offers to Hollywood studios

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Hollywood studios like DreamWorks have become coveted customers for HP and its rivals, since the shift to digital animation demands sophisticated computing know-how. HP wants to make sure that HP — and not competitors such as IBM and Sun Microsystems — gets Hollywood’s business.

Thanks in part to a collaboration with HP, the animation division of DreamWorks had a good year in 2004, launching two major movies in one year. Shrek 2 grossed a gargantuan $901 million worldwide, and Shark Tale generated $341 million.

Computer power

Behind this bonanza is DreamWorks’ use of a novel technology concept: The company rents computing power from HP. In 2001, the two companies worked together on the original Shrek, expanding their partnership in the making of Shrek 2. HP hopes such deals will help it make a stand against its larger rival IBM, which is in many ways an underdog when it comes to Hollywood connections.

IBM has hardly conceded the fight. Big Blue has provided services and Linux-based computers to more than 75 special-effects companies over the past several years. As studios cut costs, they have replaced their older, more expensive SGI supercomputers — the ones used to make special-effects spectaculars such as Jurassic Park and The Matrix — with cheaper servers.

While IBM lacks marquee customers such as DreamWorks, Big Blue has had success with its own version of utility computing, which it calls “on demand” computing. “This industry lends itself to on demand particularly well because it is driven by big projects with a lot of peaks in crunch time,” says Steve Canepa, vice president of global media and entertainment at IBM. “We’re going to see a lot more customers take advantage of it.”

Vocabulary Focus

gargantuan (adj) [^B:5^AntjuEn] very large; huge

bonanza (n) [bEu5nAnzE] something that suddenly produces large profits or great opportunities

make a stand (idiom) to make a determined effort to defend something or compete against someone or something

underdog (n) [5QndEdC^] one at a disadvantage; the person or team considered to be the weakest and least likely to win

Specialized Terms

Linux (n) 一种免费计算机操作系统品牌 a trademark for a freely available, open-source software that is a version of the UNIX operating system

SGI (n) 视算科技公司 Silicon Graphics Incorporated, a computer company best known for developing hardware and software used to create movie special effects and animation

server (n) 服务器 a central computer from which other computers obtain information

marquee (adj) 超人气的；有顶尖的 relating to someone or something whose name has great public appeal and will attract large crowds of people

utility computing (n phr) 公用电算服务 a service that provides computing resources and infrastructure management to the customer as needed, charging for specific usage rather than a flat fee