SeaMicro SM15000 Server Fabric Compute Systems Review

SeaMicro SM15000 Server Fabric Compute Systems Review

By Admin 13 January 2013 0 comments
  • SeaMicro SM15000 Fabric Compute Systems

Unprecedented Computing Efficiency for Virtualization, Cloud Computing and Big Data
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000™ is a revolutionary server that brings together compute, networking, and the SeaMicro Freedom™ supercompute fabric in a single 10 RU system. The SM15000 delivers 64 sockets of AMD’s octal core Opteron™, Intel® quad core Xeon® (“Ivy Bridge”, “Sandy Bridge”) or 256 sockets of Intel® dual core Intel® Atom™ processors. The SM15000 delivers best-in-class energy efficiency, density and bandwidth while dramatically reducing CAPEX and the OPEX associated with server deployment and management.

SeaMicro SM15000 Server Fabric Compute Systems Review screenshot 1

Highest Density, Most Energy-Efficient and Built for Tomorrow’s Data Center

AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000™ family of Fabric Compute Systems delivers a revolutionarydata center platform that brings together compute, networking, and storage in a single unified 10 Rack Unit (RU) energy efficient system. It significantly reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) by eliminating the need for IT organizations to acquire and manage a disparate set of servers, network adapters, network switches, storage platforms, and console servers. The SeaMicro SM15000 family also delivers unparalleled density and flexibility with offerings based on AMD and Intel processors. Fabric Servers can be provisioned on-demand through a unified management console and right-sized with needed storage and network resources to best meet application demands.


SeaMicro SM15000 CPU Configuration Options
SM15000-OP:
64 Octal Core Servers with AMD Opteron™ processors
(2.0/2.3/2.8 GHz, 8 “Piledriver” cores)
SM15000-XN:
64 Quad Core Servers with Intel® Xeon®
processors E3-1265Lv2
(“Ivy Bridge” microarchitecture)
(2.5/3.1/3.5 GHz, 4 cores/8 threads)
SM15000-XE:
64 Quad Core Servers with
Intel® Xeon® processors
E3-1260L (“Sandy Bridge” microarchitecture)
(2.4/2.5/3.3 GHz, 4 cores/8 threads)
SM15000-64:
256 Dual Core Servers
with Intel® Atom™ processor  N570 (1.66 GHz, 2 cores/4 threads)



SeaMicro SM15000 Server Fabric Compute Systems Overview



SeaMicro SM15000 Server Fabric Compute Systems Review screenshot 2 overview

Features and Benefits

Fabric Servers – Range of Offerings from AMD and Intel Allowing Customers to Match Servers to Application Workload

The SeaMicro SM15000 family of Fabric Compute Systems offers a choice of multiple energy efficient CPUs to best meet application workloads. The platform supports both small core and large core servers. It can be configured with 256 Intel® Atom™ x86-64 microprocessors for scale out workloads typically found in Web Front End and Big Data applications. The SM15000 also can be configured with 64 AMD Opteron™ or Intel® Xeon® processors (“Ivy Bridge” or “Sandy Bridge” microarchitecture) for Cloud, intense Java and PHP applications.


SeaMicro Freedom™ Fabric Storage – High Capacity Storage Reducing the Need for Expensive SAN/NAS
SeaMicro SM15000 Fabric Compute Systems integrate shared block storage, allowing storage resources to be dynamically provisioned and connected to any server across the high bandwidth, low latency Freedom™ Fabric. Physical disks are combined into volumes and optionally protected with Hardware RAID from which virtual disks are created and shared across one or more servers. With Freedom™ Fabric Storage a high performing Hadoop solution with 64 Intel Xeon- or AMD Opteron-based servers, over two Terabytes of storage capacity and 160 Gbps of network bandwidth out of the rack can be deployed in a standard 42 RU data center rack without the need for hundreds of cables and top of rack switching. This sets apart the SeaMicro SM15000 from other rack mount and blade servers that only provide direct attached storage or access to storage networks, thereby reducing the need for expensive HBA, RAID, SAN, and NAS.


Fabric Switch – Integrated High Performance Layer-2 Networking
With integrated high performance Layer-2 Ethernet switching, the SeaMicro SM15000 server eliminates the need for a pair of Top of Rack (TOR) switches. The fabric interconnects servers via a high bandwidth, low latency 1.28 Tbps fabric. Traffic can be ingressed/egressed to the fabric with up to 16 x 10 GbE or 64 x 1 GbE programmable network processor uplink cards. The uplink cards are shared across servers and connect directly into the Freedom Fabric enabling customers to configure in increments of 2 x 10 GbE or 8 x 1 GbE.


