A workstation, such as a Unix workstation, RISC workstation or engineering workstation, is a high-end technical computing desktop microcomputer designed primarily to be used by one person at a time, but can also be accessed remotely by other users when necessary.
Workstations usually offer higher performance than normally found in a personal computer, especially with respect to graphics, processing power and multitasking ability.
At its main console, a workstation is optimized for displaying and manipulating complex data such as 3D mechanical design, engineering simulation results, mathematical plots, etc. Consoles usually consist of a high resolution display, a keyboard and a mouse as a minimum, but often support dual displays to double the viewable information. For advanced visualization tasks, specialized hardware such as SpaceBall can be used in conjunction with MCAD software to improve depth perception. Workstations, in general, are usually first to offer accessories and collaboration tools such as videoconferencing capability.
Workstations usually offer higher performance than normally found in a personal computer, especially with respect to graphics, processing power and multitasking ability.
At its main console, a workstation is optimized for displaying and manipulating complex data such as 3D mechanical design, engineering simulation results, mathematical plots, etc. Consoles usually consist of a high resolution display, a keyboard and a mouse as a minimum, but often support dual displays to double the viewable information. For advanced visualization tasks, specialized hardware such as SpaceBall can be used in conjunction with MCAD software to improve depth perception. Workstations, in general, are usually first to offer accessories and collaboration tools such as videoconferencing capability.
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Last Updated: Sep 2009
Last Updated: Sep 2009
Following the performance trends of computers in general, today's average personal computer is more powerful than the top-of-the-line workstations of one generation before. As a result, the workstation market is becoming increasingly more specialized, since many complex operations that formerly required high-end systems can now be handled by general-purpose PCs. However, workstation hardware is optimized for high data throughput, large amounts of memory, multitasking and multithreaded computing; in situations requiring considerable computing power, workstations remain usable while traditional personal computers quickly become unresponsive.
