Lenovo revved up by Aston Martin deal

Lenovo has linked up with British sports car maker Aston Martin to develop its latest workstation line, with the Chinese electronics firm claiming it significantly reduces the overheating issues of high-performing computers.

Lenovo Korea's General Manager Steve Shin introduces its new ThinkStation P series at a local press event in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Tuesday. [LENOVO KOREA]

Lenovo has linked up with British sports car maker Aston Martin to develop its latest workstation line, with the Chinese electronics firm claiming it significantly reduced the overheating issues of high-performing computers.

“In cars, what’s crucial in designing the internal combustion engine is how to effectively control the heat,” said Lenovo Korea’s General Manager Steve Shin at a press event to introduce new products in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Tuesday.

“Computing systems are similar in the sense that it is important for workstations to regulate heat, which directly affects the product’s performance. For this reason, Aston Martin participated in the design process of the new ThinkStation P series as our partner.”

Three versions of Lenovo's ThinkStation - PX, P7 and P5 - are equipped with three-dimensional grill chassis, inspired by Aston Martin's DBS grand tourer. The chassis is designed to control the heat, supplemented by redesigned air baffles, hexagonal vents and Lenovo's three-channel cooling system which allows "unobstructed airflow," according to the company.

“Chassis from our competitors cannot contain Intel’s top CPUs but Lenovo’s new ThinkStation line can handle Intel’s fourth-generation processors,” said Shin.

ThinkStation PX, the premium offering among the three, has a processor which can support up to 120 cores and features significant memory and storage improvement compared to the P5 and P7.

With a maximum of a 4-terabyte Double Data Rate 5 (DDR5) memory chip, ThinkStation PX is anticipated to be used for artificial intelligence, in places that need to process big-scale data in generative AIs and deep learning.

“Traditionally, [these] workstations were used by a particular pool of experts such as architects, engineers and designers but now the future market target lies in AI, machine learning, media and entertainment,” Lenovo Korea’s Business Development Manager Harry Lee said. “Every day, proliferation of new data is reported to be hundreds of millions of terabytes.

“Current products cannot match up to the daunting quantity of data and Lenovo’s goal is to target such markets as we continue to develop and research to create the best-optimized products tailored to future market demand.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]