Sept. 10 -- AMD today announced the availability of three pioneering innovations that firmly cement the company as the leader in fabric computing, micro servers and data center technology.  The first innovation is a new chassis, AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 server, which extends fabric-based computing across racks and aisles of the data center to connect to massive disk arrays supporting over five petabytes of storage capacity. In addition, AMD is announcing a new generation of compute cards for its industry-leading micro servers based on AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon "Ivy Bridge" processors. These innovations continue the AMD tradition of providing industry-leading density, power efficiency and bandwidth for tomorrow's data center. (For a full description, please see the companion release: "AMD Extends Leadership in Data Center Innovation - First to Optimize the Micro Server for Big Data.")

"We continue to drive innovation to meet the changing needs of the data center. The rise of virtualization, cloud computing, and big data require a new generation of compute in which networking and storage are equal partners in the solution. This does not fit the mold of traditional servers," said Andrew Feldman, general manager and corporate vice president of the Data Center Server Solutions group, AMD. "We are at the beginning of a new wave of computing that requires data centers to become pools of computing and storage resources with the flexibility to expand in both dimensions.  The SM15000 system removes the constraints of traditional servers and allows data centers to expand compute, networking and storage independently. By supporting the newest generation of processors, the SM15000 server will continue our tradition of being the highest-density, and most power efficient micro server in the market."

The SeaMicro SM15000 micro server, with its patented Freedom™ Fabric, enables the disaggregation of data center infrastructure. In combination with the newest generation of processors from AMD and Intel, it provides the highest performance-per-watt, the highest  
compute density and highest storage density, as well as the most bandwidth-per-unit compute of any micro server.

Micro servers are dense, hyper-efficient systems in which the compute, storage, and networking are linked by a fabric which enables them to share common infrastructure components. AMD pioneered this technology and has repeatedly been first to market with innovations and optimizations for the rapidly growing data center market. Today's announcements continue this trend.

AMD's new SeaMicro SM15000 server supports the following configurations for a new generation of high performance, efficient large core processor capabilities:

• 64 AMD Opteron octal core 2.0/2.3/2.8 GHz processors based on the new "Piledriver" core, supporting up to 64 GB of DRAM per processor - 512 cores and more than four terabytes of DRAM per system;
• 64 Intel Xeon Processor E3-1265Lv2 ("Ivy Bridge" ) 2.5/3.1 GHz quad core, hyper-threaded processors  supporting up to 32 GB of DRAM per processor - 256 cores and about two terabytes of DRAM per system;
• Over five petabytes of maximum storage with three different Freedom™ Fabric Storage arrays.

With the new AMD Opteron processor, AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 provides 512 cores in a ten rack unit system with more than four terabytes of DRAM and supports up to five petabytes of Freedom Fabric Storage. Since AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 server is ten rack units tall, a one-rack, four-system cluster provides 2,024 cores, 16 terabytes of DRAM, and is capable of supporting 20 petabytes of storage.  The new and previously unannounced AMD Opteron processor is a custom designed octal core 2.3 GHz part based on the new "Piledriver" core, and supports up to 64 gigabytes of DRAM per CPU. The SeaMicro SM15000 system with the new AMD Opteron processor sets the high watermark for core density for micro servers.

AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 server is the first micro server to support the latest generation of Intel Xeon processors based on the "Ivy Bridge" microarchitecture. The Intel Xeon Processor E3-1265Lv2 is a 2.5/3.1 GHz quad core processor that supports 32 gigabytes of DRAM. A SeaMicro SM15000 server configured with 64 Intel Xeon Processor E3-1265Lv2 CPUs provides 256 cores and two terabytes of DRAM.

"AMD is building on its architectural advantages," said Charles King, president and principal analyst at Pund-IT.  "The foundational innovations, particularly around the Freedom Fabric, should allow the company to develop best-in-class solutions, change processors and extend their vision to innovative storage solutions. In many ways, this marks the true test of the value of the Freedom Fabric technology.  If this new generation of processors delivers on its promises, AMD will qualify as a leader in time to market, innovation and vision."

AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 System Product Details

AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 system is a ten rack unit (17.5 inch) tall system is comprised of:

• 64 slots for compute cards - supporting up to 512 heavy weight cores, ten gigabits of bandwidth to each processor;
• Up to four terabytes of DDR3 DRAM, 64 gigabytes per processor;
• Up to 64 SATA solid state or hard disk drives within the system;
• Freedom Fabric Storage with capacity up to 1,408 solid state or hard disk drives;
• Up to 16 ten- gigabit Ethernet links or up to 64 one-gigabit Ethernet uplinks.

Additional benefits include:

• Industry-leading energy efficiency, density, and bandwidth per compute unit;
• Runs off-the-shelf operating systems including Windows®, Linux and Red Hat;
• Supports VMware and Citrix XenServer hypervisors;
• Simplifies data center infrastructure by eliminating top-of-rack switching, load balancing and console servers;
• Eliminates costly error prone cabling.

Availability

AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 system with the Intel Xeon Processor E3-1260L ("Sandy Bridge" microarchitecture) is now generally available in the U.S and in select international regions. Configurations based on the AMD Opteron processor and Intel Xeon Processor E3-1265Lv2 ("Ivy Bridge" microarchitecture) will be available in November 2012. More information on the revolutionary SeaMicro family of servers can be found at www.seamicro.com.

About AMD

AMD is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its ground-breaking AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD's server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD's superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

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Source: AMD