Razer-designed Linux laptop targets AI developers with a focus on deep learning

Razer is primarily known for its gaming PCs and peripherals, but the company has also been known to dive into the productivity space from time to time. The Razer x Lambda Tensorbook announced on Tuesday sees Razer stepping out of its comfort zone even further. Made in collaboration with Lambda, the Linux-based clamshell focuses on deep learning development.

Lambda, which has been around since 2012, is a deep learning infrastructure provider used by the U.S. Department of Defense and “97% of top research universities in the United States,” according to the company’s announcement. Lambda’s offerings include GPU clusters, servers, workstations, and cloud instances that train neural networks for a variety of use cases, including self-driving cars, cancer detection, and drug discovery.

Dubbed “The Deep Learning Laptop”, the Tensorbook features an Nvidia RTX 3080 Max-Q (16GB) and targets machine learning engineers, especially those who don’t have a laptop with a discrete GPU and need to therefore share the resources of a remote machine, which has a negative impact. affects development.

The Tensorbook makes it easy to install the deep learning frameworks PyTorch, TensorFlow, Caffee, and Caffee 2, as well as GPU-focused applications CUDA and cuDNN, and developer tools via “one-line install and download.” managed upgrade path”.

“When you’re stuck in SSH to a remote server, you don’t have any of your local data or code, and you even have a hard time demonstrating your model to your colleagues,” said Stephen Balaban, co- founder and CEO of Lambda, in a statement. noting that the laptop comes with PyTorch and TensorFlow for rapid model training and demonstration from a local GUI without SSH.

Lambda isn’t a laptop maker, so it recruited Razer to build the machine. Razer does not have the Tensorbook for sale on its website at the time of this writing. However, the machine resembles Razer’s laptops, from its light and thin build (4.43 lbs / 0.66 inches thick) to its colorful keyboard, side speakers and speedy display. The 15.6-inch display has a 165Hz refresh rate at 2560×1440 resolution.

The Tensorbook comes with a latest generation Intel i7-11800H processor, featuring eight cores and a base clock speed of 2.3GHz, up to 4.6GHz. The machine also uses 64GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and has 2TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage.

Although there are more powerful laptops, the Tensorbook stands out for its software package and Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS. Lamda also said that the Tensorbook supports dual-booting Windows.

Port selection is strong; the laptop has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, three USB-A (3.2 Gen 2) ports, HDMI 2.1, a headphone jack, and an SD card reader.

The Tensorbook currently costs $3,500.