Lenovo revamps ThinkSystem lineup as Intel launches next-gen Xeon Scalable processors

Lenovo launched a series of ThinkSystem server updates and teased new rugged edge computing systems based on 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors.

The company said the ruggedized edge servers will be designed for performance and all-weather conditions required for telecommunications, manufacturing and smart city workloads. Intel launched its Xeon Scalable processors, code named Ice Lake.

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Lenovo's new servers revolve around Intel's latest Xeon Scalable chips and PCIe Gen4. The servers are designed for workloads like high performance computing, artificial intelligence, cloud, analytics and virtual desktop infrastructure. The ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile lineups include ThinkShield, which secures firmware, processors and subsystems.

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CEO Yuanqing Yang has pushed Lenovo to grow its data center footprint. In the fiscal third quarter, Lenovo posted record data center revenue of $1.63 billion. Lenovo saw growth across cloud service providers, enterprise and SMBs.

Here's the breakdown of new server systems.

• ThinkSystem SR650 V2 is a 2U two-socket server with Intel Optane persistent memory 200 series and PCIe Gen4 networking.
• ThinkSystem SR630 V2 is a 1U two-socket server for hybrid workloads across data centers, cloud and virtualization.
• ThinkSystem ST650 V2 is a new two-socket tower server with a 4U slim chassis designed for remote and branch offices as well as retail outlets.
• ThinkSystem SN550 V2, an enterprise system in the Flex System lineup, is a blade server node for cloud, virtualization, database and virtual desktop workloads.

For data centers, Lenovo's new systems are designed to cut energy consumption and occupy little floor space. These optimized systems include NVMe, GPU accelerators, PCIe Gen4 and Lenovo Neptune cooling.

Here's a look at the smaller footprint systems for data centers.

• ThinkSystem SD650 V2 includes Lenovo Neptune cooling and an architecture to remove heat. The system is aimed at HPC, AI, cloud, grid and analytics workloads.
• ThinkSystem SD650-N V2 has Lenovo Neptune, direct water cooling for GPUs, two 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and four Nvidia A100 GPUs in a 1U footprint. Lenovo said a rack of ThinkSystem SD650-N V2 servers will deliver enough compute to place in the top 300 supercomputers.
• ThinkSystem SD630 V2 can handle twice the workloads per server rack and includes Lenovo Neptune Thermal Transform Modules and processors up to 250W.
• ThinkSystem SR670 V2 is optimized for high performance compute and AI training workloads and includes Nvidia Ampere GPUs. There are six base configurations to support multiple GPUs and configurations. Lenovo also has built in a Neptune liquid to air heat exchanger to cool without added plumbing.