Editor’s Pick: Appro XtremeWorkstation for Multicore Processing

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

Users of computationally brutal applications like CFD,  multiphysics, complex rendering, and scientific visualization know that not all workstations are alike. You hit Run and your machine is pre-occupied for hours. Rather than wandering off to get a pedicure, you try to be productive by chugging through all those old e-mails. Soon you get bored, then increasingly impatient, as your system seems to ponder the philosophical ramifications of your order to delete them. It’s not the fault of the application or workstation. You do not have the right workstation for the job. The XtremeWorkstation WH5548H from Appro International might be just what the doctor ordered.

The XtremeWorkstation WH5548H is built for compute- and memory-intensive jobs like those in aerospace, automotive, oil and gas, and 3D numerical modeling. It uses two or four 64-bit AMD Opteron 8000 series quad-core processors and up to 128GB of system memory. The processors leverage AMD’s Direct Connect Architecture, which connects system memory to the CPU directly. This optimizes memory performance by reducing latency delays introduced during memory access. Plus the processors also deploy AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) technology, which can increase the performance of virtualized applications by enabling faster switching between virtual machines.

What this all means is that the XtremeWorkstation WH5548H enables power users to have a workstation that makes them productive and efficient at the same time. The XtremeWorkstation WH5548H is built to take on extremely large data sets, complex simulations, multiphysics, and scientific visualizations, and run them as you imagine they should run.

Appro International has been a leading developer of servers,  clusters, and supercomputers for high-performance and enterprise computing since the early 1990s. Recently, its Xtreme-X Supercomputer received the “Editors’ and Readers’ Choice 2007 Product of the Year Award” from Supercomputing Online. But, over the past few years, Appro has also become recognized as a leading developer of high-end workstations. In the February 2008 issue of DE, David Cohn calls the XtremeWorkstation WH5548H “a marvel.” Today, I call the Appro XtremeWorkstation WH5548H DE’s Pick of the Week.

Not all workstations are for everyone. But if you have anything to do with high-intensity engineering and scientific applications, you owe it to yourself to learn more about the Appro XtremeWorkstation WH5548H because it could be the workstation for you.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood