Workstation

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web at CERN in Switzerland on the NeXTcube workstation.[1]

A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or

multi-user operating systems. The term workstation has been used loosely to refer to everything from a mainframe computer terminal to a PC connected to a network, but the most common form refers to the class of hardware offered by several current and defunct companies such as Sun Microsystems,[3] Silicon Graphics, Apollo Computer,[4] DEC, HP, NeXT, and IBM which powered the 3D computer graphics revolution of the late 1990s.[5]

Workstations formerly offered higher performance than mainstream

The increasing capabilities of mainstream PCs since the late 1990s have reduced distinction between the PCs and workstations.

AIX, and its IBM PC Series and Aptiva corporate and consumer PCs have Intel x86 CPUs. However, by the early 2000s, this difference largely disappeared, since workstations use highly commoditized hardware dominated by large PC vendors, such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Fujitsu, selling x86-64 systems running Windows or Linux
.

History

Early Xerox workstation
HP 9000 model 425 workstation running HP-UX 9 and Visual User Environment (VUE)
HP 9000 model 735 running HP-UX and the Common Desktop Environment (CDE)

Origins and development

Perhaps the first computer that might qualify as a workstation is the

codenamed
CADET and was initially rented for $1000 per month.

In 1965, the IBM 1130 scientific computer became the successor to 1620. Both of these systems run Fortran and other languages.[12] They are built into roughly desk-sized cabinets, with console typewriters. They have optional add-on disk drives, printers, and both paper-tape and punched-card I/O.

Early workstations are generally dedicated minicomputers, a multiuser system reserved for one user. For example, the PDP-8 from Digital Equipment Corporation, is regarded as the first commercial minicomputer.[13]

The

Three Rivers PERQ (1979), and the later Xerox Star
(1981).

1980s rise in popularity

In the early 1980s, with the advent of

RISC CPUs increased in the mid-1980s, typical of workstation vendors.[19]

Workstations often feature

64-bit processors,[20] large amounts of RAM
, and well-designed cooling. Additionally, the companies that make the products tend to have comprehensive repair/replacement plans. As the distinction between workstation and PC fades, however, workstation manufacturers have increasingly employed "off-the-shelf" PC components and graphics solutions rather than proprietary hardware or software. Some "low-cost" workstations are still expensive by PC standards but offer binary compatibility with higher-end workstations and servers made by the same vendor. This allows software development to take place on low-cost (relative to the server) desktop machines.

Thin clients

Workstations diversified to the lowest possible price point as opposed to performance, called the

network computer. Dependent upon a network and server, this reduces the machine to having no hard drive, and only the CPU, keyboard, mouse, and screen. Some diskless nodes still run a traditional operating system and perform computations locally, with storage on a remote server.[21] These are intended to reduce the initial system purchase cost, and the total cost of ownership, by reducing the amount of administration required per user.[22]

This approach was first attempted as a replacement for PCs in office productivity applications, with the 3Station by 3Com. In the 1990s, X terminals filled a similar role for technical computing. Sun's thin clients include the Sun Ray product line.[23] However, traditional workstations and PCs continued to drop in price and complexity as remote management tools for IT staff became available, undercutting this market.

3M computer

A NeXTstation graphics workstation from 1990
68030
at 25 MHz, 1280×1024 pixel and 256-color display
SGI Indy graphics workstation
SGI O2 graphics workstation
HP C8000 workstation running HP-UX 11i with CDE
Six workstations: four HP Z620, one HP Z820, one HP Z420

A high-end workstation of the early 1980s with the three Ms, or a "3M computer" (coined by Raj Reddy and his colleagues at CMU), has one megabyte of RAM, a megapixel display (roughly 1000×1000 pixels), and one "

kFLOPS
(30 kFLOPS with the optional 8087 math coprocessor. Other features beyond the typical personal computer include networking, graphics acceleration, and high-speed internal and peripheral data buses.

Another goal was to bring the price below one "megapenny", that is, less than $10,000 (equivalent to $27,000 in 2022), which was achieved in the late 1980s. Throughout the early to mid-1990s, many workstations cost from $15,000 to $100,000 (equivalent to $192,000 in 2022) or more.

Decline

The more widespread adoption of these technologies into mainstream PCs was a direct factor in the decline of the workstation as a separate market segment:[25]

Market position

Dell Precision 620MT with dual Pentium III processors
Solaris 10

Since the late 1990s, the workstation and consumer markets have further merged. Many low-end workstation components are now the same as the consumer market, and the price differential narrowed. For example, most

Quadro
workstation card, which has the same GPU but different driver support and certifications for CAD applications and a much higher price.

Workstations have typically driven advancements in CPU technology. All computers benefit from multi-processor and multicore designs (essentially, multiple processors on a die). The multicore design was pioneered by IBM's POWER4; it and Intel Xeon have multiple CPUs, more on-die cache, and ECC memory.

Some workstations are designed or certified for use with only one specific application such as

3D Studio Max
. The certification process increases workstation prices.

Current market

Dell Precision T3500 workstation with Intel Xeon processors
Hewlett-Packard Z820, an x86-64-based workstation
Inside an HP Z820 workstation

GPU workstations

Modern workstations are typically

NVIDIA GPUs to do high-performance computing on software programs such as video editing, 3D modeling, computer-aided design, and rendering.[28][29]

CPU
.

