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HP Thinks Small with New Desktop and Mobile Workstations
1 Apr, 2010 By: Cyrena Respini-IrwinLess can be better with hardware that consumes less space, less energy, and less of your budget.
Spring is well under way in southern California, where balmy temperatures lure surfers into the water while northerners are still huddled indoors. Eager beachgoers and blooming flowers weren't the only signs of the season visible in Santa Monica last week, however. Hardware giant HP gathered journalists from around the world to unveil two newly hatched workstations and processor enhancements for its existing models.
Company executives displayed confidence about HP's workstation product line and position in the market. Jim Zafarana, vice-president and general manager of the Workstations Global Business Unit, proclaimed that during the "economic firestorm" of 2009, "HP not only survived, but thrived," surpassing Dell for the top spot in desktop, mobile, and total workstation market share. Jeff Wood, director of worldwide marketing, Workstations Global Business Unit, called 2009 "a phenomenal year from a workstation perspective."
If it seems surprising that some companies are making substantial hardware investments despite the current economy, perhaps they believe, as Zafarana does, that "there will be winners and losers ... winners will rearchitect for multicore first." Certainly the move from 2D to 3D, and from 32-bit to 64-bit processing, are demands that will encourage some AEC firms to upgrade their hardware sooner rather than later.
During this event, HP took the opportunity to highlight applications where superior computing power has yielded superior business positioning. For example, Philip Ra, senior designer at the Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design, described a challenging project with a very short time frame: Yazdani designed a villa for an emerging arts district in Inner Mongolia in just two weeks. "Using the computer in an efficient manner," said Ra, "allowed us to have a competitive advantage."
Getting More Zs
HP's Z workstation family welcomed the addition of a baby brother, the Z200 SFF (small form factor). This pip-squeak is almost one-third the size of the Z200 mini-tower, which was the smallest of the group when it was released in January. (For more on the Z200, read Ron LaFon's review in the Spring 2010 issue of Cadalyst magazine.)
At 3.95” x 13.3” x 15”, the Z200 SFF is small enough to be used on the desktop (and it also features the smallest price in HP's workstation lineup, starting at $739). Customer panel participant Matt Chow, a software engineer at Agilent, noted that the workstation's petite footprint would allow room for dual monitors and would be especially well suited to offices where space is at a premium, such as in Japan.
Configuration options for the Z200 SFF include dual- or quad-core processors, up to 16 GB of ECC (error-correction codes) memory, up to 2 TB of high-speed storage, a FireWire 1394a card, and 2D and 3D graphics options. A "tool-less chassis" means that the box can quickly be stripped of its housing by human hands alone, and the internal components swing out of the case for easy access to the interior.
Terry Pilsner, vice-president of research and development for the Workstation Global Business Unit, demonstrates how the interior components of the Z200 SFF can be accessed without tools.
In keeping with HP's environmental initiatives, this micro-machine incorporates an 89% efficient power supply and a PCB-free motherboard, and offers ENERGY STAR 5.0–qualified configurations. All members of the Z family are registered as EPEAT (Electronics Products Environmental Assessment Tool) Gold and are at least 90% recyclable by weight.
As of last fall, all HP workstations ship with HP SkyRoom videoconferencing and collaboration software. HP Performance Advisor software, which automatically finds appropriate drivers and configures the system based on the user's workflow, is also preinstalled. "It's like having your own HP engineer in a box," said Zafarana.
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About the Author: Cyrena Respini-Irwin
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