HP Offers AMD Shanghai-Based WorkstationHP Offers AMD Shanghai-Based Workstation

Hewlett-Packard on Friday started selling a workstation PC powered by Advanced Micro Devices' latest quad-core Opteron processor, code-named Shanghai.

The HP xw9400 is built for creative professionals, designers, and industry. Uses would include video editing, creation of digital entertainment, computer-aided design, and oil and gas exploration. Pricing starts at $2,303.

Shanghai is AMD's first product using an advanced 45-nanometer semiconductor fabrication process. The move to 45 nm brought AMD up to manufacturing parity with rival Intel, which has been shipping 45-nm products for nearly a year. Such products deliver higher performance while using less power than previous generations of chips.

Opteron is AMD's brand of processors for servers and workstations. Dell, IBM, Microway, and other computer makers have refreshed server products with Shanghai.

The xw9400 is available with Windows Vista and XP Professional and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. For graphics, the system, which is a rackable minitower, comes with the Nvidia nForce Professional 3600 or 3050 chipset. The machine also has up to 32 GB of memory; five internal hard-drive bays; a total of seven PCI, PCI-X, and PCIe slots; and eight USB 2.0 ports. For added graphics capabilities, the system is available with Nvidia Quadro FX cards, which come with up to 1 GB of memory.

The workstation weighs 42 pounds and meets energy-efficiency standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program. The system comes with a three-year warranty that includes parts, labor, and on-site service.