Lenovo ThinkEdge SE450 a 300mm Deep Edge GPU AI Server Launched

Lenovo has a new edge server that is less than 12 inches or 300mm deep. In this shallow chassis, Lenovo has a single-socket system as well as room for two double-width or four single-width GPUs. The Lenovo ThinkEdge SE450 underwent three shipping prototype revisions incorporating feedback to create a very dense edge AI platform.

Lenovo ThinkEdge SE450 a 300mm Deep Edge GPU AI Server

In terms of Lenovo’s mainstream edge servers, the ThinkEdge SE450 is the company’s flagship. This is semi-rugged but also designed to be quiet and short-depth so it can be installed at the edge in places such as retailers.

One quick note here, previously, Lenovo’s top-end edge system was the ThinkSystem SE350. Lenovo is now using ThinkEdge as the branding for its new systems. Here is the video review of the ThinkSystem SE350, but keep in mind this was just as the pandemic lockdown started and we started doing more video content.

While Lenovo primarily discusses the 300mm version, there is also a 360mm version (perhaps this is the dust cover version) as well. The system supports a single CPU and is an Ice Lake 3rd gen Intel Xeon platform. It is designed for up to 225W and that means up to 36 cores. Storage is a bit constrained due to the short depth. Still one gets up to two double-width GPUs or four double-width GPUs and up to 600W of combined accelerator TDP in this system. We asked, and Lenovo says there will be options for other accelerators beyond NVIDIA GPUs.

The server itself is perhaps what could be called semi-rugged. It has a number of weatherproofing options but is not fully rugged like one would stick on the back of a vehicle. This is designed more to be deployed in retail and smart city locations where there are more reasonable temperature variations than some of the extreme ruggedized testing extends to (e.g. not -40C.)

Lenovo also has features such as its chassis intrusion protection, to ensure these machines are not being tampered with. That was a big feature we found on the SE350 when we did that review.

In terms of where it fits in the range, this again is the higher-end 2U server in a short-depth rackmount enclosure.

We just reviewed the Lenovo SE50 on that list about a month ago. While we have not reviewed the SE30, that is a more ruggedized version of the ThinkCentre M90n-IoT we reviewed.

Overall, Lenovo is building out a large set of solutions spanning different capability points.

Final Words

Lenovo says it has customers, but these seem to be pre-GA customers. The actual availability will be in March 2022. Coincidentally Mobile World Congress 2022 ends in March 2022.

This system looks very cool and we already requested to review it since we have looked at 2U edge systems from a number of other server vendors already.