This week, Lenovo launched a trio of new ThinkStation workstations. The flagship product is the ThinkStation PX (P10), which will 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 actually 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 gives the world’s strongest visible computing GPUs for desktop workstations,” mentioned Bob Pette, VP of Skilled Visualization at NVIDIA. I don’t suppose anybody will contradict this assertion. At this stage, NVIDIA is driving alongside, though 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, 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 basic 1GbE adapter and a built-in WiFi 6E MIMO radio complement it. Observe that the antenna is constructed into the chassis and doesn’t stick out.
That’s quite a lot of {hardware} for a pc that’s the measurement of an enormous PC gaming rig. Nonetheless, that is rather more highly effective than something avid gamers use, and for a superb purpose. This workstation will probably be utilized in high-end skilled visualization workloads, equivalent 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 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 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 type of stuff DreamWorks creates. If something, creators like which can be restricted by the computing energy obtainable to them.
As you’ll be able to think about, such {hardware} is destined to be run at most {hardware} utilization as usually as potential, and it’s an unbelievable quantity of computing per cubic inch, so the following problem is, certainly… cooling.
Thermal administration is without doubt 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 keeping with Lenovo and Aston Martin representatives. And, after all, additionally they know the best way to make issues manufacturing-friendly and inside finances.
“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.
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 is predicated 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’ll be able to see distinguished management surfaces such because the air consumption baffle, however the airflow simulations even went into particulars equivalent to how the air goes between the RAM modules or across the CPUs. When the workforce acquired the {hardware} prototypes, real-world measurements carefully validated the digital simulation predicted.
Actually, that’s the simulation-driven “way forward for design” that NVIDIA promotes with digital twins, though I don’t suppose it was used on this challenge.
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 shade).
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 in the event you wish to stack your computing belongings neatly and in the event you can afford to purchase a number of of those (the pc weighs 70 Lbs, absolutely loaded).
I’ll allow you to choose the great thing about the toolless chassis design, however I believe 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. Apparently sufficient, one of many first feedback within the official youtube video was “Wonderful 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 staff don’t have to attend (as lengthy) for rendering or animations to be computed.
Nonetheless, when workers 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 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. Nonetheless, they continue to be very succesful techniques with most of the similar design DNA.
You’ll be able to test the entire 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 an identical objective of most productiveness, resiliency, and future-proofing (with good growth choices), however at totally different value factors and footprints.
The workstations will turn out to be obtainable in Might and can seemingly displace a few of the existing ones if you wish to speculate on how a lot they price. Right now, no official pricing has been communicated by Lenovo.
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