ThinkSystem SR780a V3

The Lenovo ThinkSystem SR780a V3 is a powerful liquid-cooled 5U server that features two 5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and eight high-performance GPUs. This server is the ultimate Generative AI server, with advanced GPU-to-GPU communications and high-speed PCIe 5.0 connectivity between the GPUs, CPUs, and networking. It was designed fully in-house by Lenovo from ground up to provide best-in-class modularity, thermal performance and reliability.

Key features

The SR780a V3 is designed for use in water-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: 

• Two 5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors
• Up to 64 cores and 128 threads
• Core speed of up to 2.7 GHz
• TDP rating of up to 350 W
• Eight high-performance onboard