Dell EMC Adds Omni-Path Support to PowerEdge C6320p

A recent update by #DellEMC adds support for Intel’s high performance #OmniPath fabric on the #PowerEdge #C6320p modular server intended for #HPC workloads. Notice of the change came in a blog post today by Steve Cochran of Dell EMC’s HPC group. “This update is a processor–only change, which means that changes to the PowerEdge C6320p motherboard were not required,” wrote Cochran on the blog (Dell EMC HPC System for Research – Keeping it Fresh). “New purchases of the PowerEdge C6320p server can be configured with KNL or KNL-F processors. For customers utilizing Omni-Path as a fabric, the KNL-F processor will improve cost and power efficiencies, as it eliminates the need to purchase and power discrete Omni-Path adapters.” Late last year, Dell EMC introduced PowerEdge C6320p Server “which delivers a high performance processor node based on the Intel Xeon Phi processor (KNL).” The C6320p is optimized for HPC workloads, supporting highly parallelized processes with up to 72 out-of-order cores in a compact half-width 1U package. High–speed fabric options include InfiniBand or Omni-Path, ideal for data intensive computational applications, such as life sciences, and weather simulations. As seen in the figure below (taken from the blog, click to enlarge), the integrated fabric option eliminates the dependency on dual x16 PCIe lanes on the motherboard and allows support for a denser configuration, with two QSFP connectors on a single carrier circuit board. For continued support of both processors, the PowerEdge C6320p server will retain the PCIe signals to the PCIe slots. Inserting the KNL-F processor will disable these signals, and expose a connector supporting two QSFP ports carried on an optional adapter using the same PCIe x16 slot for power. Cochran reports that additional improvements to the PowerEdge C6320p server include support for 64GB LRDIMMs, bumping memory capacity to 384GB, and support for the LSI 2008 RAID controller via the PCIe x4 mezzanine slot

Dell EMC offers several HPC solutions optimized for customer usage and priorities.  Domain–specific HPC compute solutions from Dell EMC include the following scalable options:

HPC System for Life Sciences – A customizable and scalable system optimized for the needs of researchers in the biological sciences.HPC System for Manufacturing – A customizable and scalable system designed and configured specifically for engineering and manufacturing solutions including design simulation, fluid dynamics, or structural analysis.HPC System for Research – A highly configurable and scalable platform for supporting a broad set of HPC–related workloads and research users

https://www.hpcwire.com/2017/05/09/dell-emc-adds-omni-path-support-poweredge-c6320p/