Lenovo today announced that it is offering Elemental Accelerator software with select NVIDIA Quadro FX professional graphics solutions on ThinkStation S20 and D20 professional workstations. Elemental Accelerator works with NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics to add GPU-accelerated power and performance to the Adobe Creative Suite 4 workflow.

Lenovo workstations equipped with NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics and Elemental Accelerator let Adobe Creative Suite 4 users harness the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) to perform high-speed, high-quality video encoding. This combination delivers dramatic time savings over conventional CPU-only encoding solutions. By executing demanding processing tasks on the GPU, Elemental Accelerator speeds up video transcoding and frees CPU resources to perform other tasks, helping to result in a faster, more efficient video editing and production environment.

HP today added powerful and affordable new workstations and displays to its professional lineup, including the company's first 14-inch mobile workstation. Building on HP's award-winning Z series of workstations, the HP Z200 Workstation offers a new entry point to workstation-class performance at starting prices that rival those of traditional desktop computing systems, making it a great choice for government, education and small businesses. The HP Z200 is ideal for engineers and designers using Autodesk AutoCAD, photographers using Adobe Photoshop and power office users.

HP also introduced the HP ZR22w and HP ZR24w Performance Displays, providing exceptional visual quality with a new brushed aluminum industrial design, making them a great pairing with HP Z Workstations both in looks and performance. According to IDC, HP is currently the industry leader with 42.8 percent of the global mobile workstation market. Adding to its award-winning EliteBook notebook lineup, HP introduced the 15-inch diagonal display HP EliteBook 8540w and the 14-inch diagonal display HP EliteBook 8440w. The HP EliteBook 8540w and 8440w feature workstation-caliber graphics that are tested, optimized and certified to run the most demanding professional applications for mobile power users.

ASUS, known for its single-socket workstation motherboards, is preparing the first enterprise-grade socket LGA-1156 motherboard. The ASUS P7P55 WS SuperComputer builds on the features of its socket LGA-1366 cousins, by offering as many as five PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, a massive 16+3 phase CPU VRM, support for DDR3-2133 by overclocking, and the latest multi-GPU standards support.

Based on the Intel P55 chipset, the P7P55 WS SuperComputer makes use of a PCI-E bridge chip that allows it to hold at least four PCI-E 2.0 x16 devices (electrical 4x PCI-E x8), with a PCI-E x16 electrically x4. Both 3-way SLI and 4-way CrossFireX are supported. Connectivity is care of two gigabit Ethernet controllers, 8 USB 2.0 ports on the rear-panel, and another six internal, Firewire, and 8-channel audio with digital IO ports and DTS support.

ASUS includes its own design enhancements, including XtremePhase VRM, TurboV EVO voltage management, and a probe microchip. It doesn't look like ASUS will add this to its first wave of motherboard launches that coincide with those of Intel's first LGA-1156 processors, but expect this to be out at least in October.

NVIDIA today announced that HP's most powerful and expandable workstation-the HP Z800 Workstation-is now configurable with up to two NVIDIA Tesla graphics processing units (GPUs), another key indicator of the demand being seen for GPUs in the high performance computing (HPC) space.

Enterprises that rely on HP workstations to accelerate their work in fields ranging from scientific research and industrial design, to 3D animation and seismic exploration, can now reap the benefits of NVIDIA Tesla GPUs and tackle demanding computational workloads right at the desktop.

HP today announced the immediate integration of the highly anticipated Six-Core AMD Opteron 2400 Series processor into the award-winning family of HP Workstations. Ideal for high-end workstation applications in fields such as engineering, 3-D digital content creation, oil and gas, and science, the HP xw9400 Workstation taps the power of the new AMD Opteron processors to deliver higher productivity, especially for multi-threaded applications, multi-tasking and mega-tasking environments.
With the built-in engineering advantages of HP's highly tuned workstations, the HP xw9400 Workstation can accommodate up to two Six-Core AMD Opteron processors - for a total of 12 cores - each of which offers up to 34 percent more performance per watt over the previous-generation quad-core processors.

