Brochure
2
Technical white paper | HP Z230 Workstation Architecture
Introduction
The HP Z230 Tower and SFF Workstations are the follow-on generation to the
HP Z220 Workstations and introduce new functionalities and technologies to
the entry workstation class. They feature the Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200
v3 family and 4th generation Intel® Core™ processors
1
, based on the new
Intel micro-architecture code-named Haswell. New processor technologies
like Integrated Voltage Regulator and high eciency Power Supplies increase
energy eciency. Upgraded ME9 manageability and integrated USB 3.0
features deliver improved productivity and stability. This paper will describe
the architecture features common to both platforms, while explicitly calling out
dierences.
New Technologies
New Intel Processor micro-architecture
The HP Z230 supports Intel’s next generation processors, featuring a new micro-architecture and a new instruction set
including AVX2 (Advanced Vector Extensions 2.0) and FMA (Floating-point fused Multiply Add instructions) that help deliver
faster compute performance, with low energy consumption. Both the latest Quad Core Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3
Product Family and the 4th generation Intel® Core
TM
processors (dual-core Intel® Core
TM
i3 and Intel® Core
TM
i5/i7 processors)
are supported. The Intel® C226 PCH (platform controller hub) chipset complements the HP Z230’s core architecture.
New technologies supported on HP Z230 processors
Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions 2.0 (Intel® AVX2)
The new Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 2.0 (Intel AVX2) extends the Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel AVX) with
256-bit integer instructions, oating-point fused multiply add (FMA) instructions, and gather operations. The 256-bit integer
vectors benet math, codec, image, and digital signal processing software. FMA can improve performance in face detection,
professional imaging, and high performance computing. Gather operations increase vectorization opportunities for many
applications. In addition to the vector extensions, this generation of Intel processors adds new bit manipulation instructions
useful in compression, encryption, and general purpose software.
Intel® Data Protection Technology with AES-NI (Intel® AES-NI)
Enabling Advanced Encryption Standard AES-NI requires a computer system with an AESNI-enabled processor and third
party encryption software to execute the instructions in the correct sequence. AES-NI requires Intel Core i7-600 or Intel Core
i5-500 Mobile Processor series and is not available in all countries. http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-advanced-
encryption-standard-aes-instructions-set/. Tracking and recovery is supported by an embedded BIOS agent on HP business
notebooks, which is shipped turned o, and must be activated by the purchase of a subscription for terms ranging from
one to ve years via LoJack Pro. Service is limited, check with Absolute for availability outside the United States, certain
conditions apply. Full details are available at absolute.com/products/lojackforlaptops.
Integrated Voltage Regulator
Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3 series, and the 4th generation Intel® Core
TM
processors integrate the Voltage Regulator
(VR) into the processor to improve power eciency and lower switching latencies. The HP Z230 further optimizes VR
switching to avoid interference with wireless radio devices.
Legacy PCI support (Tower only)
Although the Intel C226 chipset does not natively support PCI, HP recognizes that many customers have a continued need
for legacy PCI cards. HP has addressed this need in the Z230 Tower by adding a PCI slot.