Workstation class PCsA significant segment of the desktop market are computers expected to perform as workstations, but using PC operating systems and components. PC component manufacturers will often segment their product line, and market premium components which are functionally similar to the cheaper "consumer" models but feature a higher level of robustness and/or performance. Notable examples of this are the AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon processors, and the ATI FireGL and Nvidia Quadro graphics processors.
A workstation class PC may have some of the following features:
- support for ECC memory
- a larger number of memory sockets which use registered (buffered) modules
- multiple processor sockets, powerful CPUs (for Intel CPU it will be server derived Xeon instead of typical for PCs Core)
- multiple displays
- run reliable operating system with advanced features
- high performance graphics card