HP Add NVIDIA Tesla GPU And CS4 Accelerator Options To Z-Series Workstations

HP have announced two new graphics enhancements for their Z-series of workstations, including an optional Elemental Accelerator for use with NVIDIA's Quadro that will see Adobe CS4 gain access to the CUDA processing.  There's also the option for up to two NVIDIA Tesla GPUs in HP's flagship workstation, the Z800.

The Tesla GPU is intended to speed up concurrent processing by offering NVIDIA's multiple CUDA cores.  Compatible software can split processing across those cores, reducing the time taken to apply complex graphic effects, process high-definition video, render 3D scenes or other tasks.

HP have not announced pricing for the new upgrade options, though considering a single NVIDIA Tesla C1060 costs from around $1,250 upward when bought alone, this isn't likely to be a cheap addition.  We reviewed HP's entry-level Z400 workstation last week; check out the full review, plus benchmarking, here.

Press Release:

HP Adds NVIDIA Quadro GPU-Accelerated Plug-in for Adobe Creative Suite 4 Users to Workstation Lineup

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 4, 2009 – HP today announced it will make available Elemental Accelerator™ for NVIDIA® Quadro® plug-in for Adobe Creative Suite 4 users as an option on the company's award-winning family of workstations.

Now available on the full line of HP workstations – including HP Z Workstations – the NVIDIA CUDA-based Elemental Accelerator 2.0 plug-in software for NVIDIA Quadro GPUs delivers further performance benefits when working with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.

NVIDIA and HP together provide creative professionals with workstations enhanced to meet the needs of the CS4 users. By leveraging the CUDA parallel computing architecture, this new plug-in software offloads H.264 video encoding to the Quadro GPU, enabling Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 users to experience a performance increase of up to 11 times when compared to CPU-only video encoders.

"HP Z Workstations deliver a superior experience – from advanced design inside and outside, to extreme performance and top-notch reliability," said Jeff Wood, director, Worldwide Marketing, Workstations, HP. "The addition of the Elemental Accelerator plug-in for Premiere Pro CS4 enhances performance for creative professionals looking to maximize their creativity."

HP workstations are engineered with the most demanding applications in mind, and Adobe Creative Suite 4 is tested and qualified on all HP workstations. HP workstations also include Performance Tuning Framework for Creative Suite 4, which provides users a quick and easy way to configure and update their workstations and improve the stability and performance of their systems while increasing productivity.

"NVIDIA, HP and Adobe have worked side by side to ensure CS4 users can get the best possible performance," said Jeff Brown, general manager, Professional Solutions, NVIDIA. "The massively parallel processing power of NVIDIA GPUs lets creative professionals be more creative."

With an HP workstation equipped with a Quadro GPU, CS4 users can take advantage of its GPU-accelerated functionality and receive optimal application performance across the entire family of applications including: Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Flash and Photoshop®.

"We are thrilled to have Elemental Accelerator available to the wide array of creative professionals that depend on high-performance HP workstations to not only deliver their projects on time and on budget, but surpass expectations for quality and creativity," said Sam Blackman, chief executive officer and chairman, Elemental Technologies.

Elemental Accelerator 2.0 plug-in software works in conjunction with NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800, 3800, 4800 and 5800 GPUs. It is available on the HP Z800, Z600, Z400, xw4600 and xw9400 workstations. The complete system can be purchased atwww.hp.com/go/workstations.

HP workstations

HP is a leader in reducing the environmental impact of its products, including workstations, often acting first to adopt new solutions designed with the environment in mind. For example, only the HP Z Workstation line includes a new HP-exclusive WattSaver(1) feature that manages power in the "off" state at less than one watt.

In addition, the HP Z Workstations include 85 percent efficient power supplies – the HP Z800 Workstation has an option for an 89 percent efficient power supply – reducing both overall energy usage and the amount of waste heat released.

All HP workstations are more than 90 percent(2) recyclable by weight, and the HP Z line is registered as Electronics Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT™) Gold, the highest rating available.

Companies use HP workstations to design everything from running shoes to race cars, animated characters to deep-sea submersibles, and to manage everything from billions of dollars of tradable securities to mission-critical IT environments.

About HP

HP, the world's largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com/.

(1) Requires customer activation.

(2) Recyclability determined using EU WEEE data.

Press Release:

NVIDIA TESLA GPU COMPUTING SOLUTIONS SELECTED FOR FLAGSHIP Z WORKSTATION FROM HP

GPU Computing Adoption Continues to Rise as Tesla Is Made Available for HP Z800 Workstation Customers

SANTA CLARA, CA—AUGUST 3, 2009—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.

Based on the massively parallel NVIDIA CUDA™ architecture, Tesla GPUs are taking the high performance computing (HPC) industry by storm, delivering performance increases to critical codes across multiple fields.

In molecular dynamics, AMBER, a public research code with more than 60,000 users, has been written to leverage the massively parallel CUDA architecture to deliver a 50X speed up of simulations. The result is faster scientific insights for researchers. In finance, Numerix and CompatibL have announced CUDA support for a new Counterparty Risk application of their Numerix 7 analytics solution used by over 375 financial institutions. This derivatives pricing application is today experiencing an 18X boost in performance in the calculation of complex pricing models with NVIDIA GPUs.

"The adoption of Tesla GPUs is the fastest of any new processor technology in the history of HPC[1]," said Andy Keane, general manager of Tesla business at NVIDIA. "We are delighted to see a leader such as HP begin to ship Tesla GPU-enabled systems into the market and to help accelerate the work of their customers."

"HP's workstation customers are professionals at the top of their game, pushing the limits of technology, for more creativity and innovation than ever before," said Jeff Wood, director of worldwide marketing, Workstations, HP. "The NVIDIA Tesla GPU takes our flagship Z workstations to extreme heights for floating point intensive applications."

The HP Z800 workstation is available today at http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/z-workstations/. For more information on NVIDIA Tesla GPU Computing solutions, please visit: www.nvidia.com/tesla.