It seems that 2015 is the year that GPU/Xeon Phi server solutions have started to really take off. We are seeing increasingly widespread adoption of these systems alongside the latest Intel Haswell EP Xeon processor and platforms. We are going to take a look at two Supermicro X10 generation GPU/ Xeon Phi compute systems in the near future. These Supermicro systems can install four GPU/Xeon Phi’s into a 1U server and then go all the way to eight GPU/Xeon Phi’s in a 4U system and we will be testing both ends of the spectrum. GPU compute power has also increased with new products from NVIDIA and the K80 Tesla card, and also the new AMD S9150 cards. Later this year we will see a major revamp of the Xeon Phi line with HBM and x86 architectures that will be game changers. Patrick already reviewed the Supermicro X10DRG-Q found in the SYS-7048GR and now we are turning attention to some of the rackmount options.
Supermicro has a wide range of solutions that cover just about every conceivable deployment, from extremely dense solutions to systems with only one card. We are going to test both a 1U platform and a 4U platform to cover the spectrum.
GPU/Xeon Phi compute servers fit into a wide range of compute environments for a few key application segments.
Systems like these have been around for a while but with the new X10 platforms and latest GPU offerings from NVIDIA and AMD substantial increases in compute performance offer compelling upgrade paths.
Our first test system will be a Supermicro 1028GQ-TRT which is a 1U 4x GPU SuperServer solution. Our test system is outfitted with 4x AMD S9150 cards, 2x Intel Xeon E5-2699 V3’s and 256GB of DDR4. This is a very compact system that offers up the largest number of GPU expansion cards in the 1U form factor. Here is a breakdown of the features the 1028GQ-TRT which we will be reviewing shortly:
With limited space in this dense chassis there is room for 2x hot swap drive bays up front and 2x drive bays right behind those. For the most part the front is populated with cooling fans that cool the entire system, several fans are located on the left side to cool the GPU in the back of the server. GPU’s are mounted in brackets that have 90-degree PCIe adapters that connect to the main motherboard.
Next in the Lab is the much larger SYS-4028GR-TRT 4U 8x GPU SuperServer solution. This system offers larger PCIe GPU/ Xeon Phi capacity and expanded storage options.
Our test system is outfitted with 8x AMD S9150 cards, 2x Intel Xeon E5-2699 V3’s and 256GB of DDR4. The front of the server has 24 hard drive bays at the bottom of the chassis, while the top half is open for airflow into the large cooling fans located on the main fan bar.
When larger compute capacity and expanded storage options are required the SYS-4028GR-TRT is able to fill those needs with 8x GPU/Xeon Phi’s and up to 24 hot-swap storage bays. Three PCIe slots, of which, 2x x8 PCIe 3.0 are available in the back of the server allow for additional storage cards to be installed. With 4x 1.6kW power supplies, the system is architected to take up to 3.2kW of power.
We have only just received these two systems in the lab and we will be running performance tests very soon. We are in the process of upgrading the STH datacenter lab to be able to handle larger systems like multiple fully loaded SYS-4028GR-TRT systems in the future, so expect more reviews of these types of systems coming in the future.
