G5 Xserve - Good Audio Potential? Options

[Tree Leopard]

G5 Xserve was recently released ...
http://www.apple.com/xserve/

1U, 19in rack mount unit, with multi-platform compatibility (mac / win / unix) with a lot of power. Bascially, a very attractive proposition, especially for hi-rez recording and DVD post.

From reports the unit is selling very well. (Sure, its price and features are aimed at medium to large enterprise.)
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/01/04/xs...serve/index.php

For the realists: if you had one of these in yor studio, how would you - given your particular config. and work processes - make use of it? I'm very curious about how people would take advatange of its features.
http://www.apple.com/xserve/specs.html

For the dreamers: ...do you visualize something that is a like half-step between the Mac Mini and Xserve, an upgradable 1U media server / external processor hub that keeps older model G4s in action (i.e. rather than buying a whole new computer to get the power) and is mobile and robust enough for "out of house" production projects...?

What are your thoughts?

[jeffca]

While a G5 Xserve Cluster Node would kick ass as a co-processer in a studio designed around Logic Pro, you'd have to have specific issues to make it worth the cost.

Logic Pro's distributed computing feature is the most powerful and flexible implementation of this concept yet commercially introduced (to my knowledge, anyway). If you have a need for numerous "live" virtual instruments or multiple Altiverbs, an Xserve Node would expand your capabilities very nicely at a much lower cost than a rack of synths and convolution reverbs.

In a live context, imagine a G5 with two 30" Cinema Displays as the head of a live mixing system. Several Xserve nodes could be hooked up via InfiniBand network cards (used in the Viginia Tech G5 super computer) to reduce a live system's latency to a few milliseconds.

Look at the potential savings over a standard live mixing rig:
$10,000 for the G5, two 30" displays and other peripherals (memory, drives, etc.)
$18,000 for six Xserve cluster nodes
$3,500? for seven Infiniband network cards (just a guess)
$1,000 for cables, etc.
$32,500 total

This isn't cheap, but when you consider the cost of a "real" live mixing desk (Midas, SSL) and all of the outboard gear that would be needed to do what this core system would, it's a pitance. Other advantages would be the systems scalability, automation capabilities, ease of use and the fact that the live mix could sound eerily close to the studio recording while still be performed totally live.

This, at present though, is a pipe dream. Logic can be used for live mixing and processing, but it certainly isn't optimized for it. And the last thing you need during a live show is a program crash or lock up.

It's only a matter of time, though, until distributed computing explodes into the studio and the arena. It will be really cool when it does.

Jeff