Recently, STH had its Supermicro BigTwin SYS-2029BZ-HNR Review. This 2U4N server is an update to the previous Xeon E5 Supermicro BigTwin. Now, there is a new update that is even more exciting. The newest Supermicro BigTwin E1.S has even more storage capabilities than the one we recently reviewed. This new BigTwin is being released alongside new next-generation form factor systems that Supermicro is calling their 1U Petascale Systems.
Supermicro BigTwin E1.S
Although we expect most of the Supermicro BigTwin E1.S to be similar to the one that we reviewed, we see an important difference on the front panel. Instead of 6x U.2 NVMe SSDs, there are twelve drive bays. Ten are E1.S form factor NVMe SSDs and there are two M.2 SATA SSD slots for applications like boot drives.
Supermicro BigTwin E1.S is based on the Intel Xeon Scalable family. Like the unit we reviewed, this one is capable of supporting 205W CPUs like the Intel Xeon Platinum 8280 and Platinum 8180. Further, the solution can support 24 DIMMs per node. With four nodes per 2U chassis, this is a strong hyper-converged appliance.
New 1U Petascale Systems
Along with the Supermicro BigTwin E1.S, Supermicro is also highlighting three new systems it calls its 1U Petascale Systems. Two are based on the EDSFF E1.L and E1.S form factors. One is based on NF1.
Here are the key details:
- 1U Petascale E1.L with 32x E1.L slot support
- 1U Petascale E1.S with 32x E1.S slot support and only a 30” depth
- 1U Petascale NF1 is a supports 36x NF1 NVMe SSDs
The two EDSFF systems are currently billed as supporting NVMe SSDs. In the future, EDSFF is designed to also support things like accelerators. EDSFF supports both a PCIe connection and better cooling than U.2 so companies are eyeing other applications of the form factor.
