CAD Workstation

Form Factors 101

Part 1: CAD Workstation Shapes and Sizes
Part 2: The Tried-and-True Deskside Workstation
Part 3: Mobiles Move Front and Center
Part 4: New Flavors of Mobile Workstations Diversify the Spectrum
Part 5: The Datacenter Workstation Addresses Modern CAD Challenges

By Alex Herrera From the editors of

 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   2

CAD Workstation Form Factors 101

1: CAD Workstation Shapes and Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2: The Tried-and-True Deskside Workstation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3: Mobiles Move Front and Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4: New Flavors of Mobile Workstations Diversify the Spectrum . . . . . 20
5: The Datacenter Workstation Addresses Modern CAD Challenges . . . 25

PART 1

CAD Workstation Shapes

and Sizes
With so many types of
T
he prospects for PCs and workstations — both the markets
and the platforms themselves — have rapidly diverged in
workstation models on recent years. Where the former is struggling with contracting
the market today, it’s volume and waning demand, the latter continues to push forward
in both market growth and innovation. There’s good reason for
best to start by sorting that dichotomy in fortunes, and the workstation’s standing is
out the categories reflected in a broad — and still expanding — portfolio of products
designed to serve every possible use case a CAD professional can
and learning what imagine.
differentiates them. The broader PC market’s troubles stem from two key forces
conspiring to depress demand for new machines. First of all,
simpler alternative devices such as smartphones and tablets have
captured the minds of more casual consumers, who find them
From the editors of adequate for modest e-mail and web browsing needs. And second,
those with computing needs that still demand a PC realize they can
go much longer between machine replacements than ever before.
Forget the cost and hassle of buying and setting up a new machine
every 18 months or so; now typical home and office users feel no
Editor’s note: These columns
urgency about swapping out a three-year-old machine that’s doing
were originally published on
the job well enough.
Cadalyst.com in 2018.
Neither force, however, applies to the demand for workstations
serving CAD markets. The majority of professionals in manu­
facturing, design, architecture, and construction need the
»» Cover image by application-tuned performance and reliability of a workstation,
Jason Stitt / stock.adobe.com. and their insatiable demand for computation and visualization
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   3

justifies maintaining a steady

cycle of system upgrades.
The exploding portfolio of
workstation models from
which CAD pros can choose has
been both a beneficiary of the
market’s momentum and a force
driving it. Fifteen years ago,
vendors may have pitched one
or two deskbound workstation
models; today, in contrast, high-
volume suppliers including Dell,
HP, and Lenovo offer ten or
more. And that’s not counting
the ability to customize each
model’s hardware configuration
to the ultimate degree.
Designed for general-purpose
visualization and computation,
as well as optimized for specific
use cases, today’s workstation
offerings vary widely in size,
mobility, performance, power
consumption, and ergonomics.

Today’s Landscape for

Workstation Models:
How We Got Here
The modern workstation
bears little resemblance to its
progenitors, which pioneered
the platform in the heyday of
the 1980s. What were once big,
expensive boxes running Unix
»» The range of workstation models operating systems on proprietary processors from Sun, IBM, SGI, or
serving CAD users has exploded in HP are now derived from the same technology and components
recent years. that serve client and server PC platforms. Today, independent
hardware vendors (IHVs) Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA provide the
processors (CPUs and GPUs) that deliver the horsepower across the
board: in PCs, workstations, and servers.
But sharing DNA does not mean the species are clones. Anything
but, actually, as the two platforms are shaped differently to serve
different needs and priorities. Historically, workstations tend to
span the gap between servers and conventional client PCs: features
they have in common with servers include reliability and dual-
socket support, while they share virtually everything else with PCs.
Add to that a mix of workstation-specific technologies, forms, and
features, and the workstation stands apart from both its siblings.
Setting aside the age of the RISC/Unix workstation that ruled the
roost in the ‘80s and early ‘90s — a valuable and interesting story
certainly, but for this context, basically moot — let’s start with the
approximately twenty-year history of the modern workstation,
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   4

built primarily on Windows, x86 CPUs (primarily Intel’s, but also a

bit of AMD’s) and professional-caliber GPUs. Since its introduction
in the late ‘90s, the workstation has seen many incremental
improvements, along with a string of noteworthy extensions on
the traditional deskside/desktop form factors. Consider some of the
following milestones in the workstation’s evolution:

1998–2000: First workstations built on Windows (NT) and x86 processors

emerge in two basic models, single-socket (1S) towers and dual-socket (2S)
towers.
2003–2017: Spurred by Intel’s Pentium-M processor, mobile workstations
enter the scene. Over the next 15 years, the mobile will evolve from a single
model (typically) to now five or more from a single vendor, differentiated by
display, size, thickness, battery life, ergonomics, and performance.
2009: HP’s seminal Z workstation line introduces the Entry 1S workstation
(the Z200), followed by the first small–form factor version, the Z200 SFF.
2010: Remote server-side rack-mount workstations emerge
2012: HP introduces the first all-in-one workstation, the Z1
2016: Boxx, HP, and others take the SFF concept a big step further with
“mini” workstations
2017: 2-in-1 convertibles added to the mobile workstation portfolio

»» At right, Dell’s Precision

workstation portfolio, circa 1997 —
a far cry from the industry leader’s
broad lineup today (below). Images
courtesy of Dell.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   5

After all those incre­

mental steps, the industry
now offers three basic
workstation types —
deskbound, mobile,
and datacenter — each
delivered in a wide range
of shapes and sizes. Major,
broad-market OEMs such
as HP, Dell, and Lenovo
market as many as 15
models, and if we take
into account niche models
from second-tier suppliers,
there are probably more
than 20 distinct forms of
workstations available to
serve virtually any purpose.
»» HP’s current Z workstation line Good Reasons for the Rapid Evolution of
offers up a model for nearly every
Workstation Form Factors
possible tier.
Why has the market for workstations seen such a broad and
relatively rapid expansion in available models and form factors?
There are several reasons:
1. How and where professionals use their workstations has
rapidly evolved, motivating suppliers to adapt with machines
more optimized for those use cases.
2. Workstations represent one of very few computing segments
for which frequent system replacements remain justified.
Unlike other segments, where the computing experience
system more than three years old is “good enough”, high-
demand visual computing professionals value — and will be
rewarded with — higher productivity by refreshing every 2–3
years (on average).
3. Vendors are recognizing the strategic business value of
workstations, in turn driving fierce competition. Workstation
unit volume continues to grow, but more than that, the
market represents one of the few remaining opportunities for
attractive margins and profits.
4. There’s never a “free lunch” when it comes to product design.
Shaping a workstation involves navigating several engineering
tradeoffs, the choices for which will yield very different styles
and form factors.
Combine all of these forces, and it’s not hard to understand how a
typical vendor’s portfolio has gone from three (or so) to, in some
cases, in excess of 15 different workstation models. Let’s take a
look at some of the key variables in modern professional use cases
— as well as the inherent tradeoffs in addressing them — that are
driving the proliferation of ever-expanding product forms and
functionality.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   6

