Pixar has announced some new changes in RenderMan including some new tools like RenderMan Pro Server 15 and Tractor 1.0. Most importantly, new versions of RenderMan (Starting with Pro Server 15.0) will have support for unlimited threads, meaning that pricing is no longer dependent on the core count, but on the node count.
Unlimited threading will enable studios and artists to maximize the power of their render farms, allowing each license of RenderMan to utilize any number of threads on the latest multi-core platforms. RenderMan Pro Server 15.0 will be the first product to introduce unlimited threading when it is released in the fall of 2009. This will be followed with unlimited threading for RenderMan Studio and RenderMan for Maya.
via Pixar Announces unlimited threading, RenderMan – Software News.
