First DDR4 capable servers starting to arrive

A couple of months ago I posted about DDR4 SDRAM being one of the next exciting developments in computing, and now we’re starting to see our first servers becoming available running the much faster DDR4 options. The new servers are dual-CPU (no single-CPU servers running on the new platform just yet, but they’re just around the corner).

A recent Supermicro release profiled their move from their existing Platinum DXR motherboard platform to the new Platinum DXG. Front and center in the improvements (indicated by bold lettering in the table below) is the support for up to 1TB of DDR4, which will allow for greater server performance and reliability.

You can see an extract of the release below:

Platinum DXG Release (Haswell-EP)

For the past two and half years (and counting) we have been well served by the Platinum DXR platform (Dual Xeon Romley). This month marks the start of a transition to the latest platform, Platinum DXG, based on the Intel Grantley platform for dual socket Xeon servers and workstations. The Platinum DXG consists of the Haswell-EP processor (the Intel E5-2600 V3 series introduced in July) and the Wellsburg chipset (Intel C612 platform controller hub).

The new motherboard will take the new LGA 2011-3 socket Xeon E5-26xx V3 processors and provide Quad Channel interleaved DDR4-2133 memory performance per CPU via 16 DIMM sockets. The new processors scale to 18-cores per socket (that is, up to 72 logical CPUs per system) and will support up to 1TB of main ECC memory. Overall the improvements are more processing power, faster memory, support for native USB 3.0 and 10 SATA 6Gbps ports onboard.

Motherboard feature comparison: