Supermicro MicroBlade
Micro Server Cost and Density with Blade Advantages
Introduction

TMicroBlade Key Features

he Supermicro MicroBlade server platform is a highdensity compute solution developed to provide optimized
per formance for scale -out workloads such as dedicated•112 Intel® Atom™ C2000 Nodes in 6U•

95% efficency, Platinum, N+1 or N+N redundantdigital power supplies

hosting, web front-end, social media/content deliver y,•Up to 95% space savings over 1U rack servers

or highly parallel workloads required by non-relational•Up to 99% cable reductiondatabases and business intelligence reporting. MicroBlade•Ease of Use with Remote Management Software•Supports up to 28 Xeon® DP and UP nodes

is designed from the ground up to provide easy remotemanagement, industry-leading energy efficiency, andsuperior cable reduction vs. 1U rack servers.

MicroBlade Components
The 6U MicroBlade enclosure can house up to 28 micro server blades,

MicroBlade Optimal Workloads

each with four independent Intel® Atom™ C2000 nodes - for a total ofMicroBlade can deliver dynamic web

112 nodes. MicroBlade can also support up to 28 Xeon E3-1200 v3 UP

content faster, improving data centeror Xeon E5-2600 v3 DP nodes, with the ability to mix processor types

efficiency.

within the same enclosure. Each enclosure comes with four or eight
80 Plus Platinum certified digital power supplies. Optimized cooling isWeb Hosting

provided by eight high efficiency cooling fans. One chassis management
module (CMM) can be added to the enclosure, as well as up to four

MicroBlade’s expandable architecture

40/10GbE switch modules. MicroBlade systems can be installed in a 19”

is ideal for handling database queriesrack. Up to seven 6U blade enclosures may be installed into a industry

that scale up as the user base grows.

standard 42U rack.

Social Media

Speed up web page deliveryand maximize your web-content
effectiveness with MicroBlade.
Web Front End

Easy Remote Management
The MicroBlade chassis management module (CMM)
provides total remote control of individual server blades,power supplies, cooling fans, and networking switches.
Figure 1 – MicroBlade enclosure, fully populated.

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System administrators enjoy the management ease and©2014 Super Micro Computer, Inc.

August 2014

MicroBlade : Micro Server Cost and Density with Blade Advantages
reassurance of continuous onboard instrumentation

network switches in three 42U racks, or 53% more efficiently

monitoring, including sensors for temperature, power status,

than a similarly configured traditional datacenter optimized

voltage and fan speed. MicroBlade remote management

ser ver. Linpack benchmarks demonstrate that 112 1U Avoton

enables rebooting of individual blades for maximum

ser vers in a rack with three Ethernet switches require

flexibility and ease of use (see Figure 2).

approximately 2,566 watts more energy than a similarly
configured MicroBlade. 1U Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3 productfamily ser vers required at least 4,806 watts more energy.
These results are summarized in Table 1.

MicroBlade

ChassisManagementModule

PSU Module

Figure 2 – The MicroBlade CMM enables policy-based powerand temperature management.
Switch Module

The CMM also provides remote access to the BIOS
configuration and operating system console information via• 2x 40Gb/s QSFP
• 8x 10Gb/s SFP+ Uplinks• 56x 2.5Gb/s downlinks per module(Rear View)

SOL (Serial over LAN) or embedded KVM connections.
Because the remote management console has a separate
processor, all monitoring and control functions operate
independently regardless of server blade operation or system
power-on status.

Figure 3 – MicroBlade rear view including PSUs, CMM, andSwitch Modules.
MicroBlade also offers the industr y ’s best power redundancy
and fault-tolerance. Whereas other micro ser ver enclosuresprovide only a maximum of N+1 redundant power supplies

Industry-leading Energy Efficiency

per chassis, each Supermicro MicroBlade comes with native

Supermicro is an industry leader in creating datacenter solutions

N+1 redundancy that can scale up to N+N, even with a fully

that incorporate high-efficiency components and power supplies

loaded enclosure at maximum output. 3

to minimize total cost of ownership (TCO) and reduce theenvironmental impact of datacenter operations. The MicroBlade isno exception. The MicroBlade server enclosure can be populatedwith up to eight (N+1 or N+N redundant)1600W Platinum certified
digital power supplies. These high-efficiency digital power supplies
are up to 95% efficient, which means that only 5% or less of theoutput power of each PSU is lost as heat. Higher efficiency means
lower cooling requirements, lower power bills, and lower impact onthe environment. With the ability to use a processor with a powerbudget as low as 6 watts, MicroBlade provides exceptional value
when compared with individual 1U servers.
A fully populated MicroBlade system can operate 38% more
efficiently than 112 similarly configured 1U Atom-based micro

Table 1–Power consumption is per 112 nodes with redundantservers with three management switches and three production

power supplies in a rack-mounted datacenter environment. 2Page 2©2014 Super Micro Computer, Inc.

August 2014

MicroBlade : Micro Server Cost and Density with Blade Advantages
99% Cable Reduction vs. 1U Rack Servers

Conclusion

Supermicro’s MicroBlade is architected to achieve anThe Supermicro MicroBlade system is an ideal solution toextremely high node density when compared with aaddress the needs of highly parallel, scale-out workloads thattraditional datacenter server, reducing physical footprint

are increasingly demanded of the datacenter. The Supermicroby as much as 95% versus 1U rack servers. Instead of 1 or 2

MicroBlade is an ideal platform to manage these workloads

nodes per 1U of rack space, MicroBlade can achieve a density

due to its high node density, best-in-class energy efficiency,that is above 18 nodes per 1U of rack space. This node density

and small physical footprint. Whether it is configured with 28

reduces MicroBlade’s need for cabling by up to 99% versus 1U

Xeon E5-2600 v3 DP nodes, 28 Xeon E3-1200 v3 UP nodes, orrack architectures.

112 Intel® Atom™ based nodes, no other micro server solution

To understand how this is possible, consider that a single,

brings together all of these capabilities into a platform thatstandard, 42U rack populated with 7 fully populated
MicroBlade enclosures would require up to a total of 63
cables: 28 for every switch port in all of the chassis (7 x 4 =28), 7 for remote management to the CMM (7 x 1 = 7), and 28

is so easy to manage and scale. In a dedicated web hosting
environment, MicroBlade is the only solution that combines
scalable, high-density, and low-cost computing with simple,
remote, web-based management, and extremely reduced

for the necessary power supplies (7 x 4 = 28). A comparable

cabling requirements.

number of individual 1U rack servers would require twenty

We Keep IT Green®

42U racks.

The Supermicro MicroBlade is the industry-leading micro
Each rack would require 60 cables to provide a connection

server solution optimized for the Intel® Atom™ processor

to a core switch (20 x 3 x 1 = 60), 2,340 cables to connect

C2000 product family (formerly codenamed Avoton

each 1U server node to the 2 regular network switches andand Rangeley). It is designed for low power (sub 20W ),1 management network switch (20 x 39 x 3 = 2,340), 1,560

compact storage and lightweight, scale-out computing

cables to provide redundant power to each server across 20

workloads that are essential for building a sustainable,

racks (20 x 39 x 2 = 1,560), and 320 power cables to provide

cost- and performance-optimized datacenter. For more

redundant energy to each switch (20 x 3 x 2 = 120). Thus,

information about MicroBlade contact your Supermicro salesa 784-node 1U configuration would require a total of 4,080representative today. At Supermicro, We Keep IT Green.®

cables. Compared with 1U servers, MicroBlade enables
cable reduction of up to 99% (1 – 63/4,080 = 99%). Figure
4 demonstrates how cable reduction of up to 99% can beachieved when implementing a fully-populated MicroBladeinstead of a comparable 1U architecture.

References
1, 3.Based on Supermicro internal analysis of Supermicro
MicroBlade server products.
2.Based on 112 nodes at 44W per node , with a maximum of 39
nodes per rack, and two Layer3 Switches at 212W each andone Layer2 Switch at 42W each.
7048-A( Layer 3 switch ) : 100% load - 212w
http://www.arista.com/assets/data/pdf/Datasheets/7048T-A_DataSheet.pdf
4.Based on 784 server nodes. 1U servers would require twenty
42U racks vs. one 42U rack outfitted with MicroBlade.

For more information about Supermicro’s
MicroBlade solutions, visit
http://www.supermicro.com/products/MicroBlade/index.cfm

Figure 4–Cable reduction with MicroBlade vs.112 1U servers.
Page 3©2014 Super Micro Computer, Inc.

August 2014