GIGABYTE Technology and Cavium Incorporated announced availability of high performance ARM server platforms based on Cavium's second generation 64-bit ARMv8 ThunderX2 product family.

GIGABYTE announced multiple platforms optimised to utilise the ThunderX2 SoC. The R181 (1U) series utilises a single socket ATX form factor motherboard with multiple PCIe x16 Gen3 and SATA connectors for expansion modules, along with high memory capacity. R181 is an ideal solution for applications that need cost effective high performance compute platforms.

GIGABYTE's H216 series is a 2U server platform that can support 4 dual socket ThunderX2 compute nodes, with 1TB memory capacity per sled and multiple PCIe x16 slots. The chassis itself supports dual redundant power supplies and 24 2.5" HDDs. The H216 is designed to address the requirements of the most demanding applications in high performance computing and public/private cloud applications.

According to Etay Lee, General Manager of GIGABYTE Technology. "GIGABYTE's second-generation line of ARMv8 server offerings, enabled by Cavium's ThunderX2 processors, provides best-in-class high performance ARM solution for the Data Center, the Cloud and for Telcos. ThunderX2 SoCs deliver performance competitive with the latest high-end server processors. GIGABYTE has developed highly integrated system solutions enabling an efficient and cost-effective path to high density Hyperscale class data center design using the industry's best ARMv8 server class processor. Our innovation, reliability and flexibility deliver time-to-market advantages to customers developing next generation data center & cloud solutions." 

The ThunderX2 product family is Cavium's second generation 64-bit ARMv8-A server processor SoC for Datacenter, Cloud and High-Performance Computing applications. The family integrates fully out-of-order high performance custom cores supporting single and dual socket configurations.

ThunderX2 is optimized:

• drive high computational performance,

• delivering outstanding memory bandwidth and memory capacity.

• The new line of ThunderX2 processors includes multiple workload optimized SKUs for both scale up and scale out applications

• fully compliant with ARMv8-A architecture specifications as well as ARM's SBSA and SBBR standards.

• widely supported by industry leading OS, Hypervisor and SW tool and application vendors.

"The Cavium ThunderX2 multi-core ARMv8 product family is well suited to address the high compute demands of next generation data center and cloud infrastructure. By using Cavium's ThunderX2 class processors, GIGABYTE is able to offer a wide variety of high-performance, high volume 1U and 2U systems in single and dual socket configurations as well as reference platforms that fully utilize core differentiators such as integrated SATA port integration, high memory bandwidth & capacity along with multiple PCIe Gen3 x16 ports. Together, we are delivering the performance, scalability and reliability necessary for businesses to handle increasingly complex data intensive workloads in a highly virtualized cloud based environments." said Rishi Chugh, Director Product Marketing for Cavium's Data Center Processor Group.