The Lenovo ThinkStation P920 harkens from roots as both a server and as a workstation. Modern high-end workstations are very similar to high-end servers. They can use dual Intel Xeon CPUs, have lots of memory and storage, and include several high-dollar GPUs. That is very similar to what we would see in a server. With the Lenovo ThinkStation P920 the company has a workstation in a 2U server chassis that allows the workstation to be installed in a data center. Workstations installed in a data center can have better physical security and uptime. They can also have access to more network bandwidth and network storage bandwidth as well.
Lenovo ThinkStation P920 Rack Workstation Server Hybrid
At the heart of the Lenovo ThinkStation P920 are up to two Intel Xeon Scalable processors. That means the system can support up to 56 cores and 112 threads at speeds up to 4.4GHz. Lenovo is also using the Intel C624 PCH, which is a higher-end version of the C621 we normally see with support for 10GbE. Check out our Lewisburg PCH Options Overview to learn more about them. With dual Intel Xeon Scalable processors, the P920 is designed for up to 3TB of memory, presumably using “M” series Xeon SKUs.
The standard storage configuration for the Lenovo ThinkStation P920 is a 8x 3.5″ hard drive bay plus 2x M.2 SATA boot drive configuration. Add-in NVMe PCIe cards are optional for higher-performance in-chassis storage.
For GPUs, options include dual NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000, Quadro RTX 5000, and NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPUs. There is also a quad NVIDIA Tesla T4 option.
Since the Lenovo ThinkStation P920 is designed to be a hybrid workstation and server, there are features for data center manageability such as hot-swap redundant power supplies as well as Lenovo XClarity Controller-based remote management. OS Support also looks more like server with support for Microsoft Windows Server 2019, RHEL 7.6, SLES, and VMware vSphere 6.7 (ESXi.)
No SFP+ ports though?
I don’t get it. If it’s in a datacenter then you either SSH or RDP into it. If SSH then it may as well be a server. If RDP then you just have slow graphics, which seem antithetical to ‘workstation’.
It seems like a distinction without a difference.
Current gen RDP is pretty fast actually if you enable both TCP and UDP channels. Even watching videos or playing a 3d game works. For regular desktop work, it’s unnoticable. (If you have a good connection of course)
And other than that, there are specific hardware solutions for remote 3D or Autocad work. From Teradici for example, but i’ve never used those.
Also a noticable different between these rack mounted workstations and regular ones is also the rack mounted ones usually have a management option like DRAC/ILO/IPMI.
@emerth
You can look for PCoIP for high performance remote desktop. Or you can get very high performance IP KVMs.
This kind of machine could easily be used by video editors, CG authors, SFX teams and imaging specialists.
@Bob Hannet, @Navi – thanks!
Nothing to see here for anyone running departmental servers in datacenter style racks.
But about every SME I visit has SOHO class infrastructure for the single reason of noise pollution.
Only here in the city of London can wework and its kin, tear out hugely expensive acoustic suspended ceilings and charge 2000 bucks for a fancy hot desk with free booze.
STH is alone reviewing noise but I suspect STH has good sized American offices not the tiny little rat holes we call ostentatiously Grade A for a megabuck every hundred square meters. £150 psqft all in isnt even top….300W per desk that’s imagined to be 100sqft– that’s Gresham Street. The City is gutted of serious business because it has no power grid. Lloyd’s bank has around the corner sold to chinese buyers for a billion because it has a substation underground. Silicon Roundabout (nauseating title) has power from Old Street station underground’s substation grid. You can buy subterranean vaults stories deep for your own gas power, but its a commitment…
This is the sort of thing that desperate office workers but for DOUBLE duty, serving finished files from a workstation that the founder / owner / central talent needs or thinks they do. Video editing files dont get slung across any network…so a NIC or two extra, the SATA RAID CARDS (cheap and thankfully now not immediate disaster areas for your average admin in soho smes. ) and the ability to force far consumer graphics cards (overclocked, natch) plus a old PCI AIC SSD bought on Ebay without any research because it’s a datacenter working pull and says Intel on it…
Shoos I’ve known paid more for the sound proof 12U cabinet than the machines within….
