Earlier this week, I wrote about the availability of Linaro “Synquacer” Developerbox that had been designed by GIGABYTE, but not using their brand, and I was pointed out to a possible reason: the company launched their own ARMv8 workstation based on Cavium ThunderX2 processor. Meet GIGABYTE ThunderXStation.
Main specifications:
- SoC – Single or Dual socket ThunderX2 32x custom ARM64 cores / 128 threads processor clocked at 2.2 GHz (other models of the processor may become available depending on demand)
- System Memory – Up to 16 DDR4 Channels (8x DIMM per CPU)
- Storage
- 4 x NVMe + 2 x 2.5” U.2/SATA III combo bay
- 2.5″ drive bay supports up to 2 drives, an optional 3.5″ storage bay holds 4 drives.
- Graphics – Nvidia GeForce GT710 with dual monitor support
- Networking – 2x 1/10 GbE QLogic NIC
- Expansion – 6x PCIe 3.0 Slots and 2x OCP (Open Compute Project) x16 slots
- BMC – ASPEED AST2500 with IPMI management SW
- Power Supply – 800W Platinum PSU with 1+1 redundant option
- Form Factor – 4U Tower
The workstation relies on AMI Aptio V UEFI and AMI MegaRAC BMC firmware, and runs Ubuntu 17.10, CentOS 7.4, or OpenSUSRE according to the FAQ. It also ships with gcc/LLVM/gdb toolchain, OpenJDK 9.0, and supports KVM & Docker.
The platform is a much more powerful beast than the Synquacer developer platform with up to 64 high performance cores, support for plenty of memory with up to 16 RAM slots, dual 1/10GbE interfaces, and a good amount of PCIe/OCP slots. It is designed for Arm software development for Android, gaming, embedded and NFV applications.
Pricing information is not public, but the system will likely cost several thousands dollars. The ThunderXStation (SKU: W281-T90) is however available, and you can contact [email protected] or Phoenix Electronics to place an order.
[Update: Some pricing info is available via Avantek: £9,540.00 to £11,745.00 (~$13,500 to $16,700) for a dual processor system with respectively 32GB RAM/960GB NVMe/4TB HDD, or 128GB RAM, 960GB NVMe. They call it ThunderX2Station instead of ThunderXStation]
Thanks to kcg for the tip.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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