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GIGABYTE Dual-Socket ARM-based Servers Announced

by Lyle Smith
written by Lyle Smith

GIGABYTE Technology has announced the R182-P91, R282-P91, R282-P92 and H262-P61 high-density, ARM-based compute servers, supporting up to a massive 256 CPU cores. These new servers are designed for cloud-native applications using Ampere Altra processors that support dual socket configurations.

GIGABYTE Technology has announced the R182-P91, R282-P91, R282-P92 and H262-P61 high-density, ARM-based compute servers, supporting up to a massive 256 CPU cores. These new servers are designed for cloud-native applications using Ampere Altra processors that support dual socket configurations.

New R-series Servers

The new R182-P91, R282-P91, R282-P92 rack servers are ideal for those who need dual-socket, high-density compute platforms with comprehensive storage options, such as consistent NVMe SSD performance.

Its dual-socket Ampere design allows for an available 192 PCIe Gen4 lanes, which brings a range of potential storage, professional GPUs, and networking. R182 and R282 servers powered by ARM CPUs allow all NVMe SSDs to transfer data via Mini Cool Edge IO (MCIO) connectors (Note: For the R282-P91, OCP 3.0 slots are also leveraged to support NVMe SSDs).

The benefits of MCIO are certainly evident. It offers twice the amount of PCIe lane support when compared to SlimSAS, reducing cabling requirements and simplifying design for an overall improvement of server airflow. It also brings more flexibility to expansion slots for low-profile GPUs.

Flexible storage is another big factor that makes these servers stand out. The R282-P91 has dedicated 2.5” NVMe SSD support on the front side with four SATA HDD/SSDs in the rear. The R282-P92, however, is equipped with six bays that support both the higher-capacity 3.5” HDDs and faster 2.5” SATA SSDs up front, while the remaining six are dedicated to NVMe SSDs.

Looking at the 1U R182 series, the size of the -P91 has been reduced to support 2.5” SSDs. Half the amount of drive bays are for hybrid NVMe/SATA SSDs while the other half is dedicated to NVMe SSDs.

New H-series Server

The H262-P61 has no thermal limitations and can sustain peak, consistent performance due to its optimal airflow. This multi-node H-series server supports up to eight CPUs for a whopping 1,024 ARM-based CPU cores in a traditional 2U server.

GIGABYTE has opted to remove some of the front bays (i.e., less storage capacity potential) of the new H262-P61 server as a trade off to improve airflow. They indicate that this change was necessary in order to offer consistent, stable, and high-performance compute for Ampere processors such as the Ampere Altra Max M128-30 (128 cores and a 250W TDP).

Those who put greater importance on storage vs. clock speed, number of core and max TDP might find that its predecessor (H262-P60) would be a better choice.

R182-P91 Specifications

Dimensions (WxHxD, mm) 1U: 438 x 43.5 x 730
Motherboard MP92-FS0
CPU Ampere Altra Max Processor / Dual processors, 7nm technology
Up to 128-core per processor, TDP 250W
Expansion Slots
  • Riser Card CRS101J:
    • 1 x PCIe x16 slot (Gen4 x16), Full height half-length
  • Riser Card CRS101K:
    • 1 x PCIe x16 slot (Gen4 x16), Full height half-length
    • 2 x OCP 3.0 Gen4 x16 mezzanine slots
  • 1 x M.2 slot:
    • M-key
    • PCIe Gen4 x4
    • Supports 2242/2260/2280/22110 cards
Internal I/O
  • 1 x M.2 slot
  • 1 x TPM header
  • 1 x Front panel header
  • 1 x HDD/SSD back plane board header
  • 1 x PMBus connector
  • 1 x IPMB connector
  • 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
Front I/O
  • 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1
  • 1 x Power button with LED
  • 1 x ID button with LED
  • 1 x Reset button
  • 2 x LAN activity LEDs
  • 1 x SSD activity LED
  • 1 x System status LED
Rear I/O
  • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1
  • 1 x mini-DP
  • 2 x RJ45
  • 1 x MLAN
Memory
  • 32 x DIMM slots – DDR4 memory supported only
  • 8-Channel memory architecture
  • RDIMM modules up to 256GB supported
  • LRDIMM modules up to 256GB supported
  • Up to 4TB of memory capacity supported per processor
  • Memory speed: Up to 3200 MHz

