HPE has placed several bets on non-Intel datacenter infrastructure. Nowhere is that more obvious than HPE’s announcement that it is bringing back the ProLiant DL385 server brand in its Gen10 lineup.
This is a huge statement of HPE support for AMD and EPYC in HPE’s core enterprise market. I did not think that AMD could win back a design in one of the very highest volume enterprise server brands, after HPE discontinued the AMD Opteron version of the design years ago. Enterprise purchasers have long memories. But HPE still decided to resurrect its DL385 brand for EPYC. It is a commitment by HPE’s sales channels to put HPE’s sales, service and support on the line.
In this case, too, I’m impressed by both HPE and AMD.
HPE designed a dual-socket EPYC motherboard for the DL385, which was influenced by but not a direct derivative of AMD's dual-socket AMD’s Microsoft Project Olympus compatible reference design. The DL385's processors, memory and PCIe bus placement have similar physical layout as AMD's reference design, but HPE added several more features, such as boot NVMe drives and HPE Integrated Light Out (iLO) system management.
Back in August, HPE stealthily launched its Cloudline CL3150 G4 data storage server. HPE’s Cloudline brand is aimed at cloud service providers (CSPs). The CL3150 G4 is based on an HPE-designed half-width single-socket EPYC motherboard, also influenced by an AMD single-socket reference design. It leverages EPYC’s large I/O fan-out to directly connect up to 24 NVMe drives to EPYC without using a PCIe switch, which lowers the cost of the platform while decreasing I/O latencies and increasing performance.
But wait, there is more!
AMD showed a Dell EMC chassis at SC17, labeled “AMD-based PowerEdge Sneak Peak.” There was a piece of tape over the chassis lid release latch, so I honored the implied “don’t look inside” message. Given that Dell EMC took part at AMD’s EPYC launch event, it’s not a surprise to see it is close to unveiling an EPYC-based server.
Take-Aways
HPE’s support for EPYC in its ProLiant DL385 server is inspiring. Adding another Tier 1 server OEM (Dell EMC?) to AMD’s customer list by the end of this business year (now only two weeks away) will be truly impressive.
This HPE announcement and Microsoft’s support for EPYC in its Azure cloud show that AMD is getting vendor traction with EPYC. Market traction will become clear in 2018. We’ll see how these design wins affect AMD’s financials in the next six to 12 months.
-- The author and members of the TIRIAS Research staff do not hold equity positions in any of the companies mentioned. TIRIAS Research tracks and consults for companies throughout the electronics ecosystem from semiconductors to systems and sensors to the cloud.
-- Edited on 12/12/2017 at 12:15 CST. The motherboards for these two systems were designed by HPE and not directly influenced by Microsoft's Project Olympus motherboard designs. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.
