“Renewable energy is proven technology, the price is dropping, the rest of the world is going that way, that's where our investment should be going as well.”

Bob Brown




Graphics workstation over IP Print
Written by Rob Squires   
Wednesday, 08 August 2007

IBM HAS BEEN SHOWING OFF their latest graphics workstation design at Siggraph this week, the HC10.  Unlike previous graphics of workstations, IBM is taking a new approach for their next generation workstations.  In the new design scheme, the core processing power of each workstation does not sit next to your desk but in your company’s data room.  Unlike previous attempts at this type of solution, IBM has integrated a new hardware compression card into the blades that provides high resolution graphics over an Ethernet connection.

Image

The HC10 workstations are designed to fit into IBM's BladeCenter chassis.  Each blade will currently support dual core Intel processors, but shortly after the launch support for quad core will follow.  Each system comes with a nVIDIA Quadro FX 1600m based graphics card which is in a mobile PCI Express form factor.  The HC10 uses a standard 2.5" SATA 60GB hard drive, but when I asked about SAS, I was told that support for is planned for in a future revision.  The only noticeable downside on the HC10 is that they are currently limited to 8GBs of DDR-2 memory.

Image

The console component of the solution was designed by a company called DEVON IT for IBM.  Connections on the backside of the console supports dual DVI video output, two USB ports, a Marvell gigabit Ethernet solution, as well as audio out and microphone port.   On the front of the box, there are connections for two USB ports as well as an audio out port.  An external power supply unit will keep the desktop clutter down to a minimum for users. The hardware based compression that is employed, is designed to work on a 10/100 Fast Ethernet network, but will support gigabit Ethernet.

One of the representatives at IBM's booth also mentioned an upcoming blade center chassis that is deigned for the SMB market.  This chassis has support for five blades as well as a storage component.  and is scheduled release by the end of the year.

IBM has a target price of $2500 for a standard configuration of the blade, and $300 for each console and.  Currently the HC10 is scheduled to begin shipping in September 2007.
 
[ Back ]
© 2012 Network News Journal