Razer And Lambda's Tensorbook Is A Sexy Linux Laptop With Deep Learning Chops
Razer makes some of the sharpest looking laptops around, there's no doubt about that. The result of its collaboration with Lambda, a deep learning company, is no exception. The two outfits tag teamed the design of the Lambda Tensorbook, a sleek Linux system being pitched as the world's most powerful laptop for machine learning workloads.
At a glance, it's obvious the Tensorbook shares DNA with Razer's Blade 15 laptop, but in silver trim. It also trades Razer's logo for Lambda's, though both names are stamped underneath. Beauty is not just skin deep, though, the Tensorbook also wields a sexy assortment of hardware, features, and capabilities.
High on the list is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q GPU with 16GB of GDDR6 memory. This is key to the laptop's ML performance, which the manufacturer claims is up to four times faster than Apple's M1 Max and up to 10 times faster than Google Colab instances.
"Most ML engineers don’t have a dedicated GPU laptop, which forces them to use shared resources on a remote machine, slowing down their development cycle." said Stephen Balaban, co-founder and CEO of Lambda. "When you’re stuck SSHing into a remote server, you don’t have any of your local data or code and even have a hard time demoing your model to colleagues. The Razer x Lambda Tensorbook solves this. It’s pre-installed with PyTorch and TensorFlow and lets you quickly train and demo your models: all from a local GUI interface. No more SSH!"
The GPU is paired with an 11the Gen Intel Core i7-11800H processor, an 8-core/16-thread Tiger Lake chip with a 2.3GHz base clock, 4.6GHz max turbo frequency, and 24MB of L3 cache. It'd too bad Lambda and Razer didn't configured an Alder Lake foundation instead, but it's not as though Tiger Lake is a lazy architecture by any stretch.
It also flexes 64GB of DDR4 memory and a 2TB NVMe solid state drive. This all comes together to plow through deep learning workloads on the laptop's 15.6-inch display with 2560x1440 resolution and 165Hz refresh rate (gaming-grade specs).
"Razer’s experience in developing high performance products for both gamers and creators has been a crucial building block for the Lambda Tensorbook, a deep learning system for engineers," said Travis Furst, Head of Razer’s Laptop Division. "The shared customer obsession is what drove us to collaborate with Lambda in developing this powerful, specialized device. We can’t wait to see the amazing breakthroughs that will be made by engineers and researchers while using a Tensorbook."
The system comes with Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS installed out of the box, as well as a Lambda Stack with PyTorch, TensorFlow, CUDA, cuDNN, and NVIDIA drivers installed. One year of basic Lamdba engineering support is included as well.
It looks like a fine package and machine, but pricing starts at $3,499. There's a $500 up-charge to have it configured to dual-boot Windows 10. Anyone interested can place a preorder now.
