This week, Lenovo launched a trio of new ThinkStation workstations. The flagship product is the ThinkStation PX (P10), which may be configured with terribly highly effective parts, adopted by the ThinkStation P7 and ThinkStation P5.
Let’s deal with the ThinkStation PX because it finest 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 presents the world’s strongest visible computing GPUs for desktop workstations,” stated Bob Pette, VP of Skilled Visualization at NVIDIA. I don’t assume anybody will contradict this assertion. At this stage, NVIDIA is driving 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 complete. After all, well-liked flavors of RAID arrays are additionally supported. An built-in 10Gb Ethernet adapter is used to maneuver knowledge throughout the community rapidly. A traditional 1GbE adapter and a built-in WiFi 6E MIMO radio complement it. Notice that the antenna is constructed into the chassis and doesn’t stick out.
That’s a whole lot of {hardware} for a pc that’s the dimension of an enormous PC gaming rig. Nevertheless, that is rather more highly effective than something players use, and for a great purpose. This workstation will probably be utilized in high-end skilled visualization workloads, comparable to 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 artistic workers with these workstations going ahead. It’s not broadly identified, however Lenovo already powers the newest additions of DreamWorks rendering server farm with their Neptune liquid-cooled servers which might be successful 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 form of stuff DreamWorks creates. If something, creators like which might 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 doable, and it’s an unimaginable quantity of computing per cubic inch, so the following problem is, for sure… cooling.
Thermal administration is likely one of the nice added values Aston Martin brings, not simply the aesthetics. In case you consider it, high-performance vehicles are large warmth turbines, 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 vastly useful to the creation of those computer systems, in response to Lenovo and Aston Martin representatives. And, in fact, additionally they know the right way to make issues manufacturing-friendly and inside price range.
“We’ve spent the final 110 years controlling warmth in vehicles,” stated 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.
Apparently 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 parts’ positioning contained in the case and tight management of the incoming and outgoing airflow.
You possibly can see outstanding management surfaces such because the air consumption baffle, however the airflow simulations even went into particulars comparable to how the air goes between the RAM modules or across the CPUs. When the group obtained the {hardware} prototypes, real-world measurements carefully 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 mission.
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 purple colour).
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 recent 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 when you wish to stack your computing belongings neatly and when you can afford to purchase a number of of those (the pc weighs 70 Lbs, absolutely loaded).
I’ll allow you to decide the fantastic thing about the toolless chassis design, however I feel it’s attractive and appears extra luxurious in the actual world than the advertising renderings.
I jokingly talked about to Rob Herman, VP & GM, Workstation & Shopper AI Group at Lenovo, that Lenovo would most likely make a killing if it had been to promote the empty chassis to players. Apparently 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 artistic workforce for use as desktop computer systems as a result of having a supercomputer on one’s desk is conducive to larger productiveness as highly-qualified staff don’t have to attend (as lengthy) for rendering or animations to be computed.
Nevertheless, 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 gaggle of computer systems engaged on a standard [3D] rendering job. That approach, 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. Nevertheless, they continue to be very succesful programs with most of the identical design DNA.
You possibly can test the whole specs to see the minute particulars, however at a excessive stage, 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 the same aim of most productiveness, resiliency, and future-proofing (with good growth choices), however at completely different value factors and footprints.
The workstations will develop into obtainable in Might and can possible displace a few of the existing ones if you wish to speculate on how a lot they value. Presently, no official pricing has been communicated by Lenovo.
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