R282-P91 Specifications

Dimensions (WxHxD, mm) 2U: 438 x 87 x 730 mm
Motherboard MP92-FS0
CPU Ampere Altra Max Processor /  Dual processors, 7nm technology
Up to 128-core per processor, TDP 250W
Expansion Slots
  • Riser Card CRS101J:
    • 1 x PCIe x16 slot (Gen4 x16), Full height half-length
  • Riser Card CRS101K:
    • 1 x PCIe x16 slot (Gen4 x16), Full height half-length
  • Riser Card CRS202G:
    • 1 x PCIe x16 slot (Gen4 x16), Full height half-length
      (Note: 1 PCIe slot is disabled)
  • Riser Card CRS202H:
    • 1 x PCIe x16 slot (Gen4 x16), Full height half-length (Note: 1 PCIe slot is disabled)
    • 2 x OCP 3.0 Gen4 x16 mezzanine slots (Disabled)
  • 1 x M.2 slot:
    • M-key
    • PCIe Gen4 x4
    • Supports 2242/2260/2280/22110 cards
Internal I/O
  • 1 x M.2 slot
  • 1 x TPM header
  • 1 x Front panel header
  • 1 x HDD/SSD back plane board header
  • 1 x PMBus connector
  • 1 x IPMB connector
  • 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
Front I/O
  • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1
  • 1 x Power button with LED
  • 1 x ID button with LED
  • 1 x Reset button
  • 2 x LAN activity LEDs
  • 1 x SSD activity LED
  • 1 x System status LED
Rear I/O
  • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1
  • 1 x mini-DP
  • 2 x RJ45
  • 1 x MLAN
Memory
  • 32 x DIMM slots – DDR4 memory supported only
  • 8-Channel memory architecture
  • RDIMM modules up to 256GB supported
  • LRDIMM modules up to 256GB supported
  • Up to 4TB of memory capacity supported per processor
  • Memory speed: Up to 3200 MHz

R282-P92 Specifications

Dimensions (WxHxD, mm) 2U: 438 x 87 x 730 mm
Motherboard MP92-FS0
CPU Ampere Altra Max Processor / Dual processors, 7nm technology
Up to 128-core per processor, TDP 250W
Expansion Slots
  • Riser Card CRS101J:
    • 1 x PCIe x16 slot (Gen4 x16), Full height half-length
  • Riser Card CRS101K:
    • 1 x PCIe x16 slot (Gen4 x16), Full height half-length
  • Riser Card CRS202G:
    • 1 x PCIe x16 slot (Gen4 x16), Full height full-length
      Note: 1 PCIe slot is disabled
  • Riser Card CRS202H:
    • 1 x PCIe x16 slot (Gen4 x16), Full height full-length
      NOTE: 1 PCIe slot is disabled
  • Riser Card CRS202E:
    • 2 x PCIe x8 slot (Gen4 x8), Low profile half-length
  • Riser Card CRS202E:
    • 2 x PCIe x8 slot (Gen4 x8), Low profile half-length
    • 2 x OCP 3.0 Gen4 x16 mezzanine slots
  • 1 x M.2 slot:
    • M-key
    • PCIe Gen4 x4
    • Supports 2242/2260/2280/22110 cards
Internal I/O
  • 1 x M.2 slot
  • 1 x TPM header
  • 1 x Front panel header
  • 1 x HDD/SSD back plane board header
  • 1 x PMBus connector
  • 1 x IPMB connector
  • 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
Front I/O
  • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1
  • 1 x Power button with LED
  • 1 x ID button with LED
  • 1 x Reset button
  • 2 x LAN activity LEDs
  • 1 x SSD activity LED
  • 1 x System status LED
Rear I/O
  • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1
  • 1 x mini-DP
  • 2 x RJ45
  • 1 x MLAN
Memory
  • 32 x DIMM slots – DDR4 memory supported only
  • 8-Channel memory architecture
  • RDIMM modules up to 256GB supported
  • LRDIMM modules up to 256GB supported
  • Up to 4TB of memory capacity supported per processor
  • Memory speed: Up to 3200 MHz