Performance and Capacity

Not all workstation computing demands are equal, particularly
in CAD environments. Model size and complexity, coupled
with visualization and higher-end computing demands (such as
simulation, for example) will push up the required configurations
for CPUs, GPUs, memory, and storage, in particular. So it’s no
surprise that performance and capacity tend to vary hand in
hand with the physical size of a workstation. The higher the
performance and capacity, then — all else being equal — the
bigger the machine. But going bigger isn’t just about making
room to house more CPUs, GPUs, memory DIMMs, and storage
drives; it’s also the result of one of those key engineering tradeoffs:
performance and capacity versus thermal constraints.
Rather, managing the thermal output from more of the higher-
horsepower components often “consumes” more space than the
components themselves. That is, the higher the performance, the
more air (or in more exotic systems, liquid) must be circulated to
cool the system. And delivering enough cubic feet per minute
(cfm) of airflow through the chassis in order to maintain proper
temperatures tends to push machine sizes up further. This tradeoff
of performance/capacity versus thermal constraints impacts noise
levels, as well; read on for more on that subject.

Mobility
The appeal of mobile form factors needs little explanation.
With our laptops and phones, we all happily trade off some
degree of capability in exchange for portability. Ditto for mobile
workstations, now a segment responsible for enough volume
on its own to justify the design, manufacture, and marketing of
a broader portfolio of mobile workstation models. A product
segment that was once served by a single model now offers many,
with a wide range of display sizes, thicknesses, and weights, as
well as emerging use models, such as convertibles serving both
traditional notebook and tablet modes.
Furthermore, the advent of centralized, datacenter-resident
workstations — either in use by one remote user or virtualized to
serve several-to-many concurrent users — was driven largely by
ever-more-mobile workforces. With your workstation housed on
a server rack in a remote datacenter, the choices in clients become
virtually unlimited: mobile workstations, notebook PCs, tablets,
even phones in a pinch. Just about any device can suffice, letting
you work out of the office effectively and conveniently.

Application Size Constraints

The other side of the bigger/smaller size coin is the space a
customer might have to fit the machine, and I’m not talking just
about mobiles that need to fit comfortably on laps, café tables,
and airplane tray tables. Users in finance and densely packed urban
offices, for just two examples, are more likely to put a premium
on minimal footprint. And that leads to a wider range of fixed
workstation models, from big towers under the desk, to small
form factors, minis, and all-in-ones on the desk, to workstations
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   7

»» Representing
an inflection point
in workstation
design philosophy,
HP’s original Z line
(launched in 2009)
brought workstation
aesthetics front-and-
center.

removed from the office entirely and instead installed in a remote

datacenter.

Aesthetics
The days when computer suppliers gave short shrift to look and
feel are over. Apple helped make sure of that, with the success
of its sleek designs schooling PC-based manufacturers as to their
importance. And ever since HP raised the bar with the launch of
its seminal Z line-up in 2009 — produced with the help of BMW’s
Designworks industrial design group — all vendors know aesthetics
can’t be ignored. After all, hard-core CAD pros may rightly care
about the looks of a machine they have to see every day, so
»» Every workstation builder finishing touches like brushed stainless steel cases may very well
today — including Lenovo, as matter when it comes to picking their next machine.
demonstrated here — pays
special design attention to fans Ergonomics
and airflow for cooling, both As with virtually every other personal computing device today,
to maximize reliability and ergonomics feature prominently in today’s workstation, both as a
minimize noise. Image courtesy differentiator and a driver of new form factors. More and more,
of Jon Peddie Research. how comfortably and conveniently the machine interacts and
coexists with the user matters.
That’s especially true in an age
where vendors have to rely on
the same core IHV-supplied
components inside. Without
a strong case to be made on
components, workstation
builders are wisely focusing on
the functional, aesthetic, and
ergonomic design of the system
housing those components.
Likewise, without much in the
way of component differences
to guide their purchase decision,
buyers are naturally looking
at the nuances of the machine
design as key criteria. What
might seem like little things,
like the built-in carrying handles
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   8

HP introduced in 2009, can become big things when all else is

apparently equal among rivals’ offerings.
In recent years, the ergonomic differentiator garnering the most
attention is noise, or rather the lack thereof. We’d all prefer
quieter machines, but for most, the tolerance to noise is not at
all linear (like the decibels that measure levels). Up to a point,
you’ll notice the sound if you make a point of doing so, but it’s
not so obtrusive as to be annoying or distracting to the task at
hand. Exceed some subjective threshold, however, and noise levels
become not just conspicuous, but downright irritating, to the level
of hurting productivity.
A similar (but perhaps less bothersome) issue is what often comes
with the noise: the heat that those noise-producing fans and
airflow are trying to dissipate. By adapting system design and
selecting different tradeoffs of heat and noise versus shape, size,
and performance, workstation designers can arrive at dramatically
different takes on what a workstation can look and sound like.

The Workstation Industry Caters to the Needs of

CAD More Than Any Other Application
Clearly, the workstation industry has responded to the continued
— and increasingly varied — demands of the full scope of
professional computing markets. But it’s worth pointing out that
this impressive breadth in workstation offerings come tailored
for CAD applications more than any other … and for a simple
reason. While workstations serve all kinds of computing spaces,
CAD — encapsulating applications from architecture, engineering,
construction, manufacturing, and design — accounts for more
workstation sales than any other, and nearly half of total sales.
Looking forward, then, have no doubt that the ever-expanding
workstation wares from Dell, HP, Lenovo, and a whole host of
smaller vendors will continue to focus extra attention on the
specific needs of both CAD users and modern CAD workflows.

