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Supermicro Announces Quad-Opteron 1U Motherboard
hpcanswers writes "Supermicro, a producer of systems for the high-performance computing market, has announced a 1U-sized quad Opteron motherboard for the OEM market. The product, which is on display at CeBIT this week, supports both HyperTransport and PCI Express. It also consumes 1000 watts of power. Supermicro's announcement is all the more interesting because the company has historically only supported Intel processors."
Funny, I've got 20 1U and 2U supermicro opteron servers. Are you sure you researched this statement?
Isn't that equal to 1 Kilowatt? First we have ONE TRILLION BYTES, and now ONE THOUSAND WATTS! One million shames on you, Slashdot.
EpiAdv - if you like Pokey the Penguin, try this comic!
"It also consumes 1000 watts of power" 1000W seems a little high... Four dual core opterons doesent need half of that! Even less for single core. The article suggest using 55W opterons.
Supermicro has offered AMD solutions for a quite while now - just not under their "main" brand name. If you don't know that their Aplus products exist, you won't find them. Although I'm sure no one would go on record, I'd wager that Intel has pressured a heavily Intel-dependent vendor to not promote AMD's product.
In fact, go to SuperMicro's home page, and you'll notice no mention or links to their AMD based products.
This isn't the first time that this has happened. When AMD first shipped the Athlon, very few board makers dared to ship Athlon solutions for fear of Intel shorting them on chipsets. I recall, but cannot substantiate, that Asus and Abit first shipped Athlon boards under a "shadow brand", much as Supermicro is doing here.
I, for one, cannot wait to buy some of the Supermicro^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h, um, Aplus gear.
Finally.
A pizza box that will actually cook your pizza.
nothing - after they blow the breakers. 1 kw is a lot of juice. per 1U.
So quick - convince your boss he needs one of those for his desktop, and you'll "inherit" the dual cpu you conned him into buying a few months ago so you could "inherit" his last desktop.
Oh, come on. You know your nipples got hard when you read the headline. 8 cores, 64GB of memory, onboard scsi with built in raid. Of course we can't afford it. You're not going to bed Keira Knightley either, but that doesn't mean she's "boring".
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Well, the SunFire v40z is a quad opteron... i'm sure there will be a refresh soon enough with dual core support (if it's not there already...)
:D Yeah, one really has to be IT-related so as not to cough up yesterday's food when reading such comparison involving Keira Knightley and a quadX2 opteron board :D
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
1 kw is a lot of juice. per 1U.
Even four of those 8xx series cpus don't consume that much, and they don't say that either, they just say it has such a psu. I don't think that even simultaenously having and using the 4 cpus, the 64 gigs of ram, the 2 scsi discs, the 4 sata discs, the 2xgig network ports and some cooling fans would consume that much.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
I've still got some SBU and DBU mainboards still chugging away. The problem was I made the switch to AMD and SuperMicro waited years to make the transition. To bad because I liked their kit and in the PII/III era, and Asus, Abit, and SuperMicro were solid recommendations to friends and family. They sort of fell off the recommendation list because of the preference of the AMD CPU's. Now that they are working back into the workstation/server market, I'll definitely take a look the next time I do a system update.
Yes, they had a white box label that did AMD stuff. Whatever. I'm glad to see the 'pro' brand get with the program.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
For the sake of comparison, I run a 530 Watt PSU on this system, which draws about 100 Watts from the wall. Yaay for cool-running AMDs!
Maby you cant fit it in 1u, but Tyan makes the K8QW that supports 8 Opterons with the M4881 add on processor board. Meaning you got 16 cores of pure powa. Go ahead, compile the internet. I'd be interested in knowing if there was anything higher than that.
That's a LOT of juice!
"There's some truth to the rumors" about Supermicro supplying gear to Google, the source said. "It was happy days around here."
This is pretty slick hardware, and given Google's recent and complete switch to AMD, this seems like a good match. Opterons are just awesome, even I'm seriously thinking of buying a 165 (slobber...).On an unrelated note, did you notice the chipset is made by NVidia? Wow, they've come a long way! I'm impressed to see this kind of iron from a company that used to live off pimply gamers. With PCI-X supported, I can't help but wonder about what framerates one could get in a properly multithreaded game.
If you actually built a rack full of 22-24 1KW 1U servers you should probably apply some forethought to how you're going to get rid of more heat than is generated by four of these:http://www.paragonweb.com/TNF1613.cfm. Also, you should probably have the power company increase the multiplier on your meter, lest it spin like an AOL CD on an angle grinder: http://homepages.newnet.co.uk/martynarnold/aol.htm
Help stamp out iliturcy.
This will allow for much better use of space in data center racks.
For example I could take out 8x 1U Intel based Dell web servers and replace it with 1 8way supermicro Opteron machine.
The Opteron server couple probably serve content faster than the 8 Intel based Dells plus with the additional 7u space I'll easily have enough space to put a saucepan on top to boil water for tea, thereby saving myself the 80p I normally spend in the data center vending machine.
Why does every server have it's own transformer/converter/rectifier/power supply (I think you know what I mean, that thing that converts from AC to DC)? It seems to me that it would make more sense for a room of servers to have a DC supply for all the computers.
What's more, most server rooms have a power backup unit, which converts from AC to DC and back to AC again, just so that the computers can convert it back to DC. This is terribly inefficient just in terms of electricity, and it also creates a whole lot of heat, just so that we can air condition these rooms with huge air conditioners!
It would just seem to make sense to me that the world of computing would come up with a standard for using DC, and then companies would build big power supplies that would offer redundancy, power backup, and current conditioning. It would save money, power and space.
Also included: a standby spare so that when that much heat in that small a package burns itself out in six months you don't have to wait for a replacement. Supermicro is generally pretty good but packing a kilowatt of consumption into a 1U package is about as smart as running your home PC in the oven set on bake.
Maybe I'm just sore because I've spent the last few weeks identifying the bad ram in last year's opteron rackmounts from Penguin. 2 gig ECC dimms and I'm seeing a 40% failure rate from multiple manufacturers. They stacked the damn chips one on top of another. There's no where for the heat to go. Of course they're going to fail.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
1 horsepower ~= 746W.
The horsepower of our computers has gone from figurative to literal.
One rack of these could theoretically consume more power than this: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/coupe/112_0107 _2000_mini_cooper_sport/
Will noone think of the salmon? http://riversideca.apogee.net/foe/fgphe.asp
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Supermicro states quite high PSU requirements. I have few 1U systems that have only 250 W systems even if the motherboard spec says minimum 350 W. However, no stablity problems even with add-on cards.
I guess they only want to play safe and do not want anyone to complain about instability because of too weak PSU.
That's the dumbest post ever. 1U means a rackmount unit of height. Boxes are in multiples of said unit [look it up on wikipedia]. 1U is the smallest you can get [roughly 2 inches high or so]. 2U or 3U is more typical for 4P boxes, so a well ventilated functional 1U 4P box would be impressive.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
The v40z is 3U. It is actually manufactured by Newisys, which was the first AMD validated server platform. My company makes servers based on the same thing. The newer models do support the dual-core chips. Quad dual-core opterons are a sight to see in action.
The supermicro 1U quad is definitely cool, but only for some applications. For example, it can only take 3 hard drives, and only has 1 expansion slot.
-Randy
I'll take the quadX2 anyday :) Much less maintenance required for about the same amount of fun time :)
Because when AC and DC is involved, people get confused: It all goes wrong when a radio contestent is asked to spell AC/DC and can't.