Freedom Fabric – High Bandwidth, Low Latency, Reliable Supercompute Interconnect
At the heart of the SeaMicro SM15000 is a low latency fabric with 1.28 Tbps bandwidth, interconnecting server, storage, and networking resources. It eliminates the need to manage separate data and storage devices, reducing complexity and operational cost. Freedom Fabric seamlessly transports network and storage traffic on independent classes of service, thereby minimizing congestion and providing robust loss protection required for block storage transport. Freedom Fabric uses a patented Torus architecture which connects resources in 3-dimensions providing multiple redundant paths between resources and eliminating single points of failure.


Freedom™ ASIC 2.0 – Industry’s only Second Generation Fabric Technology
The Freedom™ ASIC is the building block of SeaMicro Fabric Compute Systems, enabling interconnection of energy efficient servers in a 3-dimensional Torus Fabric. The second generation Freedom ASIC includes high performance network interfaces, storage connectivity, and advanced server management, thereby eliminating the need for multiple sets of network adapters, HBAs, cables, and switches. This results in unmatched density, energy efficiency, and lowered TCO. Some of the key technologies in ASIC 2.0 include:
  •  SeaMicro Input/Output Virtualization Technology (IOTV™) eliminates all but three components from SeaMicro’s motherboard—CPU, DRAM, and the ASIC itself—thereby shrinking the motherboard, while reducing power, cost and space.
  • SeaMicro new TIO™ (Turn It Off) technology enables SeaMicro to further power-optimize the mini motherboard by turning off unneeded CPU and chipset functions. Together, SeaMicro’s I/O Virtualization Technology and TIO technology produce the smallest and most power efficient server motherboards available.
  • SeaMicro Freedom Supercompute Fabric built of multiple Freedom ASICs working together, creating a 1.28 terabits per-second fabric that ties together 64 of the power-optimized mini-motherboards at low latency and low power with massive bandwidth.
  • SeaMicro Freedom Fabric Storage technology allows the Freedom supercompute fabric to extend out of the chassis and across the data center linking not just components inside the chassis, but also those outside as well.


Unified Management – Easily Provision and Manage Servers, Network, and Storage Resources on Demand
The SeaMicro SM15000 implements a rich management system providing unified management of servers, network, and storage. Resources can be rapidly deployed, managed, and repurposed remotely, enabling lights-off data center operations. It offers a broad set of management API including an industry standard CLI, SNMP, IPMI, syslog, and XEN APIs, allowing customers to seamlessly integrate the SeaMicro SM15000 into existing data center management environments.


Redundancy and Availability – Engineered from the Ground Up to Eliminate Single Points of Failure
The SeaMicro SM15000 is designed for the most demanding environments, helping to ensure availability of compute, network, storage, and system management. At the heart of the system is the Freedom Fabric, interconnecting all resources in the system, with the ability to sustain multiple points of failure and allow live component servicing. All active components in the system can be configured redundant and are hot-swappable, including server cards, network uplink cards, storage controller cards, system management cards, disks, fan trays, and power supplies. Key resources can also be configured to be protected in the following ways:

Compute – A shared spare server can be configured to act as a standby spare for multiple primary servers. In the event of failure, the primary server’s personality, including MAC address, assigned disks, and boot configuration can be migrated to the standby spare and brought back online – ensuring fast restoration of services from a remote location.

Network – The highly available fabric ensures network connectivity is maintained between servers and storage in the event of path failure. For uplink high-availability, the system can be configured with multiple uplink modules and port channels providing redundant active/active interfaces.
Storage – The highly available fabric ensures that servers can access fabric storage in the event of failures. The fabric storage system also provides an efficient, high utilization optional hardware RAID to protect data in case of disk failure.


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The Industry’s First Data Center in a Box
AMD’s SeaMicro SM15000 family of Fabric Compute Systems provides the equivalent of 32 1RU dual socket servers, massive bandwidth, top of rack Ethernet switching, and high capacity shared storage, with centralized management in a small, compact 10RU form factor. In addition, it provides an integrated server console management for unified management. The SeaMicro SM15000 dramatically reduces CAPEX and significantly reduces the ongoing OPEX of deploying discreet compute, networking, storage, and management systems.


SeaMicro SM15000 Server Fabric Compute Systems CPU Options and Specifications



SeaMicro SM15000 Server Fabric Compute Systems Review screenshot 4 cpu options and specifications



Data taken from http://www.seamicro.com/products/sm15000 (accessed on Jan 13, 2013) Share this post on SeaMicro SM15000 Server Fabric Compute Systems Review

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