AMD Partners Recognized by Prestigious Computerworld Honors Program.Business Editors & High-Tech/Entertainment Editors SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 6, 2001 Jim Henson's Creature Shop Jim Henson's Creature Shop is a company founded in 1979 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. It was originally created as a result of the observation that the team that had been put together for The Dark Crystal was extremely hard to recreate for Labyrinth, since Uses AMD (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, www.amd.com) A major manufacturer of semiconductor devices including x86-compatible CPUs, embedded processors, flash memories, programmable logic devices and networking chips. Technology to Win 21st Century Achievement Award in Entertainment Industry AMD (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :AMD) today announced that Jim Henson's Creature Shop has won top honors at the Computerworld Honors Program which annually recognizes innovative applications of technology that benefit society. Jim Henson's Creature Shop won the 21st Century Achievement Award in the "Media, Arts & Entertainment" category for its AMD Athlon(tm) processor-based workstations, called Henson Digital Performance Studio (HDPS HDPS High-Density Polystyrene ). The Creature Shop, which works closely with movie studios, brings inanimate creatures to life through hand puppetry puppetry Art of creating and manipulating puppets in a theatrical show. Puppets are figures that are moved by human rather than mechanical aid. They may be controlled by one or several puppeteers, who are screened from the spectators. , animatronics an·i·ma·tron·ics n. (used with a sing. verb) The technology employing electronics to animate motorized puppets. [anima(tion) + (elec)tronics. and computer technology. HDPS is a hardware/software combination that allows a single puppeteer to control in real time the hundreds of character movements of a computer-generated character with their two hands. "We're excited and honored to win," said David Barrington Holt, creative supervisor of Jim Henson's Creature Shop. "Those outside our industry rarely appreciate how cutting-edge our work in the performance field can be. AMD was quick to recognize the potential of what we were doing, and provided us with a great product (AMD Athlon processors) and fantastic support." Fifty nominees were selected as finalists from an original field of 311 "laureates," including all three of AMD's nominees: Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Tiqit Computers and the University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky, also referred to as UK, is a public, co-educational university located in Lexington, Kentucky. . The finalists are divided into 10 categories -- manufacturing, science, transportation, etc. -- and one winner is selected from each category. "We're thrilled that all our nominees made it into the final five in their respective categories. Each is a true visionary in its use of information technology," said Steve Zelencik, senior vice president at AMD. "We like to recognize our partners, especially when they've made outstanding contributions, as these companies have." Tiqit Computers, founded by Stanford professor Vaughan Pratt, makes one of the world's smallest PCs, using AMD technology. Tiqit was a finalist in the "Manufacturing" category. "We're delighted that the Computerworld Honors Program allows startups like Tiqit to compete on an equal footing with well-established companies," said Dr. Pratt. The University of Kentucky earned a spot as a finalist in the "Science" category due to the work of Dr. Hank Dietz and his team who assembled a supercomputer using 64 AMD Athlon processor-based PCs in a Beowulf cluster. "These awards span a very wide range," said Dr. Dietz, electrical engineering electrical engineering: see engineering. electrical engineering Branch of engineering concerned with the practical applications of electricity in all its forms, including those of electronics. professor and James F. Hardymon Chair in Networking. "Seeing all the innovative ways people have been using computing has made me think about applications I hadn't previously considered." In the growing Hollywood field of digital content creation The development of newsworthy, educational and entertainment material for distribution over the Internet or other electronic media. See DAMS. , the Creature Shop's latest innovation has melded computer graphics and animatronics in a way never seen before. "The HDPS developed by The Creature Shop is an amazing piece of technology," AMD's Zelencik explained. "Winning the 21st Century Achievement Award is recognition that The Creature Shop has created a breakthrough in the field of Motion Capture." The awards were presented Monday night at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Nominees for this program are made by the Computerworld Honors Chairmen's Committee, comprised of 100 chairmen, presidents and CEOs of leading information technology companies around the world, including W.J. (Jerry) Sanders III, chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of AMD. Members of the committee nominate companies they consider exceptional in their field. Each nominee to the Computerworld Honors Program is asked to submit a case study describing the project or application that is the basis for their nomination. After the case study is accepted, the nominees are honored as "Laureates" at a ceremony held earlier in the year. All Laureate Case Studies become part of the Smithsonian Institution's Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology at the National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History is a museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution and located in Washington, D.C., on the National Mall. It opened in 1964 as the Museum of History and Technology and adopted its current name in 1980. . "Jerry Sanders Jerry Sanders may refer to:
About AMD AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits Integrated circuits Miniature electronic circuits produced within and upon a single semiconductor crystal, usually silicon. Integrated circuits range in complexity from simple logic circuits and amplifiers, about 1/20 in. (1. for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor's 500 company, produces microprocessors, flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, Calif., AMD had revenues of $4.6 billion in 2000. (NYSE:AMD). |
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