For an experience that's truly out of this world, visitors to the 2008 Summer Games will need to go no further than the new Beijing Planetarium. The world's first digital all-dome laser-projected real-time planetarium is powered by a Zeiss All Dome Laser Image Projection system driven by SGI(R) Onyx(R) visualization computers. In the newly opened SGI(R) Digital Space Theatre, visitors will -- for the first time -- see spectacular high-contrast color images including more than 37,000 stars, 30,000 galaxies, constellations, nebulae, planets, spacecraft, and deep space objects.
Since its founding in 1957, the Beijing Planetarium has played a national role in Chinese astronomical education resulting in many textbooks, audiovisual aids and scientific works. In 2002, after intense reviews, the Beijing Planetarium contracted Silicon Graphics to build a digital planetarium solution that would represent a paradigm shift in how planetariums can become destination spots to educate and entertain visitors.
Located behind the old planetarium, the brand-new dazzling glass building is 30 meters high, occupying 20 thousand square meters, and has three theaters and two observatories. Arriving on the second floor by escalator, visitors can see the 200-seat SGI Digital Space Theatre with its 18-meter dome, tilted 15 degrees.
The dome is powered by a 24-processor SGI Onyx visualization system with 12GB RAM and six SGI(R) InfiniteReality4(TM) graphic pipes, each with 1GB of dedicated texture memory. An additional 3-pipe Onyx system with InfiniteReality3(TM) graphics is installed in the dome for show development and pre-show presentations. SGI also provided 580GB of SGI(R) InfiniteStorage TP9100 and TP900 systems, enough to run two playback and two real-time shows.
