The workstation market remains on a roll.(NEWS: WORKSTATIONS)

Jon Peddie Research reports another exceptional quarter's results from the workstation and professional graphics markets. According to the company, the two closely tied markets both delivered record shipments, with surprising upside growth.

With expectations pointing to solid but moderating growth rates, third-quarter 2007 made industry stakeholders smile once again. The quarter saw a total of 763,000 branded workstations shipped, representing 23.2 percent year-to-year growth, while revenue was up to near $1.8 billion, a robust 18.3 percent increase year to year.

New Market

Today's workstation market has lost virtually all ties to its early roots, with all the market's robust growth now coming exclusively thanks to products derived from independent hardware vendors (IHVs) Intel, Nvidia, and AMD. Almost completely absent is the traditional proprietary workstation of yesteryear, the RISC/Unix client built and supported by one of a handful of big-iron vendors, most notably HP, SGI, Sun, DEC, and IBM.

In Q3 2007, the PC-derived workstation, built on x86 and Windows or Linux, accounted for an overwhelming 99 percent of units, while the traditional proprietary workstation segment lost yet another player. As long expected, HP officially announced the end of life for the PA-RISC workstations, leaving Sun and IBM as the only shippers of traditional machines moving into 2008 (see "Workstations Unplugged," pg. 29).

For all intents and purposes, the workstation industry has completed its transition from a closed and proprietary model to one that is virtually all IHV-based.

Workstation Graphics