Changes in Platform Certification and Support Notification for Lustre and Incinerator
May    2008

Dear Autodesk Customer,

The Autodesk® Lustre® software development roadmap is focused on delivering the most innovative and best performing digital color grading solution available. As such, Lustre is designed to leverage the latest in computing, storage, GPU and networking technologies.  In many cases, software that is tuned for new hardware cannot provide acceptable level of performance on older hardware, and in other cases the older hardware is no longer supported or available from the hardware manufacturer.   As a result, Autodesk must periodically phase out development and product support for older hardware.

This letter serves to inform you of upcoming changes in the platforms Autodesk supports for Lustre and Autodesk® Incinerator® software and provides you with alternatives that can allow you to continue to run the most up-to-date software versions.  Affected hardware is discussed below.

Hardware: Certification to End
The hardware listed below are the last ones to be certified for the current releases of the following software:  (i) for Lustre® on the Windows® operating system (OS) this is Lustre 2008; and (ii) for Lustre® Incinerator on the Linux® OS this is Lustre Incinerator 2007.  For both products, this includes extensions and services packs if any.  The next major releases, if any, of the products affected will not be certified to run on the following hardware:

Products Affected	Hardware
Lustre® Master, Lustre® HD, Lustre® Assistant (Windows OS)	NVIDIA® FX4000SDI PCI-E graphics card
Lustre® Incinerator, Lustre® Assistant (Linux OS)	NVIDIA® FX4000SDI PCI-E graphics card

Support
For the NVIDIA® FX4000SDI PCI-E graphics card, when your hardware support contract expires or terminates, you will no longer be able to receive Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA)/replacement parts for this graphics card

Hardware: Last Certified Releases
Autodesk intends to dedicate Research & Development resources to product development and testing for one (1) additional product release cycle of the products on the platforms listed below.  This includes the major release itself, and extensions and service packs, if any.  The intended next major release will be the last release cycle for the following hardware:

Products Affected	Platforms / Hardware
Lustre® Master, Lustre® HD, Lustre® Assistant (Windows OS)	IBM® 6223 Workstations with NVIDIA® FX5500SDI graphics card
Lustre® Incinerator, Lustre® Assistant     (Linux OS)	IBM® 6223 Workstations with NVIDIA® FX5500SDI graphics card
Lustre® Media Server (for Incinerator)	IBM® x346 Servers
Incinerator Inline Render Nodes	IBM® x336 Servers

Additional Notes
Please note that the supported graphics card on the IBM® 6223 for this final product release is the NVIDIA® FX5500SDI only.

Hardware Platforms: Migration Alternatives
The following table outlines migration alternatives available to you given your current platform:

Platform	Platform Status	Migration Options
IBM® 6223 with NVIDIA ® FX4000SDI	Current release is last certified release.  (i) for Lustre® on the Windows® operating system (OS), this is Lustre 2008; (ii) for Lustre® Incinerator on the Linux® OS this is Lustre Incinerator 2007	Option 1 - Recommended:  Upgrade to new Lustre platform.  This is the recommended option that fully leverages new capabilities in Lustre.
		Option 2 – Alternative:  Upgrade the graphics card in the IBM® 6223 to NVIDIA® FX5500SDI.  Note that this option is available through Autodesk for a limited time while FX5500SDI supplies last.

As your production needs to grow and change, Autodesk is here to work with you on not only improving your Lustre capabilities, but augmenting it with powerful concurrent workflow solutions that integrate Autodesk® Flame® and Autodesk® Smoke® systems software into the grading pipeline.  An upgrade to the latest platform running the latest software version will allow you to take advantage of these new workflow solutions as well as the many powerful new features that have been added to Lustre.

For further information about this certification announcement, your migration options, or our latest concurrent workflow solutions, please do not hesitate to contact your local Autodesk account representative.

Best Regards,

Diana Colella
Director of Product Management
Autodesk, Media & Entertainment

Occasionally, Autodesk makes statements regarding planned or future development efforts for our existing or new products and services. These statements are not intended to be a promise or guarantee of future delivery of products, services, or features but merely reflect our current plans, which may change. The Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect any change in circumstances, after the statements are made.