IBM today lifted the lid off its latest top-of-the-range Intel-based workstation, the IntelliStation M Pro 6218, which the company said has been built using the same quality assurance and testing processes as its high end xSeries servers.

Based on the latest 64-bit Intel Dual Core Pentium D processor, the workstations are designed to run applications such as mechanical design, electronic design, drug discovery and digital content creation.

The IntelliStation M Pro delivers up to eight Gigabytes of maximum memory ­ double that of its predecessor. Combining this expanded memory with 64-bit processor technology and a 64-bit operating system can improve the performance of CPU-intensive applications such as Autodesk's 3ds Max by up to 39 per cent, IBM claimed.

To deliver improved end-to-end system interoperability for technical computing customers, IBM said it has integrated its workstation and x86 server teams.

Alex Yost, director, xSeries and IntelliStation products, IBM Systems and Technology Group, said that this integration of server and workstation teams also aimed to encourage customers to move mission-critical applications to the M Pro workstations.

The IBM IntelliStation M Pro 6218 is currently planned to be available worldwide in September, with a starting price of $1,479 in the US. The new M Pro will be available with Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 and x32 editions pre-loaded and is certified for 32-and 64-bit versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0.