Supermicro releases free-air cooling optimized servers

Depending upon the choice of processors (based on TDP), the new Supermicro Fat Twin 4U server  can operate at temperatures up to 117 F (47 C), allowing the servers to take advantage of free air cooling solutions in a wide range of environments.

While the new Fat Twin is a high-density, eight node server solution, the design goals focused on delivering a highly capable server while improving TCO by focusing on power efficiency. Both performance per watt and performance per dollar considerations were applied throughout the design process. This resulted in changes to mother board designs, minimized power distribution losses, and minimization of parasitic issues, such as the power necessary to drive the server fans. Properly implemented, the Fat Twin is capable of reaching a PUE of below 1.1, according to Supermicro.

The Fat Twin systems are highly configurable, fitting in a standard 10” rackmount. While there are standard configurations that optimize the PUE, energy efficiency, and density of the servers, the configuration options allow the customer to customize the fat twin to meet their specific needs.

The system nodes are all hot-swappable, can support up to 512 GB of memory, are available with both hardware and software RAID solutions, have built-in management capabilities via an onboard dedicated LAN port that supports IPMI 2.0, and a pair of GbE ports with an Intel i350 controller.

The standardized form factor and optimized components of the Fat Twin provide additional flexibility for datacenter operators, especially smaller facilities that are not interested in or appropriate for other high-0density solutions such as blade servers. Having some basic information about the efficiency potential of your servers simplifies energy efficiency planning for potential customers.