ASUS, the leading producer of servers and workstations, recently announced the availability of its latest 5U pedestal and rack-mountable servers and workstations-the ASUS TS700-E6/RS8 and TS500-E6/PS4. Both are based on Dual and Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor 5500 series platforms with DDR3 memory and PCIe 2.0 support. They also feature additional expansion slots which can also be used for a dedicated graphics card, a MIO network card and other expansion options for personal workstation use-providing customers with high flexibility, reliability, storage capacity and expandability.

ASUS, a leading producer of innovative server and workstation solutions, today announced three cutting-edge solutions designed to address the specific needs of SOHO and Business Enterprises. First in the line-up is the ASUS P6T7 WS SuperComputer motherboard, which provides users with sublime graphics capabilities and flexible high speed data input/output. Next is the ASUS RS700D-E6 Duo Nodes 1U Server, which features independent power supplies for superb reliability-giving business owners complete peace of mind-while offering exceptional space savings in the form of 4 + 4 hot-swappable 2.5-inch SATA/SAS hard disk drives. Finally, the ASUS Z8NA-D6 is the world's first slim dual processor server and workstation motherboard, making it the best workstation foundation for all forms of businesses.

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, announced it is introducing the PCIe RAIDDrive Workstation. These Workstations use Super Talent's patented RAIDSSD Technology to accelerate the adoption of systems with very high performance solid state disk subsystems through the integration of large numbers of SSDs. PCIe RAIDDrive Workstations are based on Intel's newest Quad-Core Core I7 Processors, and Super Talent's 1333MHz DDR3 DIMMs.

PCIe RAIDDrive Workstations scale up 6TB in a Workstation Tower form factor. Benchmarking data taken with Crystal Disk Mark v2.2 shows sustained sequential read speed of over 1.5 GB/sec (1500 MB/sec), sequential write speed of nearly 1.35 GB/sec (1350 MB/sec). Benchmarking data taken with HDBench showed random read speed of 725 MB/sec and random write speed of 515 MB/sec.

Soon after becoming the first to be out with a portable desktop alternative featuring the Intel Core i7 processor, SmoothCreations dished out another of its kind, this time a portable workstation named Bulldozer. The company is looking to target two classes of consumers with this product: gamers, and graphics professionals, who will take advantage of its hardware for high-definition gaming or CAM/CAE/CAD, medical imaging, forensics, government or military use. The applications are broad thanks to the hardware, which just might come at the expense of a little portability.

The Bulldozer features a 17-inch screen with a native resolution of 1900x1200 pixels. Under its hood is a Core i7 (models 940 or 965 XE) or Xeon X5580 processor. Up to 16 GB of memory can be opted for, along with up to 1.5 TB of storage thanks to three SATA HDD bays. A Blu-Ray combo drive provides removable storage. Connectivity options include WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, and Bluetooth 2.0. Graphics is care of NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 with 1 GB of memory. Depending on the application, 64-bit Windows XP, Windows Vista, or RedHat Linux could be opted for. Its pricing is not known.

AMD today announced that its entire line of industry leading ATI FirePro professional graphics accelerators are powering all-new OEM workstations for engineering, digital content creation and science professionals. AMD helps ensure that its ATI FirePro professional graphics accelerators maximize application performance and reliability by performing over 90 certifications with leading application providers such as Autodesk and Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks.

"The Dell Precision T7500, T5500 and T3500 and ATI FirePro graphics deliver an excellent balance of value and performance to workstation professionals," said Greg Weir, senior manager, Dell Product Group. "Dell, the world's leading supplier of workstations, is working with ATI to deliver workstation solutions that are reliable and scalable."

Dell, the world's No. 1 workstation supplier for the last nine years, today unveiled Dell Precision T7500, T5500 and T3500 tower workstations. One of the first workstation lines to ship with Intel Xeon 5500 "Nehalem," the Dell Precision T5500 and T7500 deliver up to 90 percent better multi-threaded digital content creation application performance versus previous generation systems. The new systems are purpose-engineered for professionals in engineering, media, entertainment, biosciences, exploration, economic modeling and risk analysis.

