Digital Media: The Butterfly Grid

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Digital MediaThe Butterfly Grid

• Presented by Hao Wang

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Commercial and Consumer OpportunityPotential for
a Powerful, Industry Transforming Platform

• The Battle for the Living Room
• Gamers stealing market from Cable, DVD
• What about the Future ?

Content Providers
Gamers
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Online Games will Drive TechnologyEnormous
Potential Driven by Consumer Demand

• Global video game market is huge and growing
  31 billion in 2003, will spend 60 billion in
  2008.
  
• Online games revenue 5 of industry in 2003
  25 in 2005 50 in 2008.
  
• Subscription price-points single game, per
  month 9.95 (The Sims Online, Ultima
  Online)12.95 (Asherons Call, Dark Age of
  Camelot, Anarchy Online)40.00 (Everquest
  Legends).

Online Video Game Market Size Segmented by
Platform
BB
Online PC Gaming
Connected Consoles
Mobile Gaming
(sources Mercer Consulting Accenture)
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Problem StatementToo Expensive, Too Difficult

• To create
• Tough technical challenges.
• Not enough talent, experience.
• Too much execution risk.
• To operate and support
• Custom infrastructure, legacy code.
• Inefficient use of computing/network.
• To play
• Each game has a separate monthly fee.

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Butterfly.net Optimizes the IndustryA Platform
for the Mass Market

• Content provider
• Plugs into art, animation, physics, 3D engines.
• Familiar Linux server API and tools.
• Ongoing operations
• Supported by service providers.
• Common computing and network resource base.
• Highly efficient protocol, server.
• Consumer services
• Targeted game packages.
• Single sign-on, roaming, multi-platform,
  inter-game network.
  
• One integrated, manageable bill.

Service Providers
Content Providers
Gamers
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What Butterfly Grid Offer

• Ultimately Reliable
• All games on the Grid must be always on, always
  available.
  
• Infinitely Scalable
• No gamer should have to wait in a lobby for room
  on a server.
  
• Absolutely Secure
• Client-side hacks, server vulnerabilities,
  hijacked connections and other exploits can spoil
  the fun
  
• Industry Standard
• Gamers want reasonably-priced game packages with
  a single sign-on across multiple properties,
  integrated voice communications and
  multi-platform support
• High Performance
• Gamers would rather complain about incompetent
  newbies than the frustrations of lag
  
• Maximally Efficient
• To the industry, this means more gamers and more
  profit.
  
• To the gamer, this means more fun for less money

Service Providers
Content Providers
Gamers
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Server models The Hierarchical Server Model
Client
Client
Server
Client
Client
Server
Server
Server
Client
Client
Client
Client
Server
Client
Client
Client
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Server models The Hierarchical Server Model

• Advantages
• More scalable than flat server model.
• Reduced communications overhead.
• Relatively easy to implement
• Disadvantages
• As the number of levels in the hierarchy grows,
  latency between the various parts of the game
  grows as well.
  
• Consistency maintenance and synchronization are
  even more difficult, due to this increased
  latency.
  
• What if the root server goes down?

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Server models The Grid Computing Model
Client
Client
Server
Server
Client
Server
Client
Server
Server
Client
Client
Server
Client
Client
Server
Server
Server
Client
Client
Client
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Server models (3) The Grid Computing Model

• Advantages
• Can scale to support a large number of players
  adding servers to the grid is transparent.
  
• Very reliable if a server is lost, player load
  is shifted automatically to a new server.
  
• Consistency and synchronization is handled
  automatically by the grid software.
  
• Disadvantages
• Very complex grid software required, although
  standard software is emerging.
  
• Very costly to provide

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Multi-tiered, Fully-distributed Game OSMaximum
efficiency in managing state of of clients,
network, servers
The Butterfly Grid
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Software Architecture of Butterfly Grid Hosts
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The Butterfly Grid Content Provider ProgramA
Complete Package for the Professional Game
Developer

• Package includes
• Client SDK (PC, console, mobile)
• Server SDK for Linux (Packaged or Hosted).
• Creation tools and 3rd party plug-ins
• Commercial, Government, Consumer
• Game Developers
• Research Institutions

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The Butterfly Grid Service Provider ProgramA
Value-Added Service for New Subscription Revenue
Streams

• Package includes
• Butterfly server software suite.
• Butterfly game admin apps.
• Globus, policy mgt., billing.
• Shared Grid or Dedicated
• Gamers
• Industrial

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Thank You