Supermicro Launches Low-Power Atom-Based Cold Storage Servers update from May 2014

Supermicro introduced new SuperStorage Server solutions that minimize power consumption and reduce cooling requirements by spinning down or powering off idle drives. The solutions include configurations based on the vendor’s compact low-power Intel Atom C2750-based server board for cold storage and 3.5 inch hard drives for maximum capacity. The server can also be configured with Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3 and E5-1600/2600 v2 processors for more data-intensive workloads.

Using the Intel Atom C2000 series of processors provides a way to drive power efficiencies in the hyperscale environment of cloud data centers. Intel has positioned the 22nm Atom chip for areas such as cold storage and entry-level networking. Many hardware vendors have utilized the Intel Atom processors, typically used for cell phones, to help deliver high density and efficiency in a small footprint.

Cold storage is low-performance storage infrastructure designed for infrequently accessed data. Facebook, for example, has built a separate small cold-storage data center on its Prineville, Oregon, campus just to store old content users look at rarely.

“Supermicro’s new 1U storage server is exactly the best solution for today’s tiered storage architectures that need rapid access to data with minimum power consumption and heat dissipation,” said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. “Our new system is designed to save energy while providing maximum accessibility to infrequently accessed data. With our compact Atom C2000 serverboard and Xeon UP configurations, we have achieved the perfect balance between performance, capacity and power savings for a wide range of applications while maintaining a highly scalable, cost-effective storage solution.”

The high-density storage servers come in standard 1RU 32-inch-deep chassis and can be configured for a variety of targeted workloads, from cloud-based cold storage with drive spin-down to big data and object storage platforms, Hadoop and analytics. While highly configurable, due to their complexity they are only sold as completely assembled systems.

Each server can support up to 48TB or 72TB across 12 hot-swappable bays.  The A1SA7-2750 contains one Intel Atom with eight cores and redundant 400W power supplies, while the X9SRH-TPF has one Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3 series with six to 12 cores and redundant 600W power supplies.