SuperBlade promises high I/O flexibility

Article By : Super Micro Computer

The SuperBlade targets AI applications requiring low latency and high throughput.

Super Micro Computer Inc. (SMCI) has announced its X11 8U SuperBlade systems that will incorporate the Intel Omni-Path Architecture (Intel OPA), which supports the upcoming Intel Xeon Processor Scalable Family (Skylake).

According to SMCI, the X11 SuperBlade is a density and performance-optimised solution for high performance and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The SuperBlade system supports up to 20x 2-socket servers, 10x 4-socket servers or 20x Xeon Phi based servers, as well as 1x 100G Intel OPA or 100G EDR InfiniBand switch and 2x 10G/25G or 4x 25G Ethernet switches, with open industry standard remote management software for both servers, storage and networking.

The integrated 100G Intel OPA switch is optimised for applications that require low latency and high throughput. It can scale to thousands of nodes for high-performance workloads and provides adaptive routing to discover the least congested path, dispersive routing for multiple routes for redundancy and load balancing, packet integrity protection to allow the recovery of transient errors and lane scaling to deal with lane failure. The enclosure has optional Battery Backup Power (BBP) modules replacing high cost datacentre UPS systems for reliability and data protection.