The Future of Work with HP Z Workstations

When HP announced the HP ZBook Ultra G1a at CES 2025, it was billed as 'the world’s most powerful 14" mobile workstation', while the HP Z2 Mini G1a was positioned as 'the world's most powerful mini workstation'. Both products have since arrived in Singapore.

The two devices were developed together with AMD to deliver high performance in compact designs. The compute power enables users to simultaneously engage in multiple compute-intensive activities such as designing 3D models, rendering graphics, and working locally with large language models (LLMs).

Shah outlined some of the trends driving the workstation roadmap for HP.

Samir Shah, VP and Head of Personal Systems in Greater Asia, noted that what's really driving hardware roadmap is the intersection of AI and the future of work, which is a big focus for HP. 

"When we talk to our customers and we talk to our partners, one of the common feedback that we get is the companies which are going to thrive in the future are going to be those companies where your employees are engaged," he shared.

"There's another study done that shows that companies who use AI as a technology enabler have far more active and engaged employees.. clearly technology is going to be a huge enabler and catalyst in what companies are going to do when it comes to the future of work.

"And this is what excites HP, because this is at the front and centre of a company's strategy, we want to be the leader in future in the breadth of products that we have, even (in the way) we are integrating the technologies together." 

"Last year when we spoke about AI, it was a lot of hype.  It was a lot of what AI can do. And fast forward to this year , AI is becoming real and this is what HP is doing, we're making AI real for our customers," Shah added. 

"We're making it real on three fronts. We're looking at the product, we're looking at how we innovate the product; we're looking at how we bring the power of technologies together; really bringing the power of AI to the edge." 

He pointed out that AI typically works in the cloud, not the edge, unless the user has an AI PC or workstation. 

Poly is another great example of innovation, he noted. 

"We have Poly integrated into a new generation of products. Just imagine, you are in a conference call with your clients, with your customers, you don't have to worry about what your background is, you don't have to worry about your movements, and every time you move, (Poly) puts you back in the centre of the frame, ... it comes across as very professional," he said.  

"We are harnessing the power of technology to bring the best to customers." 

Shah invited the audience to look at the bigger picture. "It's not about the hardware, it's also about the applications and the agents which go with those devices...this is where we are partnering with a lot of ISVs, a lot of startups, to ensure that we bring the right application to to our customers such that they're really able to harness the power of technology," he elaborated. ISV stands for independent software vendor.

One such tool could be about customer analysis, for instance, used by salespeople before meeting customers. "With a simple search, you can get all the information you need on the customer," he said.

When speaking to a customer, HP even has an app to guide the person on what questions to ask. "I'll have a prompt telling me, this is the next question," Shah shared. 

"And that becomes so much more engaging and much more productive. So that's how we're making AI real for our customers, by harnessing not only the technology but having applications and solutions which will go along with this hardware."

"We have a complete lineup of compute, Poly and (solutions), we're making sure it's a seamless experience for customers, and that's when the rubber hits the road, the technology will start to give real benefits," Shah concluded.

Tarun Relhan, Advanced Compute Systems (ACS) Category Manager, HP, said that there is demand for a powerful, compact machine that can handle AI workloads efficiently. He noted that PC users often complain of underpowered machines. 

"With generative AI how are you going to manage?" he asked. When it comes to product innovation, both AI workstations feature:

- Up to 128 GB of Unified Memory Architecture

- The ability to assign up to 96 GB RAM to the graphics processing unit (GPU) to increase graphics-related performance

- Hardware AI accelerators 

- The ability to offload and run productivity tasks locally on an up-to-50-TOPS neural processing unit (NPU), hardware to accelerate AI and machine learning (ML) workloads. TOPS stands for trillions of operations per second. 

- EPEAT Gold with Climate+

HP ZBook Ultra G1a

At the time of the CES announcement, HP said the ZBook Ultra G1a would be able to tackle workflows previously not possible on a laptop with the new AMD Ryzen AI Max PRO processor. The processor has Unified Memory and ISV-certified graphics to power through demanding AI workflows. 

A Unified Memory Architecture can accelerate workflows with up to 128 GB of memory. The architecture also allows users to assign up to 96 GB of memory exclusively to the GPU to tackle complex 3D projects, with multiple applications running at the same time. In the past, working on a single 3D project meant that only one application could run at a time.

Key features include an ultra-thin and light design combined with a long-lasting battery, AI PC features, and AI-enhanced privacy: 

- Up to 16 desktop-class CPU cores

- Discrete-like integrated graphics 

HP Z2 Mini G1a 

The HP Z2 Mini G1a, also equipped with the AMD Ryzen AI Max PRO processor, scales like the ZBook Ultra G1a to up to 128 GB of Unified Memory Architecture, and can similarly assign up to 96 GB to the GPU. 

With an internal power supply, this compact PC fits easily on or under a desk, and can be mounted behind a monitor. Its size also allows for a high-density rack mount format instead - five Mini units will fit across a 4U rack: 

- Select from Windows 11 Pro, WSL2 or Linux operating systems

- Get up to 8 TB with dual NVMe modules and RAID data storage capabilities for added performance or reliability. 

- Up to two flexible I/O ports and 10 I/O options. 

- HP Smart Sense intelligently optimises your PC’s thermal and power management based on your usage. Select full performance mode when completing demanding tasks to maximise performance.

- Support for up to four displays at 4K resolution.

-  Fast and efficient gigabit data rates with Wi-Fi 7. 

- ISV certifications 

- Protected by HP Wolf Security for Business, which provides hardware-enforced, always-on, resilient defence. 

- Up to 10 Gb Ethernet interface.

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