OnLogic Announces AMD Server Offerings
Server announcements are usually a little boring. All the big players try to move as many units as possible and embrace new technologies that could give them an edge against the competition. AMD is not new to the server market, and the 3rd Generation Ryzen based EPYC processors are helping AMD incrementally gain some marketshare in this very important area. So what makes this announcement stand out? Well, let me tell you.
OnLogic A Player
I had not heard of OnLogic until AMD approached me with this news. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as there are niche markets that I simply do not pay attention to but still are significant money makers and technology enablers. OnLogic is one of these edge players.
Founded in 2003 they were little more than a PC parts supplier, but they started to outfit more industrial customers with custom products for those challenging workspaces. Throughout the years they have become a respected supplier in the industrial sector with robust offerings for both the datacenter as well as areas that require a certain amount of hardening against difficult environments.
EPYC for DataCenter & Edge
Today they are announcing that not only will they be offering AMD EPYC servers for both datacenter and edge computing, but also Ryzen based “servers” which will still be feature rich and exist at a much more attractive price point. Certainly there are advantages to the EPYC infrastructure in terms of remote management, but OnLogic is promising many of these features will be present in their Ryzen based products.
This is somewhat new territory for AMD as they typically shy away from supporting desktop level processors that utilize for more server-centric workloads. Obviously they have enough faith in OnLogic and their products to be used in this type of rugged, 24/7 type of operation. 3rd Gen Ryzen processors offer a host of advanced features that work well with the type of budget edge solutions that OnLogic is producing in traditional server chassis as well as desk mounted or wall mounted enclosures.
OnLogic EPYC Breakdown
Here is what OnLogic has to say about its EPYC based parts:
Powered by the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor family, the MK200-60 and MK400-60 servers are 2U and 4U systems respectively, offering up to 64 cores and 128 PCIe lanes per
processor, including native support for PCIe 4 and dual 10Gbe ethernet.
Other key specifications include:
- 8 Channels DDR4, 8 x DIMM slots
- Internal or hot-swap SATA, SAS and NVMe storage options
- 7 PCIe 4 x16 slots for next-gen expansion capabilities
Also offering Ryzen
Now for the Ryzen based server offerings: In contrast to the majority of other AMD powered servers on the market, the other systems in OnLogic’s AMD server line leverage AMD Ryzen 3000 Series desktop processors. The MK100B-40 and MK150B-40 are 1U and 1.5U systems respectively, while the MC850-40 utilizes OnLogic’s MC850 industrial enclosure, creating a standalone server system that can be placed on a desk or wall mounted. Other key specifications include:- Up to 4x DDR4 ECC and non-ECC SO DIMM, total DIMM size 128GB in a dual-channel 2 DPC configuration
- Up to 8 x SATA3 or 2 x PCIe 4 x 4 by OCulink and 1x M.2 ports Integrated IPMI 2.0 with KVM and dedicated LAN
- 1x PCIe 4 x 16 link + PCIe 4 x4 link from the AMD Ryzen desktop processors
- 2x 10 Gb LAN Intel X550-AT2
MC850-40 Model
AMD shows flexibility with OnLogic
This is certainly an interesting step away from the norm with AMD, especially with a company as small as OnLogic as compared to the giants HP, Dell, etc. Small in this case does not necessarily make it a bad thing. Such small companies can often introduce new models quicker and have some flexibility with suppliers to achieve lower BOMs as compared to larger contracts for longer periods to acquire the necessary parts for mass production.
AMD continues to allow partners to innovate in directions we may not have expected. I will be curious to hear how this particular partnership goes and if the idea of Ryzen servers at the edge gains popularity in potential growth areas.
