At IDF13 in San Francisco, ASUS announced support for the new Intel Xeon E5-2600 V2 and E5-1600 V2 server platforms. This includes updating its server products for the new processors through BIOS updates. As we have seen with Supermicro, Gigabyte, and Tyan this is a common practice in the industry for this release. Existing owners benefit from the new, higher core-count and lower power consumption Ivy Bridge-EP architecture. New purchasers will get the benefits of utilizing platforms that are very expandable and that have been tested and tweaked for a significant period of time. Certainly this is an expected upgrade but good to see continued ASUS support in this area. Here is the official press release:
ASUS today announced that its new-generation E7 servers, Z9P server boards, ESC4000 G2 and ESC2000 G2 workstations and Z9PE-D8 WS, P9X79-E WS and P9X79 WS workstation boards support the latest Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v2 processors.
The new ASUS server and workstation products designed for Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors — previously codenamed Ivy Bridge-EP — provide extreme computing power, highly optimized power efficiency and great scalability, making them the perfect fit for demanding enterprise environments.
ASUS servers and server boards also offer easy-to-use remote server management, via ASUS System Web-based Management (ASWM) Enterprise and ASMB6-iKVM, an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) 2.0-compliant remote-server-management module.
More power, more efficient, more secure
The latest ASUS servers, server boards, workstations and workstation boards are built to fully exploit the potential of Intel’s new Xeon E5-2600 v2 processor family. ASUS E7, Z9P, ESC4000 G2, ESC2000 G2, Z9PE-D8 WS and P9X79-E WS series products with Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors deliver high raw computing power, with clock speeds of up to 3.5GHz and core counts up to 12 (24 threads).
The latest 22nm manufacturing process and three-dimensional ‘tri-gate’ transistor technology have reduced power demands, meaning ASUS enterprise products fitted with Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors offer better energy efficiency than ever before. ASUS servers and ESC series workstations also include 80 Plus-certified power supplies that are at least 80% efficient, reducing power consumption and lowering energy bills.
Highly expandable and super-fast data transfers
The new-generation ASUS servers, server boards, workstation and workstation boards feature multiple PCI Express 3.0 slots for the addition of graphics cards and other add-on cards. One expansion slot is reserved for the ASUS PIKE (Proprietary I/O Kit Expansion) card, providing a simple and cost-effective path for SAS/SATA storage upgrades for multiple RAID configurations.
All models include SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connectivity for fast data transfers — of up to 5Gbit/s.
Flexible remote management
The new-generation ASUS enterprise products offer advanced remote-management options via ASWM Enterprise and the ASMB6-iKVM module. ASWM Enterprise provides an easy-to-use graphical interface allowing for simple, centralized asset management, including BIOS flashing and power control, while the IPMI 2.0-compliant ASMB6-iKVM module enables out-of-band (or lights-out management) of equipment – so control can be gained even if the remote equipment is powered off.
