Editor’s Pick: Workstation Power To Go

Dear DE Reader:

Ever notice how people eyeball what you're using when you whip out your mobile computer? It's positively Pavlovian. While good old Ivan Petrovich never met a mobile workstation, he would understand from people's actions that something about them is inherently cool. Today's Editor's Pick of the Week could really get people gawking.

PNY Technologies has a new series of ultra-thin, light engineering-class workstations called the PREVAILPRO. Ultra-thin means a 0.73-in. thick low-profile design. Light means 4.8 lbs.

With its 8GB NVIDIA P4000 graphics processing unit and four-core Intel Core i7 processor, PNY's PREVAILPRO P4000 Upgraded Pro mobile workstation provides the compute power for intensive design applications as well as immersive VR (virtual reality) applications. Image courtesy of PNY Technologies Inc.

That's about it on that thin and light business. Everything else about these units seems heavyweight. Aside: PNY is working on certifications for major applications like SOLIDWORKS as well as developing SLA (service level agreement) options with a well-known third party.

The PREVAILPRO series offers two models—the PREVAILPRO P3000 and the PREVAILPRO P4000 Upgraded Pro. They run the four-core/eight-thread 7th generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ chip. Each has a 15.6-in display. All come with multi-GB solid-state drive and multi-TB hard-disk storage, networking, USB ports and the like.

The key differentiator is GPUs (graphics processing unit): One sports a 6GB NVIDIA Quadro P3000 and the other leverages an 8GB NVIDIA Quadro P4000 GPU.

The PREVAILPRO P3000 comes in base and upgraded editions. Both use the 6GB NVIDIA Quadro. This workstation has the oomph to work with complex models and generate photorealistic renderings. It has 16GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM and a FHD (full high-definition; 1920x1080 resolution) display.

The upgraded PREVAILPRO P3000 edition has 32GB of memory, double the storage of the base model and a 4K UHD (ultra-high definition; 3840x2160 resolution) display. Showoff factor: You can use this workstation to drive up to three external 4K UHD displays simultaneously in cahoots with its display.

The top-shelf PREVAILPRO P4000 runs the 8GB NVIDIA Quadro P4000 GPU. It comes with 32GB of RAM, the 4K UHD high-res display and lots of storage. The PREVAILPRO P4000 can do anything its sibling can do, like run simultaneous displays, handle complex modeling, rendering and other compute- and graphics-intensive apps. But that Quadro P4000 GPU also provides the fast response you need to work in and with VR (virtual reality). On a thin and 4.8-lb. mobile workstation. That should make the gawkers agog.

Hit today's Editor's Pick of the Week link to learn some more about the PREVAILPRO series mobile workstations. Check out the link to the PREVAILPRO series' dedicated web pages for even more details. Good stuff.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, DE