Gigabyte 1U 10-Bay 2.5-Inch R181-T90 and 26-Bay 2.5-Inch 2U R281-T91 Rackmount R-Series Servers With Cavium ThunderX2 Processor

Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. is bringing ARM to the server world with the official release of first Cavium, Inc.’s ThunderX2 based server systems: the 1U dual socket R181-T90, and the 2U dual socket R281-T91, both part of the company’s R-Series general purpose rack server product family.

x86 alternative
The ThunderX2 is a 64-bit ARM CPU with a new architecture to the ThunderX, and presents an alternative to x86 for mainstream data center deployment. In terms of features, the ThunderX2 is on par with competing x86 offerings, with up to 32 fully out-of-order cores and 128 threads per socket, single and dual socket configurations, up to 2.5Ghz clock speed or up to 3Ghz with turbo mode, 8 channels of DDR4 memory and 56 Gen. 3 PCIe lanes. These features translate into compute performance that is on par with x86 for many typical workloads in cloud, HPC, storage and networking applications. Performance per price ratio is even more impressive in many cases.

Cavium ThunderX2 processor

Bringing ARM into mainstream
The release of the ThunderX2, with performance and features comparable to x86, comes at an opportune time with the ARM ecosystem of hardware/firmware/software partners growing rapidly and becoming more mature. More of the most common HPC, cloud, networking and virtualization applications can now run on ARM ‘out of the box’. Building a backend system based on ARM can also allow a back end/front end connection to millions of handheld and IoT devices running on ARM architecture. What’s more, the firm’s ThunderX2 server products offer the same storage, networking and expansion support as well as BMC and remote management features as company’s x86 products, making ThunderX2 ARM system an option for next mainstream cloud or HPC server deployment.

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CPU and memory specifications
The R181-T90 and R281-T91 both feature dual BGA socket ThunderX2 CN9975-2000 processors, with 28 cores and 2.0GHz clock speed performance. The CN9975-2000 was chosen as the standard ThunderX2 SKU for the launch products due to its availability and a price/performance ratio that appeals a broad range of cloud and HPC customers.

The company is also planning to soon offer these models with the higher end ThunderX2 CN9980-2200 (32 cores, 2.2GHz clock speed) and CN9975-2200 (28 cores, 2.2GHz clock speed) once customer demand has reached the threshold for production. Memory wise, both R181-T90 and R281-T91 feature 24xDIMM slots for up to 3.072TB of memory capacity.

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Storage, expansion, networking, power and management features
The R181-T90 features 10×2.5” hot swap SATA/SAS HDD bays, three low profile (one PCIe 3.0 x 16 + two PCIe 3.0 x 8) expansion slots and two OCP mezzanine expansion slots (PCIe 3.0 x 16). Naturally, the 2U R281-T91 features more storage and expansion capacity than its 1U cousin, with 26×2.5” (24×2.5” front + 2×2.5” rear) hot swap SATA/SAS HDD bays, and 8 full height half length (FHHL) PCIe expansion slots: two sets of (three PCIe 3.0 x8) or (one PCIe 3.0 x16 + one PCIe 3.0 x8), and one set of (one PCIe 3.0 x 16) or (two PCIe 3.0 x8), as well as 2xOCP mezzanine slots (PCIe 3.0 x16), for additional networking and storage expansion or other accessory cards.

R181-T90 front and rear

Networking wise, both systems feature an onboard QLogic QL41102 controller for dual 10G SFP+ networking ports, as well as a dedicated MLAN port. Remote management can be performed with the onboard Aspeed AST2500 BMC and using the firm’s GSM (Gigabyte Server Management) software. The R181-T90 features a row of 8 (40x40mm)  swap fans for efficient cooling, while the R281-T91 features 4 (80 x 80mm) hot swap fans. Power wise, both systems feature dual 1,200W 80 PLUS Platinum power supply units for a 1+1 redundancy, and also include other high availability and user friendly features common to the company server products, such as tool-less rail kits.

R281-T91 front and rear

The company continues to lead the server industry in design and innovation with the first release of our ThunderX2 products, and is looking forward to co-operating with sales partners in each region to bring these systems to customers looking for a generation of ARM-based systems to deploy into their data center.