Exigo spamos et dona ferentes
some of thoes boards have HyperTransport slots, pci-x, pci-e, scsi and sata. Thay sell them as
o n/nForce/H8DCE.cfm
o n/nForce/H8DCi.cfm
o n/nForce/H8DC8.cfm
High-End PCI-e Graphics (SLI Supported)
High Performance Gaming Workstation
http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/Opter
1. Dual AMD® Opteron(TM) Support, (Dual Core Ready) 1000 MHz HyperTransport Link
2. nVidia® nForce Pro 2200 (CK804) / nVidia® nForce Pro 2050 (CKIO4) Chipset
3. Up to 16GB DDR400 SDRAM (or) Up to 16GB DDR333 SDRAM (or) Up to 32GB DDR266 SDRAM
4. Dual-port Gigabit LAN / Ethernet Controller
5. 8 SATA ports
6. 2 (x16) PCI-Express, 2 (x4 using x8 slot) PCI-Express, 3 32-bit 33MHz PCI
7. AC97 6 channel Audio
8. 8 Fan support with Speed Control
H8DCE-HTe is the same with
1 HyperTransport slot, 2(x16) PCI-Express, 1 (x4 using x8 slot) PCI-Express, 3 32-bit 33MHz PCI
http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/Opter
1. Dual AMD® Opteron(TM) Support, (Dual Core Ready) 1000 MHz HyperTransport Link
2. nVidia® nForce Pro 2200 (CK804) / nVidia® nForce Pro 2050 (CKIO4) / AMD8132 Chipset
3. Up to 16GB DDR400 SDRAM (or) Up to 32GB DDR333 SDRAM (or) Up to 32GB DDR266 SDRAM
4. 2 Single-port Gigabit (CK804/IO4) LAN / Ethernet Controller
5. 4 SATA ports
6. 2 PCI-Express x16, 1 PCI-Express x4, 2 PCI-X 133/100MHz, 1 PCI-X 100MHz, 1 32-bit 33MHz PCI
7. AC97 6 channel Audio
8. 8 Fan support with Speed Control
http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/Opter
1. Dual AMD® Opteron(TM) Support, (Dual Core Ready) 1000 MHz HyperTransport Link
2. nVidia® nForce Pro 2200 (CK804) / nVidia® nForce Pro 2050 (CKIO4) / AMD8132 Chipset
3. Up to 16GB DDR400 SDRAM (or) Up to 32GB DDR333 SDRAM (or) Up to 32GB DDR266 SDRAM
4. 2 Single-port Gigabit (CK804/IO4) LAN / Ethernet Controller
5. 4 SATA ports
6. 2 PCI-Express x16, 1 PCI-Express x4, 2 PCI-X 133/100MHz, 1 PCI-X 100MHz, 1 32-bit 33MHz PCI
7. AC97 6 channel Audio
8. 8 Fan support with Speed Control
SCSI * Dual Ultra320 SCSI drives with Host RAID * Adaptec AIC-7902W Dual-Channel Controller
ZCR * Supports Supermicro All-In-One Zero Channel RAID card AOC-LPZCR1 (or) * Adaptec 2010S or Adaptec 2020S
They spec a 1000W supply. The board does not use all that, but they need so many amps at 12V and so on so it takes 1000W supply to handle the load reliably. A typical PC has a 350W supply but only uses 200W fully loaded.
4 drives X 20W =80W
4 CPUs X 100W= 400W
16!!! sticks of RAM X 10W =160W
mobo itself X 20W = 20W
Comes to 660W but the power supply and fans use some so I would say 800W would be enough. The extra is just to be safe and to meet peak current loads on every line.
Reminds me of a hot air soldering gun we used in the old days, like a hair dryer on steroids. The layout is interesting. I wonder if heat pipes or water cooling would be a more sane approach. This would make a beautiful X terminal server. Probably it could handle 300 clients easily. Fully tricked out the cost might be:
4 dual core CPUs X $1000=$4000
mobo=$1000
RAM=$3000
4 250 gB drives $500
power supply $500
Total $9000, about $30/client! A bargain!
A problem is an opportunity http://mrpogson.com
"It also consumes 1000 watts of power."
WRONG!
The board requires a 1000 Watt power supply, not neccesarily 1000 watts of power. The power supply is the upper limit of how much the board can consume. Most computers come with a 300 watt power supply even though they normally use only about 100 Watts.
That being said, this board probably consumes quite a bit of power (but much less than 1000 watts) if it needs such a heavy duty power supply.