»» Workstations serve a range

of professional client computing
markets, but none bigger than
CAD. Market estimates courtesy of
Jon Peddie Research.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   9

PART 2

The Tried-and-True Deskside

Workstation
You know that the
M
ention the word “workstation,” and the first image that
will come to most — and perhaps especially those with
deskside form factor is a history during the machine’s heyday of the late ‘80s
the familiar mainstay and ‘90s — is the deskside tower. Today, despite the incursion of
mobiles, the deskside (also called desktop or fixed) workstation
of the CAD workstation remains the most popular type chosen by professionals, especially
world — but do you those in the largest served market: CAD. Overall, deskside
workstations represent about two-thirds of all models sold
know why? worldwide, according to Jon Peddie Research.

The Sometimes Overlooked, but Ultimately Critical

Engineering Constraint: Thermal Management
The deskside form factor remains popular for good reason. While
a mobile machine would probably be preferable to many, all
else being equal, the truth is that all else is not equal. Creating a
mobile version of anything requires compromises, not only due
to power limitations but — perhaps even more critical today —
cooling limitations. Driving up performance and capacity invariably
requires adding more components, which run at higher frequencies
(and to a lesser degree, higher voltage). That makes it increasingly
difficult to compensate for the additional heat produced inside
the chassis. And cooling, accomplished primarily through airflow,
is much more effective when the thermal density is lower and
there’s more volume to push airflow. Ultimately, while mobile
workstations have made tremendous strides in performance and
capabilities, a deskside tower can pile on the most performance
and most capacity, period.
Now, the typical consumer and corporate user today don’t
necessarily need to push performance and capacity any higher
than what a modern, mainstream notebook computer can deliver.
And that’s one main reason we keep hearing about the stagnation
in broader PC markets: Many have hit the point of “good
enough” computing using hardware far from the cutting edge
of capabilities. CAD professionals are different from those users,
however; they’re motivated to continually search out tools that can
help them churn through visual and compute-intensive workloads
more quickly. For most, speedups quite literally improve their
business’s bottom line.
Accordingly, while most consumers and corporate users would
gladly trade in their deskside for a mobile, CAD pros typically
won’t. They may very well (and likely should) demand a mobile
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   10

»» HP’s current set of five

deskside models (left to right):
Premium 2S Z8, Entry 2S Z6,
Premium 1S Z4, and Entry 1S
Z240, in both SFF and mini-
tower form factors. Image
courtesy of HP.

workstation to complement their deskside (and we’ll get into

the rapidly evolving mobile segment in the next installment of
this series), but when it comes to choosing the machine that they
will rely on for maximum productivity while running modern 3D
workflows at the office for the bulk of their workday, the deskside
tower still rules.
Of course, on the flipside, what you give up when choosing a
deskside is mobility. And while, again, it would certainly be nice to
have a machine that can travel, the truth is that most workstation
users still do the majority of their mission-critical work in the office.
So giving up mobility to get a more reliable, more expandable,
more serviceable, and potentially higher-performance machine is
the right tradeoff for most.

The Conventional Five: Entry 1S, Entry 1S (SFF),

Premium 1S, Entry 2S, and Premium 2S
The fixed/deskside market for workstations is diverse, but today
generally centers on five models that present a de facto standard
across the industry, especially among the top-tier vendors Dell, HP,
and Lenovo. Four towers, ranging from full-size to mini-towers,
include the Premium 2S (dual-socket), the Entry 2S, the Premium 1S
(single socket), and the Entry 1S. And beginning with HP’s seminal
and legitimately game-changing launch of its Z workstation line

»» For the most part, the

industry has settled on five
primary deskside workstation
models.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   11

»» Common maximum
configurations for today’s
de facto standard deskside
workstation models.

in 2009, the Entry 1S model also often comes in a small–form

factor (SFF) version, far slimmer and capable of both deskside or
horizontal desktop orientation. In general, the deskside models
grow step-by-step in size, performance, and capacity, starting with
the Entry 1S SFF all the way up to the Premium 2S machines.
Today, Entry 1S machines offer a single CPU socket supporting
mainstream, quad-core Intel Core and Xeon E3 processors,
complemented by up to 64 GB of system memory, and one or two
graphics processing units (GPUs), which are mid-range in terms of
both performance and power consumption (the latter of which
is the real constraint). The SFF version, of course, makes a few
compromises to allow for the more compact size, with maximum
storage and GPU support trimmed. Both the number of discrete
add-in GPUs (either NVIDIA Quadro or AMD Radeon Pro) and the
type are limited, with SFF models typically supporting just one
entry(-ish) card, often a low-profile version (shrunken in both
width and height) to accommodate the smaller chassis and volume.
Examples of Entry 1S models include HP’s Z240, Dell’s Precision
3000, and Lenovo’s ThinkStation P320.
Stepping up from the Entry 1S to the Premium 1S model tends
buy a bit more of everything. Though still limited to a single CPU
socket, the CPU SKUs offered deliver more processing cores, today
ranging from the Entry 1S’s quad-core Core and Xeon E3 SKUs
to the maximum 18 cores of an Intel Xeon W processor. Memory
jumps from 64 GB up to around 256 GB, and storage climbs roughly
50%, from 2 TB of high-performance PCIe solid-state drive (SSD)
or 18 TB of SATA hard-disk drive (HDD) to around 3 TB and 24
TB, respectively. GPU support improves, allowing two add-in GPU
cards, each of which can be dual-width, high-wattage GPUs like the
Quadro P5000 or P6000. To support all that additional workstation
horsepower comes a heftier power supply unit (PSU), up to
somewhere in the 750 to 1000 watt range.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   12

Moving from the Premium 1S to

the Entry 2S delivers primarily
what the name suggests, the
second CPU socket. But available
processing core count goes
up not only from (optionally)
filling the second socket, but
from the Xeon SKUs OEMs
make available. Today, that
means going from the Xeon W’s
maximum 18 cores all the way
up to the Entry 2S’s dual 28-core
Xeon scalable processors for a
total of 56 cores. Since memory
is directly attached to each CPU,
memory naturally doubles,
with Entry 2S models offering
a maximum of around 512 GB
today. In terms of GPUs and
storage, Entry 2S and Premium
1S chassis and PSUs tend to
support around the same types
and capacity.
Finally comes the ultimate
in what today’s workstation
platform can be: the Premium
2S machine, which takes the
Entry 2S’s CPU support but
drives up capacity up … way up.
Bigger chassis sizes and more
potent PSUs let OEMs support
as much as 1.5 TB of memory;
around 6 TB and 40 TB of PCIe
»» A look at how today’s de facto SSD and SATA HDD storage, respectively; and four (or sometimes
standard deskside workstation more) add-in GPU cards. Moreover, up to three of those GPU cards
models compare in terms of can be of the high-power variety.
maximum configurations.
Note that while top-tier CPU options are Intel-only for now, that
may change as AMD’s Zen-generation processors — bearing the
brands Ryzen, Ryzen Pro, Threadripper, and Epyc — are all starting
to gain footholds in workstations (as covered in this column
previously).