Decline of RISC workstations

By January 2009, all

RISC
-based workstation product lines had been discontinued:

In early 2018, RISC workstations were reintroduced in a series of IBM POWER9-based systems by Raptor Computing Systems.[34][35] The Mac transition to Apple silicon greatly increased power efficiency and size efficiency over x86-64 with its ARM-based RISC architecture.[36]

x86-64

Most of the current workstation market uses x86-64 microprocessors. Operating systems include

Solaris.[37]
Some vendors also market commodity mono-socket systems as workstations.

These are three types of workstations:

  1. Workstation blade systems (IBM HC10 or Hewlett-Packard xw460c. Sun Visualization System is akin to these solutions)[38]
  2. Ultra high-end workstation (SGI Virtu VS3xx)
  3. Deskside systems containing server-class CPUs and chipsets on large server-class motherboards with high-end RAM (HP Z-series workstations and Fujitsu CELSIUS workstations)

Definition

A high-end desktop market segment includes workstations, with PC operating systems and components. Component product lines may be segmented, with premium components that are functionally similar to the consumer models but with higher robustness or performance[39].[40]

A workstation-class PC may have some of the following features:

See also

References

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  2. ^ a b "workstation | Definition & Facts", Britannica, retrieved 2021-12-05
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  6. ^ "Global Personal Computers Market Report (2021 to 2030) - COVID-19 Impact and Recovery - ResearchAndMarkets.com". Business Wire. 2021-06-23. Retrieved 2022-09-07.
  7. ^ "Workstation Computer". OIDair WEB. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05. Retrieved 2021-12-05.
  8. ^ "IBM workstations" (PDF). IBM.
  9. ^ "IBM Archives: 1620 Data Processing System". www.ibm.com. 2003-01-23. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
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  11. ^ "IBM 1620". 2017-12-22. Archived from the original on 2017-12-22. Retrieved 2022-03-08.
  12. ^ "IBM 1130 Press Release". 2019-07-05. Archived from the original on 2019-07-05. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
  13. OCLC 899007268.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
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  15. ^ "» Pascal and the P-Machine The Digital Antiquarian". Retrieved 2022-03-08.
  16. ^ "The Death Of The Workstation? - INFOtainment News". 2013-02-11. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
  17. ^ "The SUN workstation architecture" (PDF). Stanford University. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  18. ^ "Apollo Domain DN100 workstation - CHM Revolution". www.computer history.org. Retrieved 2022-03-10.
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  20. ^ New Straits Times. New Straits Times.
  21. ISBN 9781597499613. Retrieved 2022-03-18. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  22. ^ "Diskless Nodes HOW-TO document for Linux: What is this all about?". www.ossh.com. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  23. ^ "CNN - Here comes the Sun Ray - November 2, 1999". www.CNN.com. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  24. ^ Andries van Dam; David H. Laidlaw; Rosemary Michelle Simpson (2002-08-04). "Experiments in Immersive Virtual Reality for Scientific Visualization". Computers & Graphics. 26 (4): 535–555. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.4.9249. doi:10.1016/S0097-8493(02)00113-9
  25. ^ The Daily Gazette. The Daily Gazette.
  26. ^ Webster, Bruce (December 1991). "Macintosh Quadras - Power But No Pizzazz". MacWorld. Vol. 8, no. 12. pp. 140–147.
  27. ^ Wilkinson, Chris (11 December 2020). "Working from home at 25MHz: You could do worse than a Quadra 700 (even in 2020)". Ars Technica.
  28. ^ "Workstations for Architects: Design Device for the Digital Age". Devices and Delight. 2023-07-28. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  29. ^ https://www.pcguide.com/gpu/guide/best-workstation-gpus/
  30. ^ "Discontinuance Notice: c8000 Workstation". HP. July 2007.[permanent dead link]
  31. ^ "Hardware Withdrawal Announcement: IntelliStation POWER 185 and 285" (PDF). IBM.
  32. ^ "End of General Availability for MIPS® IRIX® Products". Silicon Graphics. December 2006.
  33. ^ "A remarketed EOL Sun Ultra 45 workstation". Solar systems. Archived from the original on 2012-01-02. Retrieved 2012-04-11.
  34. ^ "Raptor Launching Talos II Lite POWER9 Computer System At A Lower Cost". Phoronix.
  35. ^ Raptor Announces "Blackbird" Micro-ATX, Low-Cost POWER9 Motherboard, Phoronix
  36. ^ "Introducing M1 Pro and M1 Max: the most powerful chips Apple has ever built". Apple Newsroom (Australia). Retrieved 2023-11-16.
  37. ^ edengelkingiia+ (2000-09-15). "Which workstation OS would you like to support?". TechRepublic. Retrieved 2022-04-03.
  38. ^ Kovar, Joseph F. (2007-05-01). "IBM Using Blades To Attack Desktop PC Market". CRN. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  39. ^ "Workstations for Architects: Design Device for the Digital Age". Devices and Delight. 2023-07-28. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  40. ^ "Services". Main PC. Archived from the original on 2022-03-08. Retrieved 2022-03-08.
  41. ^ .

External links