LENOVO THINKSERVER ThinkSystem SR680a V4

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The SR680a V4 with integrated NVIDIA HGX B300 GPUs is purpose-built for advanced AI. With the latest Intel Xeon 6 processors and integrated NVIDIA GPUs, NVIDIA NVLink, NVIDIA ConnectX-8 networking, and a fully accelerated software stack, the SR680a V4 is ideal for AI and complex simulations that use massive datasets.

As a premier accelerated scale-up platform with up to 11x more inference performance than the previous GPU generation, the SR680a V4 is designed for the most demanding generative AI, data analytics, and HPC workloads.

Key features

The SR680a V4 is designed for use in air-cooled data centers that require maximum GPU performance for AI workloads. Outstanding reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) and high-efficiency design can improve your business environment and can help save operational costs.

Performance

The following features boost performance, improve scalability and reduce costs:

• Supports two Intel Xeon 6700-series processors with Performance-cores (P-cores)
• Up to 86 cores and 172 threads
• Core speeds of up to 2.7 GHz
• TDP ratings of up to 350 W
• Eight high-performance onboard NVIDIA GPUs with high-speed interconnects
• Eight NVIDIA B300 1100W GPUs with 270 GB HBM3e memory per GPU
• Support for DDR5 memory DIMMs to maximize the performance of the memory subsystem:
• Up to 32 DDR5 memory DIMMs, 16 DIMMs per processor
• 8 memory channels per processor (2 DIMMs per channel)
• Supports 1 DIMM per channel operating at 6400 MHz
• Supports 2 DIMMs per channel operating at 5200 MHz
• Using 128GB RDIMMs, the server supports up to 4TB of system memory
• Eight integrated ConnectX-8 800Gb/s network controllers with GPU Direct support
• Four PCIe 5.0 x16 FHHL slots for network adapters
• One dedicated OCP 3.0 slot supporting a variety of Ethernet network adapters. A simple-swap mechanism with a thumbscrew and pull-tab enables tool-less installation and removal of the adapter. The adapter supports shared BMC network sideband connectivity to enable out-of-band systems management.
• Supports up to 8x PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives for high-speed internal storage. The use of NVMe drives maximizes drive I/O performance, in terms of throughput, bandwidth, and latency.
• Supports two front-mounted hot-swap M.2 NVMe drives with integrated RAID support for operating system boot functions

Availability and serviceability

The server provides many features to simplify serviceability and increase system uptime:

• Designed to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• The server uses ECC memory and supports memory RAS features including Single Device Data Correction (SDDC, also known as Chipkill), Patrol/Demand Scrubbing, Bounded Fault, DRAM Address Command Parity with Replay, DRAM Uncorrected ECC Error Retry, On-die ECC, ECC Error Check and Scrub (ECS), and Post Package Repair.
• The server offers hot-swap drives for greater system uptime.
• Two NVMe M.2 drives with integrated RAID support which enables the two M.2 drives to be configured as a redundant pair.
• The server has up to eight hot-swap redundant power supplies with N+1 redundancy
• The server has 21x hot-swap redundant fans to cool all components:
• 6x front-mounted fans for the CPU, memory and rear slots subsystem
• 15x rear-mounted fans for the drive bays and GPU subsystem
• Proactive Platform Alerts (including PFA and SMART alerts): Processors, voltage regulators, memory, internal storage (NVMe SSDs, M.2 storage), fans, power supplies, server ambient and subcomponent temperatures. Alerts can be surfaced through the XClarity Controller to managers such as Lenovo XClarity Administrator, VMware vCenter, and Microsoft System Center. These proactive alerts let you take appropriate actions in advance of possible failure, thereby increasing server uptime and application availability.
• The built-in XClarity Controller 3 (XCC3) continuously monitors system parameters, triggers alerts, and performs recovery actions in case of failures to minimize downtime.
• Built-in diagnostics in UEFI, using Lenovo XClarity Provisioning Manager, speed up troubleshooting tasks to reduce service time.
• Lenovo XClarity Provisioning Manager supports diagnostics and can save service data to a USB key drive or remote CIFS share folder for troubleshooting and reduce service time.
• Auto restart in the event of a momentary loss of AC power (based on power policy setting in the XClarity Controller service processor)
• An integrated diagnostics panel with LCD display provides more detailed diagnostics by displaying all error messages and VPD data needed for a service call, thereby aiding with problem resolution and system uptime.
• Support for the XClarity Administrator Mobile app running on a supported smartphone and connected to the server through the service-enabled USB port, enables additional local systems management functions.
• Three-year or one-year customer-replaceable unit and onsite limited warranty, 9 x 5 next business day. Optional service upgrades are available.

Manageability and security

Systems management features simplify local and remote management:

• The server includes XClarity Controller 3 (XCC3) to monitor server availability. Includes XCC3 Premier which provides remote control (keyboard video mouse) functions, support for the mounting of remote media files (ISO and IMG image files), boot capture and power capping. XCC3 Premier also offers additional features such as Neighbor Groups, System Guard, a CNSA-compliant security mode, a FIPS 140-3-compliant mode, and enhanced NIST 800-193 support.
• Dedicated RJ45 port at the front of the server for remote management using standard management protocols
• Lenovo XClarity software tools (XClarity One, XClarity Administrator, XClarity Orchestrator) offer comprehensive hardware management capabilities that help to increase uptime, reduce costs and improve productivity through advanced server management capabilities.
• UEFI-based Lenovo XClarity Provisioning Manager, accessible from F1 during boot, provides system inventory information, graphical UEFI Setup, platform update function, operating system installation function, and diagnostic functions.
• Support for Lenovo XClarity Energy Manager which captures real-time power and temperature data from the server and provides automated controls to lower energy costs.
• An integrated industry-standard Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) enables improved setup, configuration, and updates, and simplifies error handling.
• Support for industry standard management protocols, IPMI 2.0, SNMP 3.0, Redfish REST API, serial console via IPMI
• An integrated hardware Trusted Platform Module (TPM) supporting TPM 2.0 enables advanced cryptographic functionality, such as digital signatures and remote attestation.
• Administrator and power-on passwords help protect from unauthorized access to the server.
• Intel Execute Disable Bit functionality can prevent certain classes of malicious buffer overflow attacks when combined with a supported operating system.
• Intel Trusted Execution Technology provides enhanced security through hardware-based resistance to malicious software attacks, allowing an application to run in its own isolated space, protected from all other software running on a system.
• Supports Secure Boot to ensure only a digitally signed operating system can be used.
• Industry-standard Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) NI support for faster, stronger encryption.

Energy efficiency

The following energy-efficiency features help save energy, reduce operational costs, and increase energy availability:

• Energy-efficient planar components help lower operational costs.
• High-efficiency power supplies with 80 PLUS Titanium certifications
• Optional Lenovo XClarity Energy Manager provides advanced data center power notification and analysis to help achieve lower heat output and reduced cooling needs.