Product Reviews

The boundaries between workstations and servers have always been hard to define, especially those based on Intel processors. Now, with the introduction of the 64-bit Itanium 2, they look set to become even harder, with HP basing its new Workstation zx6000 on the same Itanium 2 hardware as rack-mount server solutions.

To perform this trick, HP starts out with a 2U rack-mount server - the HP Server rx2600 - containing a custom motherboard that can be fitted with one or two Itanium 2 processors. Currently, your choice is restricted to either dual 900MHz or 1GHz, with the former on review here. HP uses its own ZX-1 chipset designed for controlling from one- to four-way Itanium 2 configurations. Co-developed with Agilent Technologies, this not only provides the SMP support, but also a low-latency (78ns) interface to DDR memory, plus embedded PCI, PCI-X and AGP controllers.

Twelve memory sockets are provided on the HP motherboard, capable of taking a mix of DDR SDRAM modules up to the current maximum module capacity of 1GB. You can even expand beyond this when larger-capacity DIMMs start to ship. In fact, just about everything needed for a complete system can be found on the HP motherboard, including four USB 2 interfaces, integrated 10/100 as well as Gigabit Ethernet, a dual-channel Ultra160 SCSI controller and, of course, IDE interfaces, one of which is used to connect the slimline DVD-ROM. Surprisingly, though, no RAID controller is available in the base specification, although, of course, this can be hardware supplied later or software implemented now if required.

The Ultra160 SCSI controller is connected to three hot-swap hard disks, which unfortunately is the maximum number available due to restrictions imposed by the rack chassis format. Fortunately, however, capacities these days are extremely generous and even the three 36GB disks supplied with the review system should prove enough for most workstation applications.

Like the disks, the fans are all hot-swappable and there's an optional redundant second power supply, which, similarly, can be swapped without powering down. A remote HP-branded management card is yet another option and there are blue identification LEDs at the front and back to help locate the server when attention is required.

However, few users will

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want a rack-mount PC, so to convert the rack-mount server to a more traditional workstation HP literally turns it on its side. It also adds a pedestal and some fancy plastic mouldings, with the end result being a stylish desk-side unit, albeit a fairly hefty one at just over 25kg.

Internally, few design changes are needed for this flexibility; indeed, the only major alteration is to the PCI expansion cage. On the Workstation zx6000, this holds three 64-bit PCI-X connectors and one AGP 4x Pro 50 slot instead of the four PCI-X connectors of the Server rx2600 that this unit is based upon. The AGP Pro 50 slot is obviously a nod towards the most likely uses expected for the zx6000, such as CAD/CAE, digital content creation and scientific computing.

You're spoilt for choice here, with five AGP adaptors available in the range, the final decision being dictated by the applications to be run and the availability of software drivers. For basic 2D work, for example, there's an ATi Radeon 7000 (in the review system) or Nvidia Quadro2 EX, both well supported under HP-UX, Linux and Windows. For those users wanting better 3D-specific performance, HP can fit an ATi Fire GL 8800, Fire GL4 or Nvidia Quadro4 900 XGL.

It's important to check on driver availability, as some of the 64-bit operating systems had yet to be catered for at the time of writing. Moreover, although the HP hardware is certified for three 64-bit platforms (Unix, Linux and Windows), at the time of writing the software hadn't all been released. Not surprisingly, HP's own 64-bit HP-UX is fully supported and available along with a 64-bit implementation of Red Hat Linux for Itanium 2s. However, release versions of 64-bit Windows (XP and .NET Server) aren't expected until well into 2003.

Similarly, it's a good idea to check on application availability before considering an Itanium 2 workstation. Most of the big names in the CAE, mechanical CAD and digital imaging fields have announced support for the 64-bit Intel platform, but few have delivered final code. Some open-source applications for the Itanium 2 are to be had, but users looking for 64-bit Windows programs are likely to be disappointed. Bear in mind too that, although you can run 32-bit Windows applications on the Itanium 2, performance will be less than what you'd get using dedicated 32-bit hardware.

Given that it's a server in workstation clothing, you might well expect the zx6000 to be noisy in operation, but that's not the case. It does make more noise than most desktop PCs, but the fans are no louder than on comparable RISC-based workstations. It's also very resilient, with server-like high availability and monitoring as standard. Software support will be an issue for some time, but will eventually be sorted, at which point, especially considering its reasonable price, the zx6000 looks set to be more than a match for RISC-based alternatives.