Bigger Budgets Buy More Capable Hardware, but

Who Needs What?
There are a few points worth making regarding model capacities
and configurations. First, some of the aforementioned max
specifications are not mutually exclusive. Often, a user’s
configuration needs to trade off one component for another; for
example, to give up some SSD storage because the space, power, or
interface is needed to support more HDD storage somewhere else.
Still, all things considered, we see a steady march forward when
it comes to performance and capacities, perhaps best illustrated
when normalized to Entry 1S SFF models. Fairly consistent relative
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   13

gains can be had as

one traverses up the
deskside model tiers,
so the extra dollars
spent are most
certainly buying
more capability.
But two other
observations
are just as valid.
First, the price-
to-performance
ratio is not at all
constant across tiers,
as the incremental
gains experience
diminishing returns
»» The volume vs. price curve for heading up the price range. Second — and more importantly —
fixed/deskside workstations stays just because more capability can be had for the extra bucks doesn’t
remarkably consistent over time. mean every CAD user needs it. Take a good look at what a buyer
Courtesy of Jon Peddie Research. today can outfit with a generously configured Entry 1S machine:
up to 64 GB of memory, copious SSD and HDD storage, a high-end
GPU, and a high-frequency quad-core Core i7 or Xeon E3 processor.
Yes, those specifications pale in comparison to a heavily outfitted
Premium 2S machine, but they’re nothing to sneeze at either.
Given that the vast majority will be satisfied with the performance
and capacity of an Entry 1S machine, and factoring in the very
aggressive price points — sub-$2,000, and even down to $1,000
— and smaller footprints available with a mini-tower or small
form factor, it’s no surprise that nearly 6 of every 10 deskside
workstations sold are Entry 1S class (either tower or SFF). Stepping
up to a Premium 1S system satisfies even more of the professional
computing community, especially CAD-focused buyers. Only about
1 in 8 buyers demand the massive parallel-computing power of a
dual-socket model, and they tend to be aggregated in applications
like the sciences and certain financial pockets. As such, while
heavily configured workstations can cost in excess of $20,000,
the average selling price of today’s deskside workstation is right
around $1,900 (Jon Peddie Research).

Emerging Options
There’s no doubt that the tower — including its somewhat
shrunken SFF version — remains the core of the workstation
market. But it’s now far from the only fixed workstation option
for professionals, particularly those working in CAD. While the
workstation market has its own, more stringent demands on both
reliability and application-tuned performance, it has sensibly
looked elsewhere for inspiration on form factors to adopt. Two
such places include mainstream Wintel PCs and Apple Macs. And a
couple of popular platforms with roots in those spaces that have
recently been introduced into the workstation arena: the all-in-one
and the mini.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   14

»» HP’s Z1 took the AiO concept

a few steps further, including
orientation modes with touch
for tablet-type sketch and
annotation functionality. Image
courtesy of HP.

All-in-Ones
All-in-ones (AiOs) don’t represent a new computing platform —
not by a long shot. As far back as the ‘80s, Macs have been built
around the concept of a display and computer in one enclosure.
But in the world of workstations, they represent a relatively new
corner of the workstation model landscape. Credit goes to HP for
the first true push of the workstation-caliber AiO in 2012 with the
Z1. HP somehow managed to cram full Entry 1S SFF specifications
into the Z1 with a 27” display, resulting in a package only modestly
thicker than the monitor alone. Remarkably serviceable and built
with workstation reliability, the Z1 took the AiO concept further
than ever before with several orientation modes, including tablet
style, which allows both creative and CAD types to sketch and
»» Boxx’s diminutive Apexx 1 annotate with their fingers.
(left) Mini next to the mini-tower
Apexx 2 (middle) and full tower Minis
Apexx 4 (right). Image courtesy of Despite my initially bullish opinions on the prospects for a
Jon Peddie Research. workstation AiO — in part fueled by what I figured would be solid
demand from Apple creatives
looking for a Windows alternative
— the AiO never managed
to develop significant market
momentum. Sales have always
been sluggish, and with the advent
of another recent evolution in the
deskside form factor, the days of
the AiO might be numbered. The
mini workstation might end up
being the nail in the AiO’s coffin.
I’d give the title of first workstation
mini on the market to Boxx, with
its 2016 Apexx 1 packaging top-
end quad-core performance in
a volume substantially smaller
than the typical SFF. Shortly after,
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   15

»» The HP Z2 Mini is VESA-

mountable, and the keyboard
provides remote power-on
convenience. Image courtesy
of HP.

however, HP drove the mini into the mainstream with its Z2 Mini,
a machine that took workstation miniaturization to the extreme.
Measuring just 2.3” x 8.5” x 8.5”, the Z2 Mini is dramatically
smaller (an HP-reported 90% smaller) than a traditional tower.
Besides minimizing the space required for deployment, the Mini
allowed easy behind-display mounting, a possibility that could
make the AiO a product without an obvious advantage: A mini
behind a display accomplishes essentially the same thing as the
AiO, but eliminates the hard coupling of monitor and computer
that most buyers would likely prefer to avoid.

