Lenovo Accelerates Video Performance for ThinkPad Workstations

Lenovo today announced that it is offering Elemental Accelerator software with select NVIDIA Quadro FX professional graphics solutions on ThinkStation S20 and D20 professional workstations. Elemental Accelerator works with NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics to add GPU-accelerated power and performance to the Adobe Creative Suite 4 workflow.

Lenovo workstations equipped with NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics and Elemental Accelerator let Adobe Creative Suite 4 users harness the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) to perform high-speed, high-quality video encoding. This combination delivers dramatic time savings over conventional CPU-only encoding solutions. By executing demanding processing tasks on the GPU, Elemental Accelerator speeds up video transcoding and frees CPU resources to perform other tasks, helping to result in a faster, more efficient video editing and production environment.

"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."

Elemental Accelerator performs GPU-accelerated conversion of commonly distributed digital video formats to H.264/AVC output ready for upload to the web or burning to Blu-ray disc. Elemental Accelerator also supports high-speed MPEG-2 encoding for DVD or digital broadcast. The software installs as a plug-in and is easily accessible through the Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe Media Encoder application interface. Using the Adobe Media Encoder, Elemental Accelerator can be selected to accelerate the rendering of both Premiere Pro and After Effects sequences and projects.

"Elemental Accelerator with NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics solutions compliments the detailed design and professional-strength capabilities of Lenovo workstations," said 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," said 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."

Quadro FX professional graphics solutions are optimized to enable GPU acceleration across the entire family of Adobe CS4 applications, including Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Flash and Photoshop. From importing files and editing multi-video streams, to previewing video content, professionals use NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics to optimize their workflow and enhance the creative process.

Pricing and Availability

Elemental Accelerator software works with NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800, 3800, 4800 and 5800 graphics solutions and with NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M and 2700M mobile GPUs. It is available as an option on the Lenovo ThinkStation S20 and D20 Intel Xeon processor-based workstations. The ThinkStation is designed and optimized for specialized professionals in fields such as computer-aided design and digital content creation. Workstations with these graphics solutions can be configured and purchased at Lenovo starting at $799. The Elemental Accelerator software can be included in Lenovo workstation configurations for only $200.