Which were half of them towers….
Is there a EE out there willing to take my money and translate into intelligent plans, what I know I can sell all day long if I can only make it? Look at the names in the Azure stack offerings. There’s a opening.
I mustn’t go on more, for penance I’ll drop STH a thought about a marketplace implementation I have been thinking might serve regular readers usefully and generate new ad inventory enough to pay the development costs on spec. Idea factories are not found in server design. DELL do well in Austin and I think if they hadn’t done so the ndus try might be moribund. But I am fully willing to sponsor a reader survey if the results can be protected and entrusted to the chance of providing more public service information. I will bear that arrangement gladly. Because the obvious is obvious to practitioners and shouldn’t be wrapped up behind legal departments but reasonably licensed. I have years of as yet untapped practical and to me obvious server industrial design development to contribute that I almost posted here. I can link to comments I gladly encouraged others to use that shocked me they were very much the model of subsequently ejght and nine figure revenues, the one that made me notice controversially adopted. I will offer three such basic ideas for this market segment, one of which I think I would productize directly.
– connectable half width 4U racks (high density connectors may seem unique to Cisco, but I can’t understand why the use us innovation per server, though darn good deaign for sure. Why? Small biz put their workstations vertically in sound proof enclosures everywhere I’ve seen them. Fat vertical sleds that can stand up on a larger desk are versatile. One can be two 2U, 3 1U plus chassis for optical or hh tape or other removable . This size fits common fire safes. A disk heavy half width 4U can be neatly ttransported in a portmanteau case. Or further physically bolted down if full of expensive cards..And make use of metal chassis for ssecurity’s sake so few small companies can recover from a loss and because file sharing is rarely centralized (too many reasons) its financial loss and work delays. Owner directors like this sort of thing.
OVERPROVISIONED PSUS SHARING LOAD AND SILENT. need I dmsay more?
Luminaire grade white LEDs on a battery diffused where head torches cast shadow.
Optional lithium UPS in a PSU sled.
Large OEM temperature and fan monitor displays clippable inside any optical bay gap that mount horizontal or vertical and have a custom top field with server name that in most Soho counts for asset id. (Add uptime counter I made up my own arduino uptime monitors and suddenly the admins started asking questions before changing things and kept logs…basic psychology but it pays.
Front panel Hdmi out for a post and you to be routed forward too.
MXM pcie slots.
Bundle pci slit risers and be loved.
Front panel USB in storage mode to load a terminal into any android or iOS device. It laptop. Even a USB key is image you can boot from with any laptop to hand. Likewise a app for displaying the VGA. Make diagnostics load onto any phone thr same way to be just there. (Make work with screen reader for getting arounf6uk regional Accents with overseas call centres…and me…no I’m…I was never stumped before everyone spoke mostly the same in the uk but now the edge cases are truly hard.
Spill proof case facias. Phone nic unlocking or network unlocking.
Dust extraction trays from the outside, if possible. Cable tidies under the lid and any place possible. Grommet and clamp for cables like Sata expands run right out from internal connector cards.(very frequently encountered) And as much expansion Card alignment guide rails as will fit. A flip to reset is among my designs. Movement alarms Just to stop cabinets being g rolled and pulling cables. (Cabinets are aesthetic choices for managers who wontb pay for the option, such furniture is often improbably proudly positioned. The unsuitability of these cabinets is mund boggling and they sell for 20 percent of their listbpruces often enough (snapped up always but white elephants that cost 3 thousand dollars.. make them useful and clean up selling a less expensive less taking the Mickey on price)
Consider airflow as detectable if low enough so you escape enclosures more easily. This is a big part of my designs that I am going to model seriously.
Make mire midplane style multi section motherboard designs to offer where possible upgrades but mostly replacements realising that vrms etc may be swapped over a long life.
Make room for internal hh 5.25 drives lift up access . Worm tapes and writable optical come to mind for logging and archive .
