RED Rocket update...

[Evangelos Achillopoulos]

Evan does that mean that your going OSX?

I'm testing everything under OSX...

The system will have everything working in Windows when it ships to client.

It will have a boot manager (like Apples bootcamp) that will allow the user to buy OSX retail box, if he wish to, (it will be Snow when CinePack will be available) and put it on the DVD drive, follow Apple's instructions (not mine), and just do a straight normal install, reboot and have OSX running perfectly... install the latest drivers for BMD/AJA, Qlogic FC, RRocket, Qio, FCP7 or whatever... and have a full functioning dual boot system... No hacks no tricks just straight install... Basically whatever has drivers for OSX it work straight away... just remove the box from the Peli housing open it from side and put whatever PCIe card you wish as a normal MacPro... The only limitation will be the graphics card that due to power constrains it will be the only one that it will be compatible...

The machine has a lot of free areas, in order user to stick the Apple provided stickers with the Apple label, which included in the OSX retail box in this way he will have his system Apple labeled as EULA is asking...

[Roberto Lequeux]

Thank you for sharing the guts Peter. Very interesting piece of equipment! Do they attach to the laptop in some sort of way to carry as one piece?

If it is ok, I would love to also see the non-battery powered version nakid.

Are you close to being able to set the prices?

[Sanjin Jukic]

Here is the battery-powered "pocket" version:



Excuse the rough finish - this is the first working prototype...

Peter

Peter,

amazing!!!!!

Price and availability??????????

[Peter Majtan]

We are tuning some final design adjustments. As it is - the "Pocket Rocket" will require for the RED Rocket to be installed at our end. It requires the slot plates to be removed from both the RED Rocket and the HD-SDI ports, removal of the base PCIe board assembling it together outside of the box and then inserting it in a rather complex way. finally 8 screws hold the RED Rocket in place with base support. This is not a device that will allow easy swapping of the RED Rocket between Mac Pro and this enclosure. It is possible, but very impractical and difficult task. Also the angled wires You see in the bottom left corner (inside) lead to LED's. They will show the battery capacity in a similar way the laptop does, but on a permanent basis. Since there is no other way to tell the battery capacity I believe this is really important to observe. This is why the LED's are on the front face - it will be difficult to ignore them... We are thinking between milling it from aluminum or magnesium. Either way - the unit is going to be really solid and relatively lightweight. The main weight is the 4 batteries - which use the same flat-cell technology as the 17" MBP...

We should have all this sorted out within a week or two. At that point we will be able to announce the availability and pricing...

This first generation is connected to the MBP with Magma Express34 card and cable and the laptop is not attached to the unit. We are working on a slightly larger unit that will get rid off the Express34 slot card poking out and the cables. We have two different design solution for this, but they are rather complex and require custom ECB's to be designed. It will "envelop" the MBP in a way to make it look like a one single unit and there will be no cables. But this version is at least 6 months out. In "Jim's tradition" - we will offer FULL trade-in value for all those who purchase the current unit and want to upgrade to the second generation...

The most important thing is that the "Pocket Rocket" is just the beginning. We are cooking something so exciting that will forever change the DIT work on the location...

Keep tuned...

Peter

[Sanjin Jukic]

Thanks Peter,

great report.

Waiting for the news about pricing and availability...

[Colin Hubick]

This is "just" a normal expansion chassis for any two PCIe cards.

:) Peter

What brand is this expansion chassis? looks great.

[KETCH ROSSi]

AHH, and at last I find some more info on the MAXX RR portable here, well as I said on other thread about this, Great Portable option, and it is surely Fantastic to be able to use the RR on a MBP.

[cinedigital]

I'm testing everything under OSX...

The machine has a lot of free areas, in order user to stick the Apple provided stickers with the Apple label, which included in the OSX retail box in this way he will have his system Apple labeled as EULA is asking...

Now we know what those Apple logo stickers are for!

Would they fit on an IBM Bladeserver I wonder?

A full Bladecenter renderfarm running OSX would be sooo niiice...

Would fit just nicely in my rack too :)

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/data/f...our/index.html

Dave

[Mathieu Marano]

Here is the battery-powered "pocket" version:

Excuse the rough finish - this is the first working prototype...

Peter

Nice work Peter. And what is this AJA usb key? Will it be rack mountable?

[R. Gonzales]

I cant' seem to find the post where I believe it was written " that the magma box is too hot" or something or the other.

Peter or anyone in the know please comment on why we just can't use a magma 2 Slot PCI Expansion System. I already own one and I am trying to figure out why I might need to purchase another box to run the RED Rocket™?



Respectfully

R. Gonzales