Right. Calling it a supercomputer is the same as calling a facebook data center a super computer. The computers don't work together as one system, a frame is queued onto a single computer (and actually multiple frames are queued onto one computer). The latency is the same as your internal network (and actually most companies use nfs and have cheap 4 port routers in offices). One article on Disney says they are using 10gb ethernet, which would make them the first cg company I've heard of to do it.
The first cg company to use 10GbE? I find that hard to believe. I develop storage boxes for video production, and 10GbE is pretty much standard these days, you only go with gigabit if you're being really cheap. We are now starting to sell 40GbE systems on the high end, as well as bonded 10GbE for those that need a bit better than 10 but don't want to shell out for all of the really expensive 40G gear.
It is the first CG company I have heard of or seen using it. You are talking about a different industry. Not everything in visual effects studios is higher tech than anywhere else. The bottleneck is often expensive network storage and not the network itself.
I would imagine that right now studios are looking at 10gb ethernet, especially since SSDs should be making their way into the enterprise level gradually. Many times reading a scene goes at 50MBs.
It helps to realize that these studios are not flush with cash. They also might not always spend money in the best places (although usually they know what they are doing or they go out of business). Articles paint them to be super high tech, but really everything is built out of commodity hardware except for the backbone disks and routers.
Also upgrading to 10Gb means upgrading thousands of boxes, not just a couple. It could also mean running new cable but you would probably know more about that.