Fast Federal Court and I.T.C. updates
If, on the other hand, you use Google to search for 1u, the very first link gives a nice, detailed explanation on exactly what 1U means.
Don't underestimate the power of The Source
Finally.. Nethack in hi-def...
That's funny because A plus, in French, means "See you soon". This is probably a disguised message Supermicro is sending to Intel :-)
And here I thought there were only three of these guys. Ooooh wrong thing.
1U is exactly 1.75" high. It's an old standard for putting the holes in 19" and 24" racks, designed to allow devices of different heights to be stacked efficiently by having the screw holes laid out according to certain well-defined patterns. The patterns are quite old, and caused a lot of problems when the US tried to switch to metric (and basically failed in the computer manufacturing industry).
while you could you water cooling, it would mean you would have to probally need 1U for the radiator for it. What would probally work better would be fans for the processors, and the controller and then an enclosed Rack with cold air blowing in to the entire Rack.
If, on the other hand, you use Google to search for 1u, the very first link gives a nice, detailed explanation on exactly what 1U means.
Are you feelin' lucky? Well, are you? Punk!
--Xandu
...beowulf cluster of these would do.
Run Vista?
All of the original Opteron 1xx and some of the current ones are Socket 940. ISTR reading something about AMD phasing out or increasing prices on 939 Opterons to discourage overclockers.
Excellent info about the PCI Express slots and lanes. It can be confusing that certain motherboard slots will physically accommodate lane configurations that they don't actually support.
I have a VIA mini-itx board that I run as a Web, mail, and MySQL server in my basement. I got the board used, with the 12 volt dc power supply. I use one of these with a small emergency lighting battery for a simple, efficient UPS. The board has a 1 GHZ processor, and draws on average about 3 amps at 12 volts. It should run for about an hour on backup; luckilly I haven't had to test that lately :).
Saying "I'll probably get modded down for this" in a post is the best way to get it modded up.
If we are going to run 1000W, EPS 12V etc.
Why not use a quad socket mobo that can have dual procs for 8 cores? Sun and Tyan both have them. Supermicro is on the catchup.
Especially with driver support. I've seen a lot of machines that are completely unstable with ATI cards that behave properly with Nvidia cards, under Windows. The dual-head support on Nvidia is much more reliable in my experience, as well.
I would use Nforce 4 mobos for any new AMD system running Windows - and it would be my second choice (after Intel) for the Intel processor machines as well.
Driver stability is rather hard to acheive (as any Windows admin can tell you), so any company that has a good track record of stable drivers is on my short list of favored suppliers.
</fanboy>
Why can't I mod "-1 Idiot"?
RTF Title:
Supermicro Announces Quad-Opteron 1U Motherboard
If you have 8 cores in there along with a full load of RAM and a couple of 10krpm hard disks, how THE HELL do you get all of the heat out?
Nice. Took me a moment to get it.
You can see the server platform (Chassis + motherboard) in the following brochure:
h ure.pdf
http://www.supermicro.com/manuals/brochure/A+Broc
-Randy
Seems this company has been at it a while. My "HTPC" system is an ancient Supermicro board providing a dual Pentium 3 setup backwards compatible (via a jumper to switch the FSB) with Pentium 2 processors. This is back in a time where dual processor was almost server only, yet, this solution was affordable enough that we could get several of these for various people, one including myself, and useful enough that I haven't thrown away the thing yet today (I still use it as a server as well.) I'm not saying they are pioneers or anything, but, they know what they are doing and have practice at it.
Let's say your electricity costs you $0.10 per kilowatt-hour. This machine will cost nearly $75/month to operate:
1000watts / 1000 = 1kW-hour to operate for one hour
( 1 kw-hour * 24hours per day * 365 days / 12 months ) * $0.10 == $73.00 / month
The original MacPortables (including backlit) could not power up without their battery for this very reason. The 1.5A power supply wasn't enough to initially spin the hard disk. If you used a later 2.0A or 2.5A powerbooko supply, they could start without the battery.
hawk, who still has his