| Advancements in Hardware to Make your Investment Go Further |
To some extent, being a CAD or architecture professional, you can only be as efficient as your hardware will allow you to be. From workstations to processors, and all of the graphics cards in between, the major players in the hardware industry are innovating to make hardware more powerful, and are bringing more value to the table for customers. They have had some impressive new developments in the past year, including the following recent announcements:
Workstations
BOXX has been busy in the workstation market, especially with their announcement in early March of their 3DBOXX 8920 workstation, which BOXX touts delivers 80 percent more application performance over its predecessor, the 3DBOXX 8520. According to BOXX, 8920 features dual, eight-core Intel Xeon E5-2600 series processors, 16 cores ideal for intense animation and rendering, additional memory, and the ability to include up to three NVIDIA GPUs.
Meanwhile Lenovo released the ThinkStation E30 workstation in late March, which builds on its predecessor, the E20 workstation. Ideal for those looking for an entry point into the workstation market, the E30 features second generation Intel Core processors, up to four cores, 16 GB of 1333 mHz of memory, and Intel Turbo Boost technology for performance-intensive tasks. Users also have the choice of 80 or 160 GB SSD, and the NVIDIA Quadro or NVS graphics.
Just in the beginning of March, HP announced updates and increased expandability in their popular line of HP Z Workstations. Good for those in both the CAD and architecture spaces, the HP Z820, HP Z620 and HP Z420 now all feature the latest eight-core Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family and up to 512 gigabytes of DDR3 memory. They also unveiled their all-in-one towerless workstation, the HP Z1 in February.
Dell announced in 2011 what they call the world’s most powerful 15.6” and 17.3” mobile workstations, the M4600 and M6600 respectively. They feature second generation Intel Core i7 processor Extreme edition and 1600 MHz system memory options. The M4600 has 32 GB of memory, and up to 750 GB of hard disk drive, while the M6600 features an optional second hard disk drive, a 128 GB solid state drive, a NVIDIA Quadro 5010M graphics card, and 4 GB of GFX memory. Dell also released their newest version of the Precision R5500 rack workstation, a workstation located in a secure data center or other central location. It features Xeon processors, memory of up to 192 GB, and dual-wide GPU slots that scale up to 450 watts. It also offers PCIe x16 slots including support for a full range of dual high-end graphics.
Processors
Among many processor-advancements, something noteworthy is the attention on data centers and cloud computing. Data centers are rising in popularity, thanks to the uptake in cloud computing. Just in Phoenix alone, according to a recent study by Microsoft, it is predicted there will be 14,000 Phoenix-based jobs created by 2015 because of the increased use of cloud-based services.
Also announced in early March, the Intel processor E5-2600, a product family of processors found in servers and workstations, is now prepared for the massive increase of cloud computing over the next five years because of updates. Updates to the E5-2600 include up to 80 percent better performance compared to the previous generation, the best data center performance per watt with over a 50 percent gain, and the ability to move data into and out of the processor up to three times faster.
Graphics cards
AMD and NVIDIA have both invested in expanding the possibilities of visualization by creating active-shutter 3D systems and graphics cards that are capable of outputting to multiple monitors. NVIDIA’s recently released Quadro 400 graphics processing unit and graphics card, a computing tool that the company is marketing directly for users working in the engineering arena, gives users of PTC and Autodesk products between five and ten times faster performance compared to competing graphics cards based on a SPEC Viewperf 11 benchmark test.
In the last year, AMD has released a range of graphics processing devices including the FirePro V3900, AMD Radeon HD 6990M, FirePro V4900, and the AMD Radeon HD 7970. All four are intended for professional graphics card users, with the FirePro V3900 and FirePro V4900 particularly good for linking multiple monitors together in the desktop workstation market, the HD 6990M ideal for mobile computing platforms, and the Radeon HD 7970 as AMD’s fastest GPU-graphics card.
Mobile Devices
Mobile devices are perhaps the most exciting of the hardware advancements just because the market for them is growing so quickly as more see the value of being able to use their mobile device in the field. While there are many devices popping up, Lenovo’s K1 IdeaPad and Apple’s iPad have garnered a lot of attention. Impressively, Lenovo’s IdeaPad comes with over 30 preloaded apps, has 1 GB of memory, up to a 64 GB hard drive, and most importantly for this industry, 2 GB of free cloud storage.
Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) like Autodesk are hitting this mobile design market hard with developments like the AutoCAD WS app that allows you to view, edit and share DWG files on your smartphone or tablet.
Enjoy the following hand-picked selection of articles and news releases that highlight the advances in hardware in the last 12 months and learn where it would be best to make your hardware investment.
March 2012 |
| Advancements in Hardware to Make your Investment Go Further |
| Features |
| HP Attempts Comeback with HP Z1 |
| By Kathleen Maher, Jon Peddie Research |
| Is the HP Z1 powerful, scalable, secure, accurate, serviceable, and ISV certified? Find out what Jon Peddie Research thinks. |
|
| Processor Giants Reshuffle the Cards |
| By Kathleen Maher, Jon Peddie Research |
| A look at what's in store for Intel and AMD with new personnel changes as CPU leaders start focusing on mobile. |
|
| The Cloud: Worrying About The Wrong Things? |
| By Peter A. Bilello President, CIMdata Inc. |
| Concerned about the Cloud? This column explains what you should and should not be concerning yourself with. |
|
| AIB Shipments Seasonally Down in Q2 |
| By Jon Peddie, Jon Peddie Research |
| A new report from Jon Peddie Research reveals that sales of graphics Add-in Board (AIB) shipments are down slightly. |
|
| Siggraph Pioneers Work on the Future of Graphics |
| By Kathleen Maher, Jon Peddie Research |
| Siggraph Pioneers gathered for their annual meeting at Siggraph 2011, which featured guest speaker Turner Whitted of Microsoft. |
|
| |
| News |
| New Intel Server Technology: Powering the Cloud to Handle 15 Billion Connected Devices |
| Press Release Issued by Intel |
| The Xeon processor E5-2600 product family is built to meet the demands of an increasingly connected world. |
|
| HP Unveils Powerful New Line of Workstations |
| Press Release Issued by HP |
| The new Z Workstations feature the latest eight-core Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family. |
|
| VMware and NVIDIA to Deliver True, Virtual Workstation Experience |
| Press Release Issued by NVIDA |
| The companies hope to advance virtual 3D graphics technology and enable remote delivery of high-end, workstation-class virtual desktops. |
|
| Workstation Market Behaving as Expected in the Second Quarter of 2011 |
| Press Release Issued by Jon Peddie Research |
| Jon Peddie Research issued a statement saying the second quarter 2011 workstation market is neither very good or very bad. |
|
| U.S. Air Force Chooses HP as Key Technology Provider |
| Press Release Issued by HP |
| The United States Air Force has chosen HP as their source for their next generation of workstations and desktop PCs. |
|
| New Review Classifies Xi MTower PCIe Workstation as High Power, Low Cost Workstation |
|
| David Cohn of Cohn Consulting commends the Xithe Xi MTower PCIe Workstation for its ability to pack in a lot of processing power into a lower-cost system. |
|
| Highlights of NVIDIA’s Many Demos at SIGGRAPH 2011 |
|
| NVIDIA hosted many demos on their graphics cards and other technology including examples on Autodesk’s 3ds Max 2012 software and Adobe software. |
|
| Parallels Workstation 6 Extreme Makes the Consolidated Professional Graphics Workstation a Reality Through Unmatched Performance of Direct Assignment Technology |
| Press Release Issued by Parallels |
| Parallels have announced the release of their new Parallels Workstation 6 Extreme. |
|
| Khronos Enriches Cross-Platform 3D Graphics with Release of OpenGL 4.2 Specification |
| Press Release Issued by Khronos |
| The Khronos Group has announced OpenGL 4.2, which will feature capturing of GPU-tessellated geometry and drawing multiple instances. |
|
| iBUYPOWER Launches New Professional Series Line of Workstations |
| Press Release Issued by iBUYPOWER |
| iBUYPOWER's new Professional Series line of workstations includes second generation Intel Core i7 processors and NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards. |
|
| NVIDIA Announces GPU Technology Conference 2012 |
| Press Release Issued by NVIDIA |
| NVIDIA has announced that its next GPU Technology Conference will be held June 14-17th at San Jose's McEnery Convention Center. |
|
| New Dell Precision Workstations Support Flexible Work Environments with Uncompromised Performance |
| Press Release Issued by Dell |
| Dell has announced a new lineup of workstations including the mobile M4600, M660 and the R5500 rack workstation. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
