SquidNet Software’s Cross-Platform Network Distribution Processor (SquidNet) allows just about any distributed processing application (Maya, Blender, Lightwave, research, educational, etc…) with a command-line based interface to evenly distribute job "slices", segments or frames amongst one or more network processors. These network processors, called Tipnodes, pull and process outstanding job requests from a centralized virtual queue. This virtual queue contains jobs requests that are submitted from SquidNet users via the SquidNet Management Console (SMC) which provides a GUI-based interface into the network.
SquidNet system supports the following features:
- Submittal of job requests using application templates (Maya, 3DS Max, Blender, Generic, etc…).
- Cross-Platform support (WINDOWS, LINUX).
- Region Rendering.
- Lightweight design. Very little or no network overhead.
- User Account Management.
- Dynamic load balancing algorithms evenly distribute jobs amongst network nodes.
- Project-based workflow architecture.
- Frame checking: Automatic re-queuing of missing frames.
- Embedded image and sequence viewer. Support for OpenEXR, png, iff and most popular image formats.
- Node Scheduler: Set processing times for each processing node on your system.
- Wake-On-LAN support.
- Platform Path Translation Manager. Issue a single path/file destination in cross-platform job requests.
- Manage remote network installations from local Network Manager Dialog.
- Assignment of Job Priorities (0-highest, 24-lowest).
- Remote startup and shutdown of system nodes.
- Centralized interface that provides users advanced flexibility and management options, including the ability to tap CPU power on desktop workstations during off-peak hours.
- Tipnode support for multi-core processor systems.
- Independent views into each subsystem (job queue, work queue, tipnodes, etc…)
- Streamlined digital workflow from one or more independent locations.
- Monitors all render nodes on a network, and includes real-time CPU, memory and network traffic views.
- Ability to specify the number of network tipnodes that a job will use.
- Automatic restart of job slices if their processing times exceed a specific time period.
- Priority Boosting — automatically increase priority of specific jobs every N minutes.
- Selectable thread processing priorities. (Idle, Normal, High and Real-time).
- Execution Script. Process job slices within criteria of O/S dependant batch file or shell script.
- Job states: Queued, Processing, Interrupted, Suspended, Resumed, Error and Completed.
- Increase/Decrease/Change job priorities.
- Real-time log for system monitoring.
- Real-time logging.
- Extensive error reporting with the ability to resubmit frames from failed jobs.
- Tipnode activation and de-activation.
- Tipnode start/stop processing.
- Email notification on specific job processing events.
- Pool Management. Assign any tipnode to one or more network pools.
- and more…
