While HP announced a new mobile workstation, and major enhancements throughout all their ZBook technology, they also announced some significant technology enhancements in both storage and cooling.
The HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro
NEW YORK CITY – This week in New York City, HP Inc. announced a series of important workstation announcements, including both an entirely new performance mobile workstation and a series of enhancements to its mobile workstation line. However the company also announced significant new innovations to its desktop workstation technology. The second generation HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro provides storage that is 16 times faster than a SATA SSD of similar cost. The new HP Z Cooler is an ultra-quiet cooling solution which reduces system noise in HP Z Workstation environments.
“This is the same as the performance leap from hard drives to SSDs,” said Jim Douglas, Product Manager for Workstations- Z Turbo drive, at HP Inc., referring to the latest Z Turbo Drive.
Douglas said that this generation of Z Turbo moves to PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), allowing Z Workstations to be have up to four super-fast HP Z Turbo Drive G2 modules in one PCIe x16 card.
“The impetus and value proposition of this quad card is that putting four modules in one card means that the capacities we support are incredible,” he said. “This is the best way to get this type of capacity into our boxes.”
Douglas noted that this provides sequential performance up to 9.0GB/s.
“The sequential performance is doubling and the random performance is tripling,” he said. “This is especially important now in media and entertainment, oil and gas and broadcasting.”
The HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro now uniquely adds from power loss protection as well.
“The card doesn’t lose data in the event of a sudden power loss,” Douglas said.
The HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro can be used with the HP Z440, Z640 and Z840 Workstations. It is scheduled for availability this month and priced at $USD 1376 for a fully loaded card with four 256GB modules.
The HP Z Cooler Z440
The other new announcement here, the HP Z Cooler, is a brand new solution, and represents the latest effort by HP to deal with the long-standing system noise problem. It is an ultra-quiet heat transfer solution which helps lower CPU fan speed and delivers up to a 8.5 dBA acoustic level reduction, which translates into 40 per cent quieter to the human ear compared to liquid cooling.
“The focus that we have here is increasing user productivity,” said Mike Diehl, Product Marketing Specialist, Commercial Solutions Business, at HP Inc. “Acoustic noise decreases user productivity when it gets too high. HP first addressed this in the mid-1990s, with HP Arctic Cooler, which integrated a fan inside a cooling design. We carried this to its technological limit and in 2006 we introduced workstations with liquid cooling. After the third generation of that, as processors got hotter and hotter, we have invested in new technology again, with HP Z Cooler.”
The technology here that reduces the noise, while eliminating pumps and plumbing, comes from HP’s unique, heat-transfer solution that combines 3D vapor chamber technology with an innovative staggered, hex-fin design.
The HP Z Cooler Z840
“Z Cooler’s staggered hex-fin honeycomb design reduces resistance to airflow and increases the surface area of the fins, which makes it much more efficient,” Diehl said.
The HP Z Cooler will be available with the HP Z440 and Z840 Workstations. It is available now starting at $USD 120.
