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Review

Action stations!

From CAD User Mechanical Magazine Vol 22 No 6 - JUNE/JULY 2009

HP and Intel launch the Mr. Z Superhero Animation Challenge to help them roll out the latest range of innovative workstations, says David Chadwick

Make way for another Superhero! The latest in a burgeoning line-up comes to you courtesy of Hewlett- Packard. The company has asked leading DCC specialists to create a short film based on 'A Day in the Life of Mr. Z.' Make no mistake about it - we need our Superheroes more than ever, each with their unique and spectacular strengths. So here comes Mr. Z, a Superhero designer, armed with a suite of design tools that can adapt to any crisis, providing superlative performance, effortless style, dashing speed and ultra reliability - just the sort of qualities that HP ascribe to their latest range of Z Series Workstations Some of the UK's leading creative/design agencies have agreed to take part in the challenge whereby they will each create a 30 second film clip using the Mr. Z character. Inspired by the game 'Consequences', each of the participating agencies will be allowed to use their own creativity and specialist skill sets in 3D and 2D animation, graphic design or video to create their clip. At the end of the challenge, each of the clips will be combined to create an innovative shortfilm capturing 'A Day in the Life of Mr. Z'. To create their clips, each of the agencies will be given a Z-800 Workstation, a DreamColor monitor and a selection of Adobe's latest Creative Suite software including AfterEffects, Premiere Pro and Photoshop. If you want to view them, you will find them on www.hp.com/uk/MrZ, with links to Mr. Z's Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as end user reviews supplied by each of the agencies trialling the equipment. HP Z WORKSTATIONS What a great way of displaying the enhanced performance and reliability of the new workstations! But what, exactly, goes in to making workstations faster and better? And why is it so important to us that companies like HP continue to spend so much in R&D researching ways that they can make our work experience so much more efficient? Elsewhere I have written about the vast amount of time spent by most design engineers hunched over their computers. In such a concentrated

and repetitive environment, even the smallest niggle can multiply until it becomes a crushing aggravation - the amount of time it takes to load a file, the speed at which the screen refreshes, responses to certain commands. The software that we load on the machines creates new demands, as well - you won't believe the amount of space you need to download Adobe's latest Creative Suite and the things we are trying to achieve are increasing in complexity and their demands on the systems processing power.

First of all, then, there has to be an increase in performance, achieved by implementing a new Intel Xeon processor, providing a highly scalable architecture, and eliminating one of the major bottlenecks of earlier processors. Intel's new QuickPath architecture, with its associated chipsets, provides each processor with its own memory controller with greatly increased memory performance. More memory reduces the need to swap data in and out of storage, and faster memory means what has to be swapped in and out is done faster.

They've also beefed up the hyper- threading capability. That enables each core in a multi-core processor to run two threads at the same time - with two quad- core processors able to run sixteen threads simultaneously. End result - an ability to handle bigger jobs and run more applications simultaneously. The DDR3 (double data rate, generation 3) memory technology also plays its part in increasing the processors green credentials.

It provides higher bandwidth and reduces latency and power consumption by approximately 30%, giving you workstations that can be configured with more memory without racking up the associated cooling requirements. Big deal? Well, yes - as a large percentage of the power going into data centres is employed keeping the equipment cool.

Getting data in and out quickly is another major problem. The I/O subsystem has extended its support for the latest I/O standard - PCI Express 2.0, providing double the previous performance. HP's Z Workstations support dual PCI Express Gen2 x 16 graphics cards to take the

latest graphics cards. This enables the workstations to handle state-of-the-art 2D and 3D graphics technology, providing professional 3D Open GL and multi- display 2D graphics - mainly used for financial dealing rooms (if there are any left) for running financial services applications across multiple screens.

I/O also covers hard drives and fast LAN controllers - supported right across the board, with additional PCI Express Gen2 and legacy PCI slots, 6 integrated SATA ports for internal 7200rpm and 10k rpm SATA hard disk drives, SAS 15K HD drives, and a SATA controller to handle RAID-0, 1, 5 and 10 functionality. There is also a Gigabit LAN controller.

MODULAR DESIGN FOR RELIABILITY

The two top-end workstations, the Z600 and Z800, have been completely redesigned to be more efficient, quieter, expandable - and serviceable. They also look good too, with visually cable-less chassis with superior acoustics and energy efficiency.

The cabinets come with a tool-less chassis with snap-in components, and things like an integrated diagnostic LED for the power supply, and air-flow guides for the Intel TurboBoost technology. The workstations themselves are ENERGY Star compliant, with 85% efficient power supplies, reducing energy costs and the impact on the environment.

TurboBoost allows processor cores to run faster than the base operating frequency if the processor is operating below rated power, temperature and current specification limits. That means that lower workflows that aren't going to heat the processor unduly, are allowed to operate faster.

PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY

And now for something completely different. HP is throwing in some very useful software that will allow your working environment to become more productive. They call it the Personal Productivity Suite, and it includes Remote Graphics Software (RGS), which allows users to share design data, workstation application windows and remote access. You can also enhance the performance of your workstation using the

Performance Tuning Framework (PTF).

HP RGS transmits complex 2D and 3D images from a sender system across standard computer networks to remote users, who can interact with the sender and its applications as if they were a local workstation. PTF lets users establish optimal workstation configuration settings to run specific applications and styles of use - assisted by monitoring tools that give you feedback on the workstation's performance and helpful suggestions on how to maximise that performance.

It also provides simpler processes for understanding and reporting on hardware and application problems. The corollary to this is that, efficiently used, it helps users gain greater insights into what affects workstation performance the most.

THE RANGE OF Z WORKSTATIONS

Cripes - nearly forgot to tell you what's included in the new Z Workstation line-up! Top of the range is the Z800, which comes with a 1-2 Intel Xeon 64-bit processor with Windows Vista Business 64-bit professional x64 custom installed, 192 GB of ECC memory and 7.5 TB of internal storage. The Z800 sits alongside the xw9400 workstation which is similar, but comes with Opteron, rather than Xeon processors.

Below that we have the Z600 with similar software installed, 24Gb ECC memory and 4.5TB of internal storage. And at the bottom end of the range is the Z400 with 16Gb ECC memory and 6TB of internal storage. All have HP installer kits for Linux, with the Z400 quoted as having Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 5 64-bit already installed. The Z400 sits comfortably above the xw4600 dual-core workstation in the new line-up.

A WINNING DAY!

As HP says, your desktop personal workstation can make all the difference between a bit of a slog and 'a winning day!' Getting that extra bit of oomph out of your daily performance relies on having the right tools to do your job. Or, as they put it, leveraging the innovation in your workstation to produce a good ROI (Return on Innovation). www.hp.com

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