HP Boosts Workstation Visualisation Power and Expandability for High-End Graphics Customers

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, 15th October 2006 - HP Middle East today introduced the HP xw9400 Workstation, a powerful new personal workstation that brings the ultimate visualisation and graphics performance features to power-hungry customers in scientific research, digital content creation, film and video production, and computer-aided manufacturing industries.

Featuring the new Dual Core AMD Opteron 2000 Series processors, the HP xw9400 Workstation provides uncompromised graphics performance and maximum expandability for scientists, engineers, designers and artists with advanced computational and visualisation needs.  As HP's highest-performing AMD Opteron workstation, the xw9400 offers dual core, dual-processor horsepower for enhanced graphics capabilities and increased customer productivity.  The new workstation also features an easy-to-maintain tool-less access design and a highly expandable dual-socket chassis.

CAD customers can increase their visualisation capacity two-fold with the support for dual high-end 3D graphics on the HP xw9400. Dual-processing, large memory, and dual high performance graphics and I/O allow engineers and scientists to visualise and digitally prototype new products in real time, leading to reduced development time and costs.  Digital artists are able work quicker than ever before, reducing production cost and improving production quality. In short, the HP xw9400 with HP support and reliability delivers low cost of ownership as well as high productivity. 

"Engineered for innovators, the HP xw9400 Workstation was designed to provide the ultimate in workstation performance," said Junaid Rahman, Workstations & Thin Clients Category Manager, PSG, HP Middle East.

"With full-featured, high-end dual graphics capabilities and extreme levels of bandwidth to handle the most demanding solutions, the xw9400 provides breakthrough solution performance over previous system architectures and reinforces HP's commitment to innovation," Rahman continued.

Superior performance through innovation

The xw9400 comes loaded with Dual Core AMD Opteron 2000 Series processors, which provide advanced AMD64 Technology for the most complex analyses and advanced visualisation requirements.  In addition, the xw9400 supports a wide range of graphics, memory and storage options, including new serial-attached SCSI hard drives, as well as enough memory expansion capability for the maximum Windows or Linux configurations. The workstation also will be Windows Vista capable at launch.

Featuring HP's innovative totally tool-less access chassis, the xw9400 enables efficient, open, quiet, and easy-to-manage service.  The xw9400 also offers special cooling and noise reduction features and I/O ports on the front of the chassis for easier access, cable routing and peripheral placement.

The scalable visualisation performance of the HP xw9400 is provided by the NVIDIA nForce Professional 3000 Series chipset, which enables dual PCI Express 16-lane graphics running at full bandwidth.  Users requiring scalable display windows can support up to four 24 inch 3D graphics displays (1920 x 1200 resolution), or even four 30 inch displays (2560 x 1600).  The xw9400 is able to drive 3-channel stereo displays, commonly used in large immersive visualisation rooms deployed in a number of scientific and engineering environments such as automotive, aerospace and the petroleum industry.  This capability is critical for geophysicists and geologists in the upstream oil and gas industry that need to analyse single or multiple seismic volumes, together with their attributes, or examine pre-stack gathers for reservoir modeling and characterisation. Together with 64GB of main memory, the xw9400 is able to accommodate the most demanding applications in 3D volumetric modeling and analysis.

Both internal (Nvidia fx4500 and 5500) and external (Nvidia Quadro Plex) graphics cards can be used for scalable frame rendering, to deliver higher rendering rates on larger datasets.  The xw9400 can be rack-mounted for centralised management and delivery to thin clients, for additional mobility of access. It can also be clustered together using a high-bandwidth interconnect, such as InfiniBand, for further scalability.

Dual PCI Express x8, dual PCI-X and PCI slots provide a means of faster data access, invaluable with the ever larger datasets being used for 3D modeling and analysis.

The HP Performance Tuning Framework (PTF), preinstalled on the HP xw9400 with Microsoft Windows XP Professional, is a free, easy-to-use tool that guides workstation setup, custom configuring workstations to better match users' requirements. PTF also provides application tuning, generating performance increases for selected applications.

Proven reliability with years of industry expertise

The xw9400 also offers a reliable set of state-of-the-art security safeguards with HP ProtectTools Security Manager, a customisable service that gives customers the flexibility to choose the level of security that best meets their needs. In addition, the xw9400 comes equipped with HP Client Manager Software, an industry-leading remote and local web-based service to help customers manage the hardware aspects of their client computers - including in-depth hardware information tracking, alert monitoring, diagnostics, and driver/BIOS management.

To lower the total cost of ownership, HP works closely with leading independent software and hardware vendors to create advanced solutions to ensure easy deployment, management transitions and support throughout each product's lifecycle. Like all HP products, the xw9400 is designed for minimal impact on the environment and is compliant with the European Union's Reduction of Hazardous Substances directive.

The xw9400 comes with a three-year limited warranty, which includes parts, labour and next business day on-site support. The xw9400 is expected to be available online, in major retail stores, through resellers or from HP direct now.

-Ends-

About HP
HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2006, HP revenue totaled $90.0 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com

About HP Middle East
HP is the largest technology and solutions provider in the Middle East with 670 employees and subsidiaries in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, Khobar, Cairo,  Ramallah and Oman servicing the GCC, Egypt and the Levant. HP has been present in the Middle East since 1968 and opened its first regional office in 1994. HP Middle East is the market leader for enterprise, small and medium business and consumer technology products and offers a large portfolio of solutions and services in various business domains.

More information about HP in the Middle East is available at www.hp.com/me

¹ Dual-core is a new technology designed to improve performance of certain software products. Customers should check with software provider to determine suitability. Not all customers or software applications will necessarily benefit from use of this technology.

² This system requires a separately purchased 64-bit operating system and 64-bit software products to take advantage of the 64-bit processing capabilities of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Given the wide range of software applications available, performance of a system including a 64-bit operating system will vary.

³ This system may require upgraded and/or separately purchased hardware, drivers and/or software to take full advantage of Windows Vista functionality, check www.windowsvista.com/getready for details.

⁴ Battery life will vary depending on the product model, configuration, loaded applications, features and power management settings. The maximum capacity of the battery will decrease with time and usage.

⁵ Available on select models.

⁶ Wireless use requires separately purchased service contract. Access limited to coverage area of service provider. Check with service provider for availability and coverage.

⁷ Spain, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands

⁸Sold separately or as an optional feature.

⁹ Estimated street prices. Actual prices may vary.

2006 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

© Press Release 2006