14 DAY TRIAL // Intent on enabling its professionals to harness the full power of the ThinkStation S20 and D20 professional workstations, Lenovo has launched new software that aims to fully utilize the resources of the NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics used in their configurations. Named Elemental Accelerator, the software supports GPU-accelerated conversion of common digital video formats into H.264/AVC output, allowing end-users to significantly reduce the time it takes to encode video, increasing productivity and efficiency of business environments.
“Digital content creators require the highest level of encoding performance to produce cutting-edge products,” said Peter Schrady, vice president, Software and Peripherals, Lenovo. “By pairing ThinkStation workstations with Elemental Accelerator and NVIDIA Quadro FX GPUs, we are building computing solutions that deliver the fastest and highest quality video encoding experience available for Adobe Creative Suite 4 users.”
This performance improvement is possible when the Elemental Accelerator is paired with the NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics and the Adobe Creative Suite 4. Besides the aforementioned H.264/AVC output, for upload or Blu-ray burning, the Accelerator even supports high-speed MPEG-2 encoding for DVD or digital broadcast. This performance is possible thanks to the GPU acceleration optimizations for Adobe CS4 made to the Quadro FX family. This includes performance boosts when running the Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Flash and Photoshop.
“Elemental Accelerator with NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics solutions compliments the detailed design and professional-strength capabilities of Lenovo workstations,” revealed Sam Blackman, CEO and chairman, Elemental Technologies. “This one-two punch gives creative professionals using Adobe Creative Suite 4 a tremendous performance boost.”
“The power of the CUDA parallel computing architecture of Quadro GPUs enables Elemental Accelerator to offer faster than real-time encoding, while delivering exceptional image quality,” stated Jeff Brown, general manager, NVIDIA Professional Solutions Group. “Elemental Accelerator’s performance across our wide range of Quadro FX graphics solutions generates an impressive and immediate return on investment for video production professionals, since the time-saving capabilities alone are a tremendous asset to them.”
The software will be accessible through the Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe Media Encoder application interface. It is compatible with the Quadro FX 3700M and 2700M mobile GPUs and the NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800, 3800, 4800 and 5800 graphics solutions.
The Intel Xeon-based Lenovo ThinkStation S20 and D20 that use these graphics may be configured on Lenovo's website and have a starting price of $799. The Elemental Accelerator can be included for an extra $200.