Desksides Dominate for Good Reason, but Now

Share the Market with Other Workstation Platforms
There’s a simple reason the deskside remains the stalwart of the
workstation marketplace: It does its job well, serving the highest
demands in performance, reliability, and serviceability for those
who perform the bulk of their mission-critical work at their desks.
Fueled by sensible and incremental evolution in the form of
smaller form factors, there’s little reason to think the deskside’s
prominence will fade anytime soon.
There is, however, a wide range of additional workstation-
caliber products — some already pervasive, while others are just
emerging — that serve to both complement a deskside foundation
and, under the right circumstances, replace it altogether. In the
next installments of this series on workstation form factors, we’ll
explore the diverse landscape for the now-well-established mobile
workstation, as well as the intriguing possibilities offered by
server-side rackmount workstations remotely accessed from the
datacenter.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   16

PART 3

Mobiles Move
Front and Center
Mobile workstations
I
ntroduced in the early 2000s, the mobile workstation has been
an unmitigated success in the market. While the deskside
have boomed since workstation remains the indispensable go-to computing tool for
their relatively recent visual computing professionals, the mobile workstation has gone
from nonexistent to a must-have tool for work outside the office.
introduction. What does
In short order, the mobile workstation has grown to represent
that indicate about about one-third of all workstation sales — and its success makes
CAD users’ workflows, perfect sense. More and more, we’re all out of the office, working
on the road for business or at home on odd hours, flextime, or
and what options are the weekends to catch up. In this environment, a machine that
available to you? travels, and is optimized for professional workloads, is a no-brainer
complement to the deskside workstation at the office. Accordingly,
individual users and big enterprise procurement professionals
alike are opting for mobile workstations over the conventional
corporate-issue notebook PCs which were the standard in the past.

The Four Primary Categories: 17” Performance,

15” Performance, 15” Entry, and 15” Thin ‘n’ Light
Like the deskside segment covered previously, the mobile portion
of the workstation market has diversified extensively over time.
What was once a single- or dual-model product line in the
early 2000s is now a portfolio of anywhere from a few to many,
depending on the OEM. And as they’ve done with desksides, top-
tier providers like HP, Dell, and Lenovo have settled on several de
facto standard form factors, augmented by both emerging and
niche variations on the standard models.
The foundation of the mobile workstation market remains the two
primary workhorses, differentiated and primarily defined by the
screen size: the 17” and the 15”. The 17” serves a minority but non-
trivial portion of the user base: Those who demand the highest
productivity solution — one combining the largest display and
maximum performance. Like a deskside (though not to the same
degree), the bigger mobile package of the 17” allows not only
for more components to be stuffed in, but for those components
to consume more watts and therefore be capable of higher
performance.
Delivering a more balanced blend of form and functionality,
the 15” models sensibly command the lion’s share of mobile
workstation volume. Given the popularity of the size and the
growing overall appeal of the mobile workstation to CAD
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   17

»» Typical (+ or -)
specs on the
de facto four
mobile workstation
model categories.

professionals in particular, it’s no surprise that it’s the 15” that’s

received the most attention in diversification. Original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) today typically offer at least two 15”
models: a standard model favoring performance, and something
in the more recent “Thin ‘n’ Light” category, trading off a bit of
capability for a slimmer profile. Where a conventional 15” model
runs about an inch thick, the Thin ‘n’ Light trims that by about
25%. Why no 17” Thin ‘n’ Light? Simply because it’s a bit of an
oxymoron, slimming down a model that a buyer specifically chose
over the less bulky and more popular 15” offerings. The point
of the 17” is usually to favor maximum capabilities over form, so
there’s little motivation to thin it, especially when that likely means
compromising performance in the process.
The top two suppliers by volume, HP and Dell, have both added a
third 15” offering, a value-focused version that delivers (roughly)
the performance of the Thin ‘n’ Light with the dimensions of the
thicker regular model. As such, each company now markets one
17” and three or more 15” models as standard offerings. Dell lines
up its 17” Precision 7730, the workhorse 15” Precision 7530, the
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   18

Thin ‘n’ Light Precision 5530, and the economy-oriented Precision

3530. HP goes a step further in model count with the ZBook 17, the
mainstream ZBook 15, the Thin ‘n’ Light 15” ZBook Studio, and the
value-focused ZBook 15v and two 15” Thin ‘n’ Lights, the ZBook
15u, and the premium creative-oriented ZBook Studio. Lenovo,
number three in volume, offers up its 17” ThinkPad P71, the 15”
ThinkPad P52, and the 15” Thin ‘n’ Light P52s. Lenovo has no
economy-focused 15” option at the moment, as for the most part,
a lightly configured P52 can fill that role.
Besides scaling display size, differently dimensioned models vary in
resolution, precision, and fabrication technology. Resolution today
for the vast majority bottoms out at FullHD, or 1920 x 1080, though
options to 3840 x 1260 are increasingly common, especially in the
premium and Thin ‘n’ Light offerings. Display precision can also
be dialed up, with optional technologies such as HP’s DreamColor
offering more bits per color channel (red, green, and blue), which
translates to a higher-fidelity image reproduction. Advanced
display technologies like IPS and SVA (and variants) are becoming
more economical and improving attributes like contrast and
viewing angle. And finally, touch/stylus support is now a checkmark
item on most models, albeit an optional one.

Sub-15s
While not quite pervasive enough to make the grade as an
industry-standard mobile workstation form factor, sub-15” models
appear here and there among the top-tier offerings. HP, for
example, recently brought the 14” mobile workstation back in the
form of the Thin ‘n’ Light ZBook 14u, most recently refreshed to
the G5 generation earlier this year. On its own, a sub-15” model
is unlikely to be a huge revenue or profit producer, but a 14”
model included in a vendor’s product line can be strategic in two
ways. One, it can attack some niche markets that favor smaller
dimensions (in the Far East, for example), and two, like the 17”, it
can help close deals with big customers that demand the broadest
set of options for enterprise-wide procurement from a single
supplier.

Battery Life versus Performance versus Weight

With technologies equal, higher-performance components and
bigger displays require more power. The former consumes more
watts not only to power the chip (e.g., the CPU or GPU) but also for
the fans to dissipate the additional heat produced. Batteries are
all lithium-ion based today, with capacity specified by watt-hours,
and while batteries are improving capacity at the same size/weight
every generation, higher capacities mean bigger batteries. And
larger batteries are heavier and may make for a thicker profile, all
else equal. Ditto for the power supply/adapter “brick” needed to
power and charge your machine.
Adding all that up then, buyers may want to give some attention
to the balance of performance, battery life, and weight when
choosing a model and configuration. Besides selecting from
different models, OEMs will sometimes offer two different watt-
hour batteries for the same model.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   19

