Cadalyst - January/February 2009 - (Page 10) cadcentral AMD Looks to the Clouds to own one. The AMD Fusion Render At the Consumer Electronics Show in Cloud will be powered by AMD Phenom Las Vegas in January, AMD’s president II processors, AMD 790 chipsets, and ATI and CEO Dirk Meyer revealed his comRadeon HD 4870 graphics processors. pany’s upcoming contribution to cloud AMD’s announcement came barely computing: ADM Fusion Render Cloud. one month after Autodesk CEO Carl Flanked by officials from Lucasfilm, Dell, Bass expressed his interest in cloud HP, and game publisher Electronic Arts, Meyer explained his vision. AMD Fusion Render Cloud, he said, is “a new kind of supercomputer . . . designed to break the one petaFLOPS barrier and to process a million compute threads across more than 1,000 graphics processors. . . . And it will be powered by OTOY’s software for a singular purpose: to make Using OTOY’s web plug-in, AMD Fusion Render Cloud will HD (high-definition) cloud deliver cinematic quality renderings (such as the one here, computing a reality.” from OTOY’s web site) to remote desktops. Theoretically, when the computing during the Autodesk Unisupercomputer comes online, people versity conference at the same locale will be able to play video games and (“Event Report: Autodesk University run graphics-intense applications and 2008, Part 2 — cloud computing in the horsepower-hungry programs from a forecast for desktop-dominated CAD web browser or a mobile device. AMD market,” December 10, 2008, www. Fusion Render Cloud will execute the cadalyst.com). For the CAD community, users’ commands and deliver cinematicAMD and Autodesk’s flight into the quality output to the users’ devices and cloud promises faster, cheaper ways machines, using OTOY’s web plug-in to visualize sophisticated architectural (www.otoy.com). In short, users will have scenes, render animations, and display access to a supercomputer’s rendering finite-element analysis results. and processing power without having By Kenneth Wong IMSI/Design Delays CAD Freeware Launch At Autodesk University last December, IMSI/Design, makers of TurboCAD, unveiled a 2D CAD product it planned to give away. At the time, the company introduced the software as A/CAD LT Express. (For more, read “IMSI/Design Freeware Targets AutoCAD LT Users,” CAD Central, November/ December 2008.) IMSI/Design announced it would make the free version available by year end from the designated download site at www.acadnow.com. But at press time, the portal redirected visitors to firstlook. imsidesign.com, showing a halfdrawn curtain and the message “Coming soon.” “A/CAD is now called DoubleCAD (for Drafting & Detailing),” explained CEO Royal Farros. “Autodesk abandoned the ACAD trademark some 17 years before, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records,” he said, but Autodesk said it would oppose use of the name. DoubleCAD XT and XT Pro are now expected to ship in February. Judge Partially Dismisses Autodesk vs. SolidWorks Suit Who has the right to use an orange square around its logo — Autodesk or SolidWorks? That’s one of the questions Judge William Alsup had to ponder late last year. In September 2008, Autodesk filed a suit against SolidWorks, alleging “unfair competition, false designation, trademark infringement, [and] trade dress infringement,” among other claims. Autodesk argued that SolidWorks’ product naming strategy — for example, DWGeditor, DWGgateway, DWGseries, DWGviewer, and DWGnavigator — aims to “confuse design professionals about the ability of DS [Dassault Systemes] SolidWorks programs to interoperate with Autodesk’s AutoCAD software . . .” Autodesk also takes issue with SolidWorks’ “marketing campaign featuring a logo design that combines the ‘real’ element of Autodesk’s RealDWG program and tagline with the distinctive trade dress found on the Autodesk Inventor packaging.” As evidence, Autodesk furnished the Autodesk Inventor logo enclosed in a thin yellow border, next to a SolidWorks banner that reads “Real Solution,” with the word Real enclosed in an orange square. (For more information, read “The Battle Over DWG Continues,” January 8, 2009, at www.cadalyst.com/kw.) On December 18, a judge partially granted SolidWorks’ motion to dismiss the case. SolidWorks argued that Autodesk cannot state a claim of unfair competition and false designation of origin based on the use of DWG and Real because those terms are generic. The judge denied SolidWorks’ motion to dismiss based on those grounds. Regarding the questionable square, the judge noted, “It is unclear whether Autodesk contends the mark and tagline are also part of the total image, design, and appearance of the product that constitutes its trade dress. . . . Autodesk’s trade dress infringement claim is dismissed.” For the complete text of Judge Alsup’s order, visit www.cadcourt.com, which tracks court cases related to the technology sector. 10 www.cadalyst.com cadalyst January/February 2009 http://www.acadnow.com http://firstlook.imsidesign.com http://firstlook.imsidesign.com http://www.cadalyst.com http://www.cadalyst.com http://www.otoy.com http://www.cadalyst.com/kw http://www.cadcourt.com http://www.cadalyst.com
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