Offer security screw head options to thwart opportunist dismissed employees and etc. Include UV marker serial stencils With chassis number for marking. MAKE A SECURE ELECTRUCALLY RELEASED DIMM AIR FLOW GUIDE AT LEAST TO HINDER temivalbof such valuable components . Like the surface book hinges, so admins not needlessly fiddling. And enclose the boards within sectional air guides for protection from a accidents and prying fingers.
Okay more than three, and I’m not begun. Anyone fancy working on a STH Tribute design for real? If permitted, I have a budget that will advance the ideas properly aand I will be ecstatic about entrusting the results to any collective Benefit.
Cases sell for £600 or about $800 for nothing but the least possible moldings. I must stop giving out my thought process this clearly but its complimented by two other lines of thought that are actual server features not physical niceties. My professional background is useful but not at this stage. I can plot paths financially that create viability generally where little may be seen even by professionals. The uk has been voted the second most popular tax haven by a big four accountant survey recently ibforget which one but the strong pound buys more dollars and design licensing companies attract only flat 10 percent tax in perpetuity here. I am serious about USA manufacture however, very serious indeed. Generally about highly skilled manual work. I say America first because Britain only follows. Dual production is something I looked into. Quiet server like workstations are a product that has a untapped potential and quality is critical unless it is driven through a six sigma like efficiency program that includes the physical process completely optimised. Effic6is every bit as good. This could launch a bbranding strategy is the kind of thing I sell (and what sold very prominent sponsorships from comments at least you can decide if interested just I dont want to show publicly. I have relationships who may have been catalysts in those deals. STH provides data like Byte magazine filled a role before. I will disclose a full strategy ilon inquiry if understood my ppurpose and intended goodwill to STH. If I’m out of order I beg your forgiveness for being inappropriate but I have watched publishers struggle for decades to find revenue and STH is a publisher decdacto abimportabt one. STH succeeding with PUBLISHING creates ecosystem that can revive the lost generatirvof my own businesses that are long moribund . Plus I was raised on the true wealth of a America where ibm published the strategies and technologies that created its major competitors. That wasn’t so rare by any means. True wealth is sharing how to thrive and prosper and healthy economies create no brainer decisions to share. I’ve practiced IP law for my company for years and I think it retrograde. If the above is interesting , I chose (sorry again ) mostly dull and incoherent examples and nit the thrust of my product intention. It feels odd in a datacenter world to design cases but the builds published here demonstrate real demand . I e a investor pitch quite polished in readiness . In a crazy world these thoughts of positive multiplication of ingenuity are my antidepressants and my sleeping pills and my oxycontin. Busy minds with productive thoughts and rewarding work are healthy minds. I think we undid that somehow . This website gives bbusinesses and individuals…many people could consult from only reading here I’m certain. I sure would enjoy raising that to general knowledge. If I don’t bite it and post this and risk falling on my face I’m a a hypocrite but worse it’ll eat me because I’ve too much more than just this, it’s been a project for 3 years in norevthan coffee breaks but during injury recovery and overdue reatoratice downtime. I hope something read right I’m grateful for your patience absolutely. I have this sensevwhobis here are the real try hard and never say die guys to flatter but speak my mind. This is what gave me the impetus originally and I will do my best to do justice to your tolerance of me, thank you. J
Just option m2 GSM cards for gps tracking. Ai gleaned payment with data for three years. (Makes manufacturer’s optional THEFT policies more profitable and yes sell thosevpolicies if you don’t already)
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Good that we’re seeing this from Lenovo as well. At a previous job we used to deploy HPE servers with Nvidia Quadro/grid GPUs for modellers/engineers. These would run Windows/Linux on VMware with part or a whole GPU dedicated per VM. You get better network throughput within the datacenter and more flexibility (some users need a lot of CPU cores and 256GB RAM, others can make do with only 64GB) compared to placing workstations at their desks.
At the user side they’d be connecting via HP RGS. On some of those off days, I was experimenting with FPS gaming on HP RGS, worked quite well! This is basically VDI on steroids for engineers/oil & gas folks.
JK – Where we are in Silicon Valley you will see pricing that is not as bad as London, but not much worse. Real estate in Mountain View is now around $10M per acre and housing in the not great portions of town is around $1200 per square foot.
JK lol…. is that you Terry Davis?