First 1U 4-Opteron server out now

[Black Jack]

I think that this is the first 1U 4-CPU Opteron servers I've seen so
far. Previous Opteron servers were either 1U or they were 4P, but not
both at the same time. I'm betting that this type of server has become
available because of the 30W low-power Opterons now being produced.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-18-2004/0002130266&EDATE=

Yousuf Khan

 

[Tony Hill]

I think that this is the first 1U 4-CPU Opteron servers I've seen so
far. Previous Opteron servers were either 1U or they were 4P, but not
both at the same time. I'm betting that this type of server has become
available because of the 30W low-power Opterons now being produced.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-18-2004/0002130266&EDATE=

It's also available because Tyan just released the first off-the-shelf
4P Opteron motherboard (Thunder K8QS). Previously ALL the 4P Opteron
servers were based off the AMD/Celestica design for a complete server,
so companies like Appro didn't really have the option to build their
own 4P server. Now that Tyan has this board out, it's relatively easy
to throw it into all sorts of fairly generic rack-mount cases, though
obviously cooling and power for this beast are going to be somewhat
non-trivial.

Still, it doesn't look like Appro is limiting this server to only the
30W or 55W Opteron chips. As best as I can tell, they are offering
any one of the Opteron models in this server. The power supply is a
fairly large (for a 1U case) custom job, while cooling seems to be
accomplished with only 3 blowers (albeit rather large and probably
quite powerful blowers).

Anyway, they're certainly packing a lot of computing power into a
pretty small space. Could be an excellent system for an HPC cluster,
which seems to be the marketing they're targeting. FWIW here's the
Appro product page for the server:

http://www.appro.com/product/server_1142h.asp

 

[Mark Hahn]

both at the same time. I'm betting that this type of server has become
I don't see why. how much heat do you think you can extract from
1U using non-supersonic airflow and incoming air at say, 20C?

It's also available because Tyan just released the first off-the-shelf
4P Opteron motherboard (Thunder K8QS). Previously ALL the 4P Opteron

I'm a bit mystified why this has taken so long, since Opteron's glueless
design doesn't add any components for going to 4 from 2 CPUs. of course,
it's a big board, lots of power regulation, lots of space taken up by
dimms, etc. maybe the answer is simply that Tyan/etc think the market
is fairly small.

let's see, I'd love to buy a whole room full of these quads with 844's,
probably: 80W max. 10 dimms at 3W, random other chips, maybe 20W,
say, 4 disks at 10W. total 410W, figure maybe 80% efficient PS,
throw in ~20% for kicks, and you get 615W.

admittedly, that power dissipation is more like what I'm used to seeing in
2U's (HP RX2600, for instance).

otoh, that 615 is pretty worst-case. my dual 240's today dissipate around
200W under load, so I wouldn't expect a quad to more than double that.

fairly large (for a 1U case) custom job, while cooling seems to be
accomplished with only 3 blowers (albeit rather large and probably
quite powerful blowers).

two blowers on a 1U is fairly common today...

 

[Tony Hill]

I don't see why. how much heat do you think you can extract from
1U using non-supersonic airflow and incoming air at say, 20C?


I'm a bit mystified why this has taken so long, since Opteron's glueless
design doesn't add any components for going to 4 from 2 CPUs. of course,
it's a big board, lots of power regulation, lots of space taken up by
dimms, etc. maybe the answer is simply that Tyan/etc think the market
is fairly small.

I think you've pretty much answered your own question. Unknown market
size and, even though the Opteron does glueless SMP, throwing 4
processors and their associated memory on a single board, along with
the needed glue for I/O and all the power regulation is definitely not
a trivial task.

let's see, I'd love to buy a whole room full of these quads with 844's,
probably: 80W max. 10 dimms at 3W, random other chips, maybe 20W,
say, 4 disks at 10W. total 410W, figure maybe 80% efficient PS,
throw in ~20% for kicks, and you get 615W.

Interesting FWIW, the power supply is a 500W model.

admittedly, that power dissipation is more like what I'm used to seeing in
2U's (HP RX2600, for instance).

otoh, that 615 is pretty worst-case. my dual 240's today dissipate around
200W under load, so I wouldn't expect a quad to more than double that.

The problem with a room full of these is that you're total power (and
therefore heat) density is going to be pretty high. Even just a
couple of these things should do a good job of heating up a server
room. Throw a dozen or more into a room and you'll need some decent
air conditioning. Not that this isn't a problem that we've seen
before, it's just a bit higher power density than normal.