Supermicro GPU SuperServer 420GP-TNR

Description

Outfitted with up to 10x GPUs, the Supermicro GPU SuperServer 420GP-TNR is designed for applications in high-performance computing, rendering, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), plus AI and Deep Learning applications. Gen 3 Intel Xeon Scalable processors also provide more cores, plus PCIe 4.0 for vastly improved throughput for GPUs, high-end I/O, and NVMe storage. With support for 10x GPUs, the upper half of the front on this 4U chassis has no drive bays allowing for more air flow through the system. 4x 2000W Titanium level power supplies provide 2+2 redundancy in the event of a power failure.

Performance

Two 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors can be installed in this system and are supported in a socket P+ (LGA-4189), which is slightly larger than that shared by the 1st and 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors. Along with the increase in physical size, high-end Platinum SKUs can support up to 40 physical cores and 80 virtual threads, with Gold supporting a maximum of 32 cores, and silver at up to 22 physical cores. More and faster PCIe lanes are supported with PCIe 4.0, offering 2x the throughput compared to PCIe 3.0. Eight memory channels, instead of six, allows for greater memory density.

Memory

With 8x memory channels to work with, each of the CPUs has 16x memory module slots for a total of up to 32x active memory module slots with both processors installed. Memory speeds supported include 3200MHz, 2933MHz, and 2666MHz depending on your choice of CPU and memory, plus memory configuration. Using ECC Load Reduced (LRDIMM) or Registered (RDIMM) memory modules, the system will support up to 8TB of Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM). In addition, up to 8TB of Intel Optane data centric persistent memory modules (DCPMM) can be installed and combined with up to 4TB of DRAM for a total of up to 12TB of memory at full capacity.

Storage

24x 2.5-inch hot swap storage bays line the lower half of the Supermicro GPU SuperServer 420GP-TNR chassis. The 8x storage bays on the far left have yellow drive tray release tabs and can be outfitted with NVMe Gen4 U.2 storage devices. Both the middle and right 16x drive bays have red drive tray release tabs and can be outfitted with either SATA, natively, or SAS using a discrete SAS HBA/RAID controller. One or two M.2 NVMe drives can be installed on the system board and can only be used to boot the system either singly or with two in mirror mode for redundancy.

Expansion

There are 12x PCIe 4.0 full-height, full-width (FHFW) slots, plus an Advanced I/O Module (AIOM) Open Compute Project (OCP) 3.0 mezzanine card slot. 10x of those slots are designated for high-end double-width GPUs, and the other two can be used to support either dual high-end I/O cards or a combination I/O with a SAS storage controller operating at up to 12Gb/s. There are various networking cards to choose from depending on your business needs. A variety of add-on cards (AOC) for flexible networking options include, at the high end, 100Gb and 200Gb InfiniBand or Ethernet port connections, plus many other options. 8x hot-swap heavy duty fans drive fresh air over the critical components and GPUs and can be configured for optimal fan speeds.

Management

Supermicro provides a few options to manage and monitor your system including Watchdog and SuperDoctor5 (SD5). SD5 functions in the command line or through a web-based interface and is suitable for both Windows and Linux operating systems. SD5 also enables remote power on/off through the integrated baseboard management controller or BMC. In additional to health status and inventory, SD5 can also be configured to send alerts allowing large groups of servers to be managed simply and efficiently. Access to the integrated BMC is from the back of the system. The platform is compatible with integrated platform management interface 2.0 (IPMI 2.0) and supports KVM with a dedicated LAN.

Summary

Delivering the computational power of dual 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors and up to 10x high-end double-width GPUs, the Supermicro GPU SuperServer 420GP-TNR is ideal for high-performance computing applications. Several large hot-swappable fans inside the chassis are designed to keep everything inside operating at peak performance. There is also plenty of upfront storage on this system with 24x hybrid drive bays and optional dedicated M.2 drives to boot the system. At full capacity it can support up to 12TB of memory with the addition of DCPMM, also known as Intel Optane PMem 200.