»» Similar to those of Dell and HP, Advanced Docks Should Spur Mobile Adoption
Lenovo’s dock taps Thunderbolt 3 to
HP, Dell, and Lenovo have incorporated Apple’s Thunderbolt
provide broad, multistandard display
3 interface in their mobile workstations. Granted, calling
and I/O support. Image courtesy of
Thunderbolt 3 an Apple interface is a bit misleading, as Intel
Lenovo.
created it, initially as an über-USB candidate for long-term high-
bandwidth serial I/O. For all (or most) practical purposes, though,
Thunderbolt is an Apple thing, since unlike Winux (Windows or
Linux) workstations, Apple Macs rely on it for all their high-speed
I/O. Because other accepted, integrated connectivity standards like
USB 3.0 and DisplayPort make it less important in workstations,
Thunderbolt has been anything but a requirement among
offerings in the Winux camp.
So why have these OEMs adopted it for mobile workstations? Not
for general-purpose connectivity, but rather because Thunderbolt
3 allows for another purpose beyond: It makes an ideal high-
bandwidth interface to connect to a dock, which in turn connects
to all those existing Winux-required standard interfaces. With one
simple cable, users can link to the dock, which then interfaces to as
many as 10 devices through an array of ports: four USB 3.0, RJ-45,
VGA, combo audio, two DisplayPorts, as well as a Thunderbolt 3
port (which can further link to daisy-chained DisplayPort 1.2, USB
3.1 Gen 2, and PCIe devices). That’s far broader functionality than
a mobile workstation typically manages on its own, and one that
— in particular thanks to its multiple DisplayPorts — could pave
the way not only for deskside-caliber I/O, but as a result help some
(albeit it a minority) make a permanent switch from a deskside as
the primary workstation to the mobile.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   20

PART 4

New Flavors of Mobile

Workstations Diversify the
Spectrum
As mobile workstations
I
n the previous installment, we defined the primary categories
of mobile workstations and looked at the basic features
become ever more distinguishing each group. Here, we dive into some of the more
popular, the form-factor exotic options making their way into the mobile marketplace,
which range from merely tradition-bending to outright mold-
options buyers have breaking.
to choose from are The 360-Degree Display
expanding to include While more a logical extension of the traditional mobile than
exotic display types anything revolutionary, the option of a 360-degree (or close)
display is becoming more available, specifically in the Thin ‘n’ Light
and portability options. category. Earlier this year, HP introduced such an offering with its
ZBook Studio x360, which features full 360-degree rotation of the
display and five usage modes, including pen mode with Wacom
AES support. Dell did as well, introducing the “2-in-1” option
with pen/touch support for tablet-type support in its Thin ‘n’ Light
Precision 5530.

»» The HP ZBook Studio x360

features full 360-degree rotation
of the display. Image courtesy
of HP.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   21

Jack-of-all-Trades
Convertibles
Pushing a step further than
360-degree display option is
a laptop/table “convertible”
that allows the user to
disconnect the keyboard
altogether, and combined
with touch, work in a true
tablet mode or with the
Bluetooth-enabled keyboard
in “detach” mode. HP
created just such a machine,
with its ZBook x2. Dell and
Lenovo have yet to follow
»» The workstation-caliber, multi- suit, though if the category takes off, no doubt they will.
modal HP ZBook x2 allows the user
to separate the keyboard from the Extreme Performance, Ruggedized, Luggable, and
rest of the machine. Image courtesy Even Wearable Workstations
of HP. Ruggedized mobile workstations don’t have universal appeal, as
the process of ruggedizing the machine increases cost, size, and
weight. So for the majority of users working in generally friendly
environments, there’s no point to a ruggedized model. But for
the minority that are taking their machines into the field, from
inherently unfriendly to downright hostile environments, rugged
may be less a nicety and more an absolute requirement.
Military applications are obvious candidates, but CAD-focused
applications can be as well. AEC and building information
modeling (BIM) come immediately to mind, where construction
sites can be dusty and wet and where the machine might fall from
heights or — perhaps worse — get crushed by another falling
object. Oil/gas drill sites or remote ad hoc movie sets also make
compelling candidates for a rugged mobile workstation. Among
workstation OEMs, Dell has made ruggedized a strategic segment,
now dominating shipments with models like the MIL-SPEC (military
standard)-compatible rugged Latitude. (It’s worth noting that Dell
currently markets the machine exclusively under the corporate
brand Latitude, as opposed to the workstation Precision brand).

»» The ZBook x2 operates in four physical modes. Image courtesy of HP.

 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   22

Are you one of the few

who frequently performs
compute-intensive work
in the field, and therefore
is interested in making
the fewest performance
compromises possible? Then
you might be interested in
another boutique workstation
variant: the “luggable.” More
portable than a deskside but
decidedly more bulky than
even a heavy-duty mobile
workstation, the appropriately
named luggable fits the gap
between the two. Typically
packaged in a suitcase-type
form factor, luggables such
as NextComputing’s Radius
and ruggedized Vigor
integrate a 17” display on the
suitcase’s side panel, while
offering the capabilities of
»» NextComputing’s luggable a high-performance single-socket deskside. Both models support
Radius workstation can be carried maximum-performance CPUs and graphics processing units (GPUs),
like a suitcase. Image courtesy of up to NVIDIA’s top-end dual-slot Quadro P6000.
NextComputing.
Companies like NextComputing and workstations like the luggable
illustrate perfectly the adage that wherever there is a niche of
customers, there will be a niche of products to serve them. But
NextComputing is not the only vendor looking to span the gap
between mobile and deskside. Rather than shrinking a deskside
into a mobile suitcase, Eurocom goes at it from the other direction,
stretching the bounds of a laptop’s size and weight to build the
most powerful mobile workstation it can. Rather than build
around power-sipping, clock-reduced CPUs, Eurocom essentially
packages a desktop workstation CPU at full clock rate (e.g., 4
GHz), complemented by components comparable to an amply
configured 1S (single-socket) deskside workstation. Of course, like
the luggable, the tradeoff is in the weight and size: At 10+ lbs
and around 2” thick, it comes in at twice the weight and size of a
typical 15” mobile workstation (and that doesn’t include the power
“brick,” which is proportionately heavier and bulkier as well).

