MINNEAPOLIS, MN, Dec 9, 2015 – Nor-Tech (Northern Computer Technologies), the leading provider of custom supercomputers and servers, just announced the development of a business-class version of their landmark affordable HPC/multi-GPU server for leading research institutions (2Us vs. 4Us). This puts very powerful servers within the financial reach of most organizations.
The technology community has been acutely aware that consumer-grade GPUs perform as well-and in some cases better–than commercial-grade GPUs and at a much lower cost. Consumer-grade GPUs do not include expensive features like ECC for GPU memory. So for applications that use trending or averages, ECC memory adds cost without any benefit.
The sticking point has been the chassis configuration, which only accommodates the significantly more expensive commercial grade GPUs. This has put GPU processing power out of the price range of many organizations that could really use it.
But Nor-tech engineers were able to redesign and commercialize a traditional rackmount chassis to accommodate consumer-grade rather than the more expensive commercial-grade GPUs. Nor-Tech was the first, and, as far as they know, still the only technology integrator to offer this dramatically less expensive multi-GPU server solution.
Nor-Tech president and CEO David Bollig said, “The word ‘breakthrough’ gets thrown around a lot, but this is truly a breakthrough when you consider that this new solution costs about two-thirds to three-quarters less than a commercial-class GPU counterpart. The price point is unheard of.”
Nor-Tech’s new affordable, extremely powerful business-class server is an excellent fit for organizations that have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the price of HPC clusters to come down. The wait, which experts predicted would be years, is now over.
Prime candidates for Nor-Tech’s affordable solution include technical/scientific applications which use trending and/or averages. For example, Google is a big user of consumer-class GPUs for Deep Learning/Machine Learning efforts.
“We first developed the solution for a research institution that had a continuous need for more HPC power on a budget that is typical for most universities,” Bollig explained. “They have been using it for years with no compromise in performance. Our engineers were willing even eager, to take on this rack configuration challenge when no one else in the industry would. Our clients know that they can always count on us to go the extra mile for a smart solution.”
Specs for Nor-Tech’s powerful business-class rackmount server include:
- Supports up to 3 x double slot computing cards
- NVIDIA G-Force GTX series GPUs
- Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 V3 product family
- 24 x RDIMM/LRDIMM ECC DIMM slots
- 24 x 2.5″ hot-swappable HDD/SSD bays
- Supports SATA III 6Gb/s connections
- 2 x GbE LAN ports (Intel I350-BT2)
- 2 x 1600W 80 PLUS Platinum 100~220V AC redundant PSU
About Nor-Tech (Northern Computer Technologies)
Winner of Microsoft’s prestigious Most Valuable System Builder Partner award and a 2015 HPCwire Readers’ Choice Award finalist, Nor-Tech (Northern Computer Technologies) is an industry-leading technology builder and reseller best known for providing turnkey, people-friendly high performance computing (HPC) solutions and Ansys HPC integration. In addition to HPCs, their custom technology includes workstations, desktops, and servers for a range of sectors including CAE and CAD. Nor-Tech’s engineers average 20+ years of experience. They have been in business since 1998 and are headquartered in Burnsville, Minn just outside of Minneapolis. Clients include some of the largest organizations in the world.
To contact Nor-Tech call 952-808-1000/toll free: 877-808-1010 or visit http://www.nor-tech.com.