Forget desktop workstations, Dell’s virtualized 2U rack workstation enables up to four CAD users to work remotely from a single machine.
The Dell Precision R5500 is said to be the first four-GPU (graphics processing unit) configuration to be certified by Citrix with GPU pass-through on Citrix XenServer 6 using Citrix XenDesktop HDX 3D Pro.
Users can connect to the Dell Precision R5500 via Dell and non-Dell computing devices including thin clients, laptops, desktops or other mobile devices that have a loaded Citrix Receiver.
Each user is given access to a dedicated professional graphics card in a virtualised environment. This is currently an Nvidia Quadro 2000, with other high-end Nvidia Quadro graphics cards available soon. For GPU compute, the Dell Precision R5500 also supports Nvidia Tesla.
In addition to high-end graphics support, the R5500 offers Nehalem-based Intel Xeon processors – a generation behind those used in Dell’s new desktop Precision workstation – up to 192GB memory, and up to six 2.5-inch SAS HDDs or five SATA HDDs.
Despite sharing core workstation resources, such as CPU, memory and storage, the Dell Precision R5500 rack workstation isn’t necessarily cheaper than having four individual workstations. However, it does offer other benefits, including centralised and secure data (as no CAD data ever leaves the rack workstation), flexibility in terms of users, and reduced cost of ownership by not having to maintain four individual machines.