H262-P61 Specifications

Dimensions (WxHxD, mm) 2U 4 Nodes – Rear access
440 x 87.5 x 840
Motherboard MP62-HD0
CPU Ampere Altra Max Processor / Dual processors, 7nm technology
Up to 128-core per processor, TDP 250W
Expansion Slots
  • Per node:
  • 2 x Low profile half-length slots with PCIe x16 (Gen4 x16 bus)
  • 1 x OCP 3.0 mezzanine slot with PCIe Gen4 x8 or x16 bandwidth*
  • 1 x M.2 slot:
  • M-key
  • PCIe Gen4 x4
  • Supports 2280/22110 cards
  • Total:
  • 8 x Low profile half-length slots with PCIe x16 (Gen4 x16 bus)
  • 4 x OCP 3.0 mezzanine slot with PCIe Gen4 x8 or x16 bandwidth*
  • 4 x M.2 slots:
  • M-key
  • PCIe Gen4 x4
  • Supports 2280/22110 cards
Internal I/O
  • 1 x M.2 slot
  • 1 x TPM header
  • 1 x BMC SGPIO header
  • 1 x JTAG BMC header
  • 1 x PLD header
  • 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
  • 1 x IPMB connector
Front I/O
  • Per node:
    • 1 x Power button with LED
    • 1 x ID button with LED
    • 1 x Status LED
    • 1 x System reset button
  • Total:
    • 4 x Power button with LED
    • 4 x ID button with LED
    • 4 x Status LED
    • 4 x System reset button
    • 1 x CMC status LED
Rear I/O
  • Per node:
    • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1
    • 1 x Mini DP
    • 2 x RJ45
    • 1 x RJ45 MLAN
  • Total:
    • 8 x USB 3.2 Gen1
    • 4 x Mini DP
    • 8 x RJ45
    • 4 x RJ45 MLAN
    • *1 x CMC global management port
    • *Only one CMC global management port per system
Memory
  • Per node:
    • 16 x DIMM slots
  • Total:
    • 64 x DIMM slots
    • DDR4 memory supported only
    • 8-Channel memory per processor architecture
    • RDIMM modules up to 256GB supported
    • LRDIMM modules up to 256GB supported
    • Up to 4TB of memory capacity supported per processor
    • Memory speed: Up to 3200 MHz

Ampere Altra Max advantages for Dual-socket Servers

Ampere Altra processors built with ARM architecture directly compete with the x86 platform by having more cores for compute-bound workloads. They also offer improved TCO, as they run more efficiently per core— and all at a lower price per core to boot.

GIGABYTE indicates the following benefits of their Ampere Altra Max dual-socket servers:

  • High performance: Up to 256 cores with 256 threads (per board)
  • High throughput: 192 PCIe 4.0 lanes
  • Optimized CCIX for inter-socket communication
  • High performance-per-watt: 128 cores with 250W TDP
  • Applications: data analytics, AI, edge computing, web hosting, and more

GIGABYTE R-Servers and H-Server OS Support

All the servers support Linux OS, including Ubuntu, Redhat, Fedora, SUSE, Debian, and Oracle.

Gigabyte ARM Servers

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Lyle is a staff writer for StorageReview, covering a broad set of end user and enterprise IT topics.

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