HP Unveils Industry's First 'Blade Workstation'HP Unveils Industry's First 'Blade Workstation'

Hewlett-Packard has unveiled what it calls the industry's first "blade workstation."

The HP ProLiant Blade Workstation Solution, which is based on the HP BladeSystem infrastructure, is designed to take the storage and processing components off the desktop and move them to the data center. Applications and files can be accessed from a Microsoft Windows-based workstation, a PC, a laptop, or a thin client, HP said on Thursday.

The Blade Workstation is aimed at customers in the financial trading and manufacturing industries.

London-based Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets customized its 255-position trading floor with 280 HP ProLiant xw25p Blade Workstations, HP said in a statement. The devices are reportedly used by traders in the foreign exchange, derivatives, and global commodities markets, as well as by sales traders in the markets for derivatives and interest rate trading.

"We were looking for something that was going to give a market edge to our traders and for us," said Colin Everett, head of IT strategy and infrastructure at Lloyds TSB, in a statement. "The HP Blade Workstation delivered on that for us."

The workstation features fully certified and supported HP Remote Graphics software, real-time streaming video, 3-D graphics, and multiple display support. The Blade Workstation is available now. Pricing information was not available.