This week, Lenovo launched a trio of new ThinkStation workstations. The flagship product is the ThinkStation PX (P10), which might be configured with terribly highly effective elements, adopted by the ThinkStation P7 and ThinkStation P5.
Let’s give attention to the ThinkStation PX because it greatest represents the potential of this new sequence of workstations as it could possibly pack “as much as” 120 CPU cores (2x 4th Technology Xeon Scalable’ Sapphire Rapids’), 2 TB of RAM, and 4 Nvidia RTX 6000 48GB graphics playing cards. The ability comes from as much as two 1800W energy provides.
“NVIDIA affords the world’s strongest visible computing GPUs for desktop workstations,” mentioned Bob Pette, VP of Skilled Visualization at NVIDIA. I don’t assume anybody will contradict this assertion. At this degree, NVIDIA is using alongside, despite the fact that the competitors, like AMD or Intel, does have ambitions.
The utmost storage capability is the sum of seven M.2 drives (28TB) plus two 3.5” drives (24TB), or 52TB whole. After all, common flavors of RAID arrays are additionally supported. An built-in 10Gb Ethernet adapter is used to maneuver information throughout the community shortly. A basic 1GbE adapter and a built-in WiFi 6E MIMO radio complement it. Be aware that the antenna is constructed into the chassis and doesn’t stick out.
That’s numerous {hardware} for a pc that’s the dimension of an enormous PC gaming rig. Nonetheless, that is far more highly effective than something avid gamers use, and for a great purpose. This workstation can be utilized in high-end skilled visualization workloads, reminiscent of cinematic graphics manufacturing and rendering.
Jeff Wooden, Chief Technique Officer (CSO), Workstations at Lenovo, unveils the brand new ThinkStation trio
That’s why Lenovo partnered with DreamWorks to launch these new workstations. DreamWorks goes to equip its inventive workers with these workstations going ahead. It’s not extensively recognized, however Lenovo already powers the newest additions of DreamWorks rendering server farm with their Neptune liquid-cooled servers which can be a success within the HPC sector (Excessive-Efficiency Computing).
Having worked in computer graphics myself, I can vouch that no quantity of computing is “adequate” for the type of stuff DreamWorks creates. If something, creators like which can be restricted by the computing energy obtainable to them.
As you possibly can think about, such {hardware} is destined to be run at most {hardware} utilization as usually as potential, and it’s an unimaginable quantity of computing per cubic inch, so the following problem is, certainly… cooling.
Thermal administration is among the nice added values Aston Martin brings, not simply the aesthetics. In the event you consider it, high-performance vehicles are huge warmth mills, whether or not the engine, exhaust, brakes, and many others. And most of it’s air-cooled, identical to these workstations.
Aston Martin introduced a wealth of know-how and expertise in airflow, thermal administration, industrial design, manufacturing, and supplies that had been massively useful to the creation of those computer systems, in keeping with Lenovo and Aston Martin representatives. And, in fact, additionally they know make issues manufacturing-friendly and inside price range.
“We’ve spent the final 110 years controlling warmth in vehicles,” mentioned Cathal Loughnane, Head Of Aston Martin Partnerships at Aston Martin, explaining why there’s some overlap between high-end vehicles and high-end computer systems.
Curiously sufficient, Aston Martin can be a Lenovo buyer, and the following ThinkStations had been designed utilizing the present era ThinkStations workstations.
The cooling system relies on a minutely designed and orchestrated airflow that depends on the elements’ positioning contained in the case and tight management of the incoming and outgoing airflow.
You’ll be able to see distinguished management surfaces such because the air consumption baffle, however the airflow simulations even went into particulars reminiscent of how the air goes between the RAM modules or across the CPUs. When the group received the {hardware} prototypes, real-world measurements intently validated the digital simulation predicted.
Definitely, that’s the simulation-driven “way forward for design” that NVIDIA promotes with digital twins, despite the fact that I don’t assume it was used on this undertaking.
The design (aesthetic) is beautiful, and Aston Martin was impressed by the design language and bodily properties of the $333,000+ Aston Martin DBS car’s entrance grille (and pink coloration).
Whereas gaming PCs’ grilles are primarily designed just for aesthetics, sports activities vehicles, and now workstations, grilles additionally considerably have an effect on how the air enters the new space by stabilizing the airflow. The extra steady the airflow, the extra controllable it turns into afterward. The ThinkStation 5U chassis additionally matches in racks in the event you wish to stack your computing property neatly and in the event you can afford to purchase a number of of those (the pc weighs 70 Lbs, totally loaded).
I’ll allow you to choose the great thing about the toolless chassis design, however I feel it’s beautiful and appears extra luxurious in the actual world than the advertising renderings.
I jokingly talked about to Rob Herman, VP & GM, Workstation & Consumer AI Group at Lenovo, that Lenovo would in all probability make a killing if it had been to promote the empty chassis to avid gamers. Curiously sufficient, one of many first feedback within the official youtube video was “Superb PC Case Design!.”
DreamWorks will procure these workstations for his or her inventive workforce for use as desktop computer systems as a result of having a supercomputer on one’s desk is conducive to greater productiveness as highly-qualified employees don’t have to attend (as lengthy) for rendering or animations to be computed.
Nonetheless, when staff aren’t utilizing the workstations, the desktop workstations can mix their computing energy with others over the community in a “rendering farm,” which is a bunch of computer systems engaged on a typical [3D] rendering job. That means, DreamWorks will get most {hardware} utilization to recoup its funding.
The Lenovo ThinkStation P7 and P5 are smaller and extra compact variants of the brand new ThinkStation sequence to cowl an unlimited array of maybe much less excessive computing wants. Nonetheless, they continue to be very succesful methods with lots of the identical design DNA.
You’ll be able to test the whole specs to see the minute particulars, however at a excessive degree, the ThinkStation P7 has ~65% of the computing of the PX, whereas the P5 has ~65% of the computing energy of the P7.
All workstations pursue an analogous purpose of most productiveness, resiliency, and future-proofing (with good growth choices), however at completely different worth factors and footprints.
The workstations will turn out to be obtainable in Might and can seemingly displace a number of the existing ones if you wish to speculate on how a lot they price. At the moment, no official pricing has been communicated by Lenovo.
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