HP Z Workstations get a refresh for 2014
September 2014 – HP introduced a refresh on their market leading Z series workstations. The full product line – the 4XX, 6XX, and 8XX desktop/rack mount workstations have all been updated to support the new E5-1600/2600 Gen 3 processors and chipsets. The ZBook line has been updated to support the Gen4 i5 and i7 processors. The new models are the Z440, Z640 and Z840 workstation and the ZBook 15 G2 and 17 G2 mobile workstations. The new workstations are still targeting the high performance, high reliability space for the finance, medical, media & entertainment, oil & gas exploration, scientific imaging, and architecture applications. All the systems feature discrete graphics in addition to the enhanced processor embedded graphics capability. As the systems are modular, the new quad core processor based systems with ECC memory can support either Nvidia Quadro or AMD Firepro professional graphics.
HP Zbook 15 G2 and 17 G2 mobile workstations
The Zbook line has two new systems that are primarily differentiated by the displays. The 15 G2 has a Quad HD resolution with a 3200×1800 display, while the 17 G2 has an option for a 1920×1080 Dreamcolor display. Both portable workstations feature up to 32GB memory with up to 3.2TB of internal storage. The workstations have been updated to support a PCIe HP Z Turbo Drive, along with multiple USB 3.0 ports, both VGA and Display Port 1.2 connections and a Thunderbolt 2 port. The portables support either Quadro or Firepro discrete graphics along with dual band wireless AC connectivity. The units still feature an option for a built in optical drive that will support Blu-Ray write capability.
The desktop series received the most reshaping. Continuing the trend from prior Z series products, the whole family (including the ZBooks) are tool-less chassis. All the cards, power supplies, CPUs, Storage & drives are installable, changeable and removable without tools. The entry level Z440 and the mid level Z640 are both configured for desktop use or in a rack with a 4U formfactor. The Z840 is configured for a 5U rack.
The modular basis of the platform allows for multiple sizes of power supplies, multiple drives, multiple video cards, and on the Z640 and Z840, multiple processor chips. This variation in configuration allows the workstations to range from 4 cores on the minimum configuration of the Z440 up to 36 cores on the dual processor motherboard configuration of the Z840 when the system has dual Xeon E5-2699 V3 chips with 18 cores each. The Z640 is unique in that it is their most configurable system with a single processor main motherboard, and a socketed QPI bus interface for a daughter board, that contains both processor and memory, as a plug-in to make the system a dual processor configuration. This setup provides 8 DIMM slots for up to 258GB of memory.
HP Z840 Dual Processor Workstation with nVidia Quadro K6000
The top of the line Z840 is a true dual processor layout. Supporting up to the E5-2699 v3 Xeon processors with 18 cores each, this system can support 36 cores, 16 memory slots for up to 2TB of memory, 10 drive bays, 7 PCIe slots, integrated dual 1GB Ethernet ports, USB3, 6Gb/s SATA and optional Thunderbolt 2 support. For highest performance applications, the system can use the HP Z Turbo Drive (PCIe interface) and multiple discrete graphics cards for supporting up to 8 displays.
As all of these systems are rack mountable, and can be used in secure environments, the systems still have PS2 connectors for the keyboard and mouse for applications where the USB ports must be disabled for security. To aid in physical support of the units, all of them have integrated handles on the cases for simplify transport and security cable mounting/locking connectors. In order to minimize noise and maximize airflow in the units, there are internal covers to separate the various sections of the unit to their own air flow areas such as CPUs, Memory, Storage, PCIe cards and graphics cards.
HP Z Workstations and Professional Displays
All of these new workstations use DDR4 memory for higher performance, density and lower price per bit. Due the addition of the extra USB 3 ports and the optional Thunderbolt 2 interface, the units no longer will be supporting the IEEE 1394a (Firewire) interface for storage. The ZBook units will be available late September 2014, and the desktop platforms in October 2014. The units are being ordered by new medical imaging and diagnostic equipment as the OEM embedded computing engine. The high amount of compute GPUs available with dual Quadro 6100’s or Firepro 9100’s along with the 4 threads per core, 36 core processors makes supercomputer level computation being done inside the medical equipment without having to transport the data to the cloud service allows for advanced analysis and conclusions in real time with the patient.
