HP Unveils x2000 and x4000

The x2000 and x4000 workstations don’t just represent thefirst two models in Hewlett-Packard’s new line of workstations,they also represent the convergence of two existing HP workstationlines—the Kayak and Visualize lines.

In part, the convergence represents a natural technical evolutionarystep that HP needs to take in order to eliminate redundancies betweenthe two respected product lines. At the same time it’s a movethat’s in keeping with HP’s larger corporate rebrandingstrategy.

HP's new x4000 workstation. (Screen image courtesy ofSoftimage)

“We did a brand research in the middle of last year to try andunderstand the brand equity of the Kayak and Visualize name,”explains Jeff Wood, HP’s product marketing manager for personalworkstations, “and we found that folks really recognized the HPbrand, but that the subbrands didn’t mean that much to them. Itwas the HP name that people related to and associated with qualityproducts and quality service. In fact, they tended to think of theirworkstations as simply HP workstations. So we’ve taken that toheart. And the company in general is rebranding everything under the HPmoniker.”

The x2000 is a uniprocessor system built upon the Pentium 4architecture. Its 400Mhz system bus is built around the Intel i850chipset, giving it three times the bandwidth speed of the Intel PentiumIII system bus. It also offers up to 72G of hard disk space and up to2G RDRAM. The higher end x4000 is a dual processor system built uponthe Intel Xeon architecture. Its 400Mhz system bus is built around theIntel i860 chipset, and it offers up to 144G of hard disk space and upto 4G of RDRAM. Both systems can run Windows or Linux operatingsystems, and both can be configured with a variety of graphics andvideo cards, including cards from ATI, NVIDIA, Matrox, or Pinnacle.

“The x2000,” says Molly Connolly, DCC marketing programmanager for HP, “is a fantastic price/performance systemthat’s ideally suited for running our new Digital VideoProduction Bundle as well as such real-time video cards like the MatroxRT2500 or the Pinnacle DV500 Plus. It’s a great value for eventvideographers and prosumer video users, as well as for the gamerwho’s looking for the best 3D production that money can buy in asingle processor machine.

“The x4000,” she continues, “is more appropriatefor the power user who is looking to do complex modeling and renderingand needs the dual processor capability for multithreaded applications.As an example, someone using a Pinnacle Systems’ Targa 3000 boardfor video or working with a 3D animation program like Softimage XSIwould be an ideal candidate for this machine.”

The HP x2000 starts at $1,841 and the x4000 starts at $3,668. Formore details on the workstations’ features and capabilities, goto www.hp.com/workstations/.
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