Even a Backpack Workstation

Neither the luggable nor an über-mobile like Eurocom’s are
winning hearts on the basis of mobility, but rather in the fact that
they can deliver deskside-comparable performance in something
that is at least reasonably portable. It’s a balance and tradeoff
that best serves its niche of users. Striking another balance
of portability and functionality is HP’s recently launched Z VR
Backpack workstation. As the name suggests, the battery-powered
workstation is worn by the user. It targets users looking to achieve
the best possible virtual reality (VR) experience; typical applications
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   23

»» Is this how many will choose would be in design and styling in industries like automotive and
to deploy VR in practice? Image aerospace.
courtesy of HP.
A Complement to the Deskside, but for Most,
Not a Replacement
When it comes to choosing a mobile machine to accompany the
office deskside, the mobile workstation has become the obvious
choice. It’s worth emphasizing, however, that its role relative to the
deskside in the workstation market is unlike what the consumer/
corporate notebook role has become in the mainstream PC
marketplace. Long ago, the majority of consumers began adopting
notebooks as their one-and-only PCs, effectively replacing a
desktop in the home. Ditto for many corporate applications. But
the same paradigm does not hold in workstation markets, where
mobile workstations are still outsold by desksides by factor of two
to one.
That dichotomy makes perfect sense when considering the far
heftier workloads CAD professionals run on their hardware.
Many corporate and consumer applications place relatively
modest demands on their machines (with the most notable
exception being PC gaming). As the mainstream laptop has gained
performance over time, it was only a matter of time before it
would pass a threshold where it could adequately handle those
demands. And since most users would prefer the smaller, more
mobile form factor, it was only logical to see laptops not only
taking a larger share of the mainstream PC market, but in many
cases becoming a user’s only PC, replacing the desktop.
Now, with the dramatic performance gains that mobile
workstation performance has made over time, a mobile can
deliver everything that a minority of low-demand professionals
may require — it could realistically make for a sensible deskside
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   24

»» The mobile workstation may replacement. In contrast, the bulk of users/applications will
serve as the primary machine continue to take advantage of every incremental drop of
for a minority, but the deskside’s performance they can squeeze from available hardware. In reality,
superior performance remains better it’s not even that deskside performance today is ideal for all CAD
equipped to serve CAD’s insatiable workflows. Far from it; as ISVs and users alike nearly always strive
demands. to get more, like higher-fidelity visualizations and deeper, more
finely grained simulations. They dial back loads not because
they want to, but rather to better fit the capabilities of what
today’s machines can deliver. That is, there’s virtually limitless
headroom for what CAD ISVs and users can exploit — and turn
into measurable productivity and/or job-quality increases — as
performance continues to grow, generation to generation. And
since, all else equal, desksides can always be designed to deliver
more than a mobile, the former should continue to reign supreme.
So no, while a minority of professional users might consider a
mobile workstation as their one-and-only machine — in extreme
cases, perhaps choosing a monster mobile like Eurocom’s,
marketed as a desktop replacement — the majority of CAD pros
won’t. They’re tackling demanding workflows for the bulk of
their time, more often in an office than not, and they need the
most productive and reliable machine that can be had for their
buying dollar. Today, and for the foreseeable future, that will be
a deskside. But as sensible as a deskside can be for the primary
machine in the office, the mobile is just as sensible a companion
for the road. The fact is, we’re all increasingly working out of the
office, and for the same reason — maximizing productivity for
hours spent — the mobile workstation is the best tool to fit that
complementary role, hands down.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   25

PART 5

The Datacenter Workstation

Addresses Modern
CAD Challenges
Now that we’ve
I
f I were covering workstation form factors 15 years ago, I’d have
likely wrapped up this topic in a single column — or maybe
explored the array even half a column. But after four installments in this series,
of local workstation we’re still not done, because so far we’ve limited our scope to local
workstations — those physically located with the user. That leaves
options, it’s time to us the relatively new domain of remote workstations to explore.
look at the benefits Why Swap the Workstation at My Desk
and drawbacks of for One in a Remote Datacenter?
those located in The computing landscape is changing as fast as it ever has,
particularly when it comes to supporting graphics-intensive CAD.
remote datacenters. For years, users and IT personnel and procurement managers
followed the same basic manual, outfitting each designer or
engineer with a deskside workstation (and perhaps a mobile
model for the road) … but that manual is no longer the only one
to follow. Hosting graphics-intensive applications on servers is
now a reality, and many are heeding the call to leverage either
private datacenters or off-site, third-party clouds to solve thorny
IT problems imposed by an explosion of data, physically dispersed
workforces, and an emphasis on increasing security while ensuring
access anytime, anywhere, and on any device.
It’s not difficult to see why a single, shared workspace is attracting
so much interest: It promises 24/7 access from wherever you are,
by tapping a database securely tucked away behind corporate (or
cloud) firewalls. With a centralized computing model, users don’t
have to be in the same office as their data — or even on the same
continent. Storing models in one place and avoiding costly copying
makes the “big data” problem far less burdensome. And since the
source content doesn’t leave the pre-defined cloud boundaries, it’s
far more secure.
Users can upload files to one central, shareable, cloud-based
repository, which becomes a virtual workspace. Here, CAD team
members can contribute, review, and even mark up and edit
others’ content — all without the overhead and version control
issues that come with moving the data.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   26

»» HP’s Remote Graphics solution for Datacenter Workstation Topology

datacenter-resident workstations. Datacenter workstations provide high-demand visual computing
Image courtesy of HP. on a Windows or Linux platform, with a remote server (i.e., a rack
workstation, detailed ahead) performing computation and visual
processing, and transmitting only the visual representation of that
desktop to the user’s client device. A remote workstation solution
comprises three primary components: a remote workstation host
(again, typically a server node in a datacenter rack) which renders,
encodes, and transmits the desktop image; a remote workstation
client that displays the remotely rendered image; and an IP
network (LAN or WAN), that connects the two.
The user’s local client is typically one in a range of possible devices:
from conventional laptop PCs or Macs to far simpler and more
secure thin clients and zero clients (the latter is essentially a thin
client without a conventional OS which retains no persistent state).

Physical (1:1) and Virtual (1:N) Datacenter

Workstations
Remote datacenter workstations typically fall into one of two
basic types: physical or virtual. A physical datacenter workstation
is essentially the same workstation (in terms of the hardware and
software) that the user would otherwise have in his or her office;

»» A range of thin clients can support remote physical and virtual workstation solutions. Image courtesy of HP.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   27

it’s just been moved

to a server rack in
a datacenter, and
is now accessed
remotely.
Physical datacenter
workstations
have their trade-
offs. On the plus
side, just like a
traditional desk-side
client, a physical
workstation is
“owned” by
one user at any
particular time, able
to deliver the same
performance as if
that workstation
were sitting at the
»» In the server-centric virtual user’s desk (assuming it’s not bandwidth- or latency-constrained).
workstation environment, the Depending on the user, dedicated resources (not just GPU but CPU,
entire compute burden is lifted memory, storage, etc.) may be very attractive.
off clients.
Exclusive ownership is also the physical datacenter workstation’s
major downside, precluding much of the appeal that a centralized,
server-based computing topology promises: better allocation of
server resources, offering flexibility and speed in provisioning and
de-provisioning to serve a broad, disparate, and often dynamic set
of users.
That’s where virtual datacenter workstation solutions become
so appealing: in their ability to flexibly and dynamically serve a
multitude of heterogeneous clients with maximum efficiency.
Rather than each node in a server rack constituting one physical
workstation serving one user (1:1), each can instead host multiple
virtual workstation instances serving multiple users (1:N), each
provisioned with the resources that fit the specific user’s needs.
(For far more detail on the approach, appeal, and deployment
of virtual workstations than I’ll delve into here, please check out
my four-part series, “Harnessing the Cloud for CAD: The Case for
Virtual Workstations.”)

Implementing Remote/Datacenter Workstations:

Rack Workstations in Rackmount Servers
In both physical and virtual datacenter workstation solutions,
the computing and graphical processing happen on a server
node. While a simple PC-class office application might run fine on
just about any type of server node, a server acting as a physical
workstation imposes different burdens on hardware configuration
than one that’s hosting a multitude of virtual workstations. A new
class of server, the rack workstation, has evolved to meet these
specific demands.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   28

»» The 1U Precision 3930 rack The same workstation OEMs you’re familiar with from deskside
workstation. Image courtesy or mobile workstations are serving the growing opportunity of
of Dell. datacenter workstations. Dell, HP, Fujitsu, and smaller players like
Boxx all offer rack workstations capable of delivering a remote
workstation experience comparable to what we’re used to at the
desk. Like a traditional deskside or mobile workstation, the ability
to configure CPU, GPU, memory, and storage is essential, especially
when outfitting a server to host multiple virtual machines.
Most rack workstations fit into one of two rackmount form
factors: 1U or 2U, where “U” equals one rack unit of height, or
1.75”. Just as with the conventional deskside workstations, mobile
workstations, and just about any other computing device, different
sizes come with different tradeoffs. The obvious one is that a 2U
can cram in more CPU, GPU, memory, and storage components, as
well as higher-capacity power supply units (PSUs). Its larger volume
also can potentially allow for superior cooling, letting system
designers run all those components at higher speeds and voltages.
One workstation vendor with a particularly bullish outlook
on datacenter workstations is Dell. The number-one supplier
of workstations worldwide has long offered a 2U Precision
rack workstation (today, the model 7920), and just recently
complemented it with a 1U model (the Precision 3930). Across the
board, the 7920 out-specs the 3930, offering dual Xeon Scalable
CPUs (up to 2 x 28 cores), a ridiculous 3-TB memory capacity, twice
the SSD storage, and the ability to fit and power up to three max-
wattage, max-performance GPUs (such as the Quadro P6000). The
3930, meanwhile, is half the size and has a much lower price point.
The other side of the 1U/2U tradeoff is rack density. Building and
running datacenters can get expensive, and managers strive to
support the maximum amount of services in the smallest space
(and with the least electric and cooling requirements).
What delivers the best density depends on the applications and
how the services are deployed. In this case, for example, the
intended usage of physical (1:1) workstations versus virtual (1:N)
workstations. Optimal density can depend on the model employed,
the expected demand of users being served, and — if virtual — on
the number of users per node. So it could be that 1:1 workstation
deployments are more effectively served by 1U rack workstations
and 1:N deployments are better served by 2U systems, though
that’s not a hard-and-fast rule.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   29

While 1U and 2U
form factors mark the
sweet spot of the rack
workstation market,
that doesn’t mean
every product fits the
typical mold. Another
aggressive player in the
space is Boxx, which
rather than compete
head-on with big-volume
Dell or HP, prefers to
differentiate with non-
typical products. Take
Boxx’s 3U ProVDI 8401R-
V: It not only delivers the
highest single-thread
performance (thanks
to a liquid-cooled,
»» Boxx’s 3U Pro VDI 8401R-V overclocked 4.2-GHz 10C Core i7), it’s also got the expansion slot
server. Image courtesy of Boxx. room to fit as many as four Nvidia Quadro or AMD Radeon Pro
GPUs. Whereas the ProVDI 8401R-V would pale in comparison to
1U or 2U options in terms of CPU core density, it will stand out
in situations where a combination of maximum single-thread
performance and GPU capabilities is a priority.
When it comes to datacenter workstations, we’re talking about
a novel approach that is fundamentally different from our
traditional, client-focused computing solutions. Datacenter
workstations, hosted on server-side rack workstations, are uniquely

»» A sampling of specifications
for different heights of rack
workstations. Data sourced
from Dell and Boxx.
 CAD Workstation Form Factors 101   30

positioned to address the modern challenges imposed by scattered

workforces operating on datasets that are exploding in size. And
while average CAD users are not going to be building, configuring,
and maintaining a privately owned and maintained virtual desktop
infrastructure (VDI) installation, third-party cloud providers are
making datacenter workstations a logistically manageable — if not
downright easy — solution for small outfits and sole proprietors.
For far more details on server-side workstation solutions, especially
virtual workstations, check out my previous series on the topic.

Take the Time to Navigate the Visual Computing

Tool Choices for CAD
Long gone are the days when CAD professionals were limited
to two or three pre-configured workstation tower models. With
comprehensive top-tier suppliers like Dell, HP, and Lenovo now
offering 15 or so standard, customizable workstation models
— complemented by all kinds of niche products filling in the
gaps — there’s a workstation to support every CAD workflow
imaginable. Hopefully, this series has helped paint a clearer picture
on the breadth and depth of appropriate products available. The
challenge now is more likely to be navigating today’s diverse
workstation marketplace, but it’s a challenge likely to be rewarded
in superior productivity and, quite possibly, a superior bottom line
for your business. 

With more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, and

management experience in the semiconductor industry,
Alex Herrera is a consultant focusing on high-performance
graphics and workstations. Author of frequent articles covering
both the business and technology of graphics, he is also responsible
for the Workstation Report series, published by Jon Peddie
Research.
This publication was developed by Cadalyst, the leading source of
information about computer-aided design and related software
and hardware technologies for the AEC, civil engineering, and
manufacturing markets.
©2018 Longitude Media, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part is
strictly prohibited without written permission of the publisher.