Lenovo has completed its third and final hardware delivery to the Integration Test Centre of the Beijing Organising Committee for the XXIX Olympiad. 

The total shipment included about 3,000 pieces of computing equipment, including servers, desktops and notebook computers.

The next phase in preparing for the Olympic Games will be the critical test events, known as the “Good Luck Beijing” sport events.

These 42 sporting competitions will be used to test all aspects of the computing hardware during actual competition, an arduous year-long process that ensures the systems are ready for the actual Olympic Games.  The tests will end only weeks before the opening ceremony on August 8, 2008, said a company statement.

“The upcoming tests are, in effect, a full rehearsal for the 2008 Games, ensuring the reliability of the hardware that forms the games’ computing backbone,” said BOCOG technology director Yang Yichun. “Based on the high-performance equipment and technical expertise Lenovo contributed to the Torino Games, we have trust in the company's ability to support us next year at the games.”

In its final delivery, Lenovo provided the committee with 242 servers, 140 server racks, 2,375 desktop computers and 141 notebook computers for a total of more than 8,200 pieces of computing equipment powering 56 Olympic venues (39 competition venues and 17 data centers and BOCOG centers) in seven cities.  In total, Lenovo will be providing approximately 14,000 pieces of computing equipment for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The computing systems supporting the games will be tested at 42 separate events, including World Cup qualifying matches, the Beijing International Marathon and international tennis events.  One hundred and fifty Lenovo engineers and support staff will work in concert with various partners to ensure complete preparedness for the test events.

“After years of preparation and planning, the testing phase is vital because implementation of the games’ computer infrastructure will take place literally overnight,” said Lenovo’s vice-president of Olympic marketing Alice Li. “We have worked with BOCOG to put together Lenovo systems that meet the specific requirements of this complex system, and we are ready to see them in action.”

The two primary personal computers that make up the Olympic Games IT infrastructure will be the ThinkPad T60 notebook PC and ThinkCentre M55e. The ThinkCentre M55e is the first integrated worldwide desktop PC platform from Lenovo. – TradeArabia News Service