Super Micro Computer, Inc., a leader in application-optimized, high-performance server solutions, today launched a comprehensive new line of server and workstation solutions specially designed to support the Intel Xeon Processor 5500 series (formerly codenamed Nehalem). Supermicro has started shipping its new 2U Twin2 ("Twin Squared" with four hot-pluggable DP nodes), newly invented Twin GPU 1U server/workstation, the award-winning 1U Twin, SuperBlade, flexible Universal I/O (UIO) server, SAS2 storage systems, as well as its strong line of traditional application-optimized server solutions. Featuring the highest efficiency in the industry power supplies (93%+), cooling subsystems and motherboard designs, Supermicro solutions set a new record for the best performance-per-watt (375 GFLOPS/kW) and also deliver the best performance-per-dollar and performance-per-square-foot.

Based on the company's latest application-optimized Server Building Block architectures, Supermicro maximizes the new Nehalem technology, which includes QPI (Intel QuickPath Interconnect) for up to 6.4GT/s, Integrated DDR3 Memory Controller, multiple power envelops, and Intel Turbo Boost Technology, to provide the industry's highest performing and most optimized new generation server solutions.

Whether designing the next aircraft or delivering seven-day weather forecasts, today's professionals seek a reliable, robust visualization platform designed to address their unique challenges and needs. Highlighting a decade of innovation, driven by the needs of the most demanding professionals, NVIDIA today introduced its most powerful and advanced top-to-bottom line of Quadro professional GPU solutions in the Company's history.
"Our mission with Quadro is to help customers solve the world's most challenging visual computing problems," stated Dan Vivoli, executive vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. "We learn every day from them and are humbled by their brilliance. The new lineup, with the flagship Quadro FX 5800, sets the stage for the next ten years of innovation."

NVIDIA, the inventor of the GPU, today introduced NVIDIA SLI Multi-OS, a ground-breaking technology that allows users and visualization applications, for the first time, to take full advantage of multiple NVIDIA Quadro GPUs from a single graphics workstation in a virtualized environment.

This new technology delivers a faster, more efficient workflow to maximize productivity and lower the total cost of ownership for professionals in markets such as: digital content creation, sciences, manufacturing, and oil and gas.

"In today's economy, organizations are turning to virtualization to increase productivity and maximize cost savings," says Jeff Brown, general manager of professional solutions at NVIDIA. "Now professionals working with visualization applications can benefit from virtualization."

AMD today announced the availability of the ATI FirePro V7750 graphics accelerator for the high-end market, ideally suited for graphics professionals working in engineering, digital content creation and scientific fields. These professionals need a 3D graphics accelerator that can quickly handle large models and shader-intensive applications, while delivering accurate color reproduction and superior visual quality. The ATI FirePro V7750 delivers features that matter most to these users at $899 MSRP.

"Creating astounding visuals for movies is a tremendous challenge - it has to look absolutely perfect, but time is always of the essence," said Jabbar Raisani, visual effects expert, Troublemaker Studios. "The ATI FirePro V7750 graphics accelerator helps me achieve flawless effects fast by speeding up rendering so I can focus on creating content rather than waiting for it. I need stable and robust performance graphics hardware to get the job done quickly and the ATI FirePro V7750 is the perfect solution."

NVIDIA has released new drivers for its professional Quadro series of video cards. The latest NVIDIA Quadro release 182.08 supports all cards from the Quadro FX, Quadro CX and Quadro NVS series. Release highlights:

• WHQL Certified driver.
• Improved performance on workstation applications.
• Added support for DDC-Ci/MCCS over the DisplayPort AUX channel.
• Added 10-bits per color (10bpc) DisplayPort support for full-screen applications on supported products.
• Integrated AutoCAD and 3ds Max Performance Drivers in the graphics driver with auto-detection, providing increased performance. Support for three latest versions of AutoCAD and 3ds Max. Standalone versions or version updates can still be downloaded from the NVIDIA driver download page.
• Workstation application compatibility fixes. Please read the release notes for more information on product support, feature limitations, driver fixes and known compatibility issues.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA Quadro Release 182.08 WHQL for Windows XP/Vista (32/64-bit)

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced immediate availability of DDR3 Registered DIMMs (RDIMMs) and DDR3 ECC Unbuffered DIMMs (ECC UDIMMs).

Super Talent's 1GB and 2GB ECC UDIMMs are immediately available in production volumes and support speeds up to 1333MT/s for single DIMM per channel operation and 1066MT/s for two DIMM per channel operation. Super Talent's 1GB x8 RDIMM is also immediately available in production volumes and supports speeds up to 1333MT/s for single DIMM per channel operation, 1066MT/s for two DIMM per channel operation, and 800MT/s for three DIMM per channel operation. All these products are designed to be compatible with Intel's upcoming Nehalem EP Server Platform.

Lenovo this weekend officially announced its ThinkPad W700ds (ds stands for dual-screen), a mobile workstation with two fully functional LCD displays. Inside and round the back of the main 17-inch display is housed a second one, 10.6-inch in diagonal that can also be tilted up to 30 degrees like a car's rearview mirror. The secondary WXGA display (768x1280), allows users to own a workstation notebook with dual-monitor support for the first time. Wes Williams, product marketing manager for ThinkPads, said: "People that use high-end computers, whether they are professional photographers or work in other fields, all use two displays at their desktops ... What we were trying to do in building a mobile workstation is give them the same experience. Not only do you need a great display, great graphics, great processor and RAID hard drive with a workstation, but it is hard going back to a single display mode." The Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds is said to make its first appearance at CES, starting January 5, 2008. Among the other cool features that will be integrated inside the W700ds are the latest Intel Core 2 Quad 45nm processors, NVIDIA Quadro mobile graphics, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, and a pair of hard drive/solid-state drive bays for up to 960GB of storage. The W700ds' starting price is expected to be $3,600 upon availability.

The ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution is the ideal foundation for a powerful workstation for Small Office usage, SOHOs and mainstream workstation users; with its unparalleled performance. Through ASUS' revolutionary and innovative design, the P6T6 WS Revolution is able to support three true x16 link PCI-E slots for NVIDIA's 2-way & 3-way SLI and ATi CrossFireX technologies to deliver extreme graphical processing performance. Furthermore, it is also equipped with 6 PCI-E Gen2 x16 slots onboard to provide users with high speed I/O and flexible graphic and computing options.

The P6T6 WS Revolution comes equipped with built-in 3-way SLI/CrossFireX on Demand technology for outstanding graphical performance. This revolutionary technology allows users to enjoy 2-way / 3-way SLI technology or CrossFireX support on the same motherboard. This means that users will be able to install up to three 3-Way SLI-capable graphics cards and retain the flexibility to run a CrossFireX setup. Whichever option they choose, users are guaranteed mind-boggling graphics performance for improved work efficiency. It can also support true @16 PCI-E Gen2 3-Way SLI technology, which will present the fastest and the most reliable graphic performance to users whether they are engaged in Mechanical/ Architecture/ Interior/ Aircraft/ Audio/Video Design or playing games in their leisure time.

Computing giant HP has refreshed its workstation lineup with xw9400 series models running the new AMD Opteron "Shanghai" quad-core processors. Being workstations, they come with dual-socket configurations as options, and sport Opteron 2000 series processors. Options start at a 2.00 GHz processor, and go up to 2.50 GHz. Up to 32 GB of memory can be opted for. The motherboards use NVIDIA nForce Professional 3600 or 3050 chipsets. A variety of options with NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics cards are offered. The system comes with a three-year warranty that includes parts, labor, and on-site service. A set of pre-configured systems are available by HP on its product page. Prices start at US $2,399 and can go up to $6,299.

TYAN, an industry-leading server platform provider, today announced at SC'08 that its current line of 23 AMD Opteron processor-based platforms and 1 new AMD Opteron- processor based product will support the new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor (codenamed "Shanghai"). Customers can achieve superior performance, low power consumption and low total cost of ownership by upgrading to the new TYAN platforms powered by the enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor built on 45nm process technology. TYAN platforms that support the previous Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors are socket compatible and will only require a BIOS update to support this next-generation processor.

The P6T WS Professional workstation motherboard is the ideal foundation for a powerful workstation-capable of delivering powerful and dependable performance; together with unparalleled I/O scalability for the most demanding tasks and upgrades in the future. Through ASUS' innovative design, the P6T WS Professional is able to support both SLI and CrossFireX technologies in order to deliver extreme and incredible graphical processing performance. Furthermore, it is also equipped with 2 built-in SAS connectors and 2 PCI-X slots onboard to allow users the flexibility of choice in multiple storage solutions. With such diverse features; and the capability to deliver extreme power efficiency through the ASUS EPU, the P6T WS Professional is a 'thoroughbred' that delivers both performance and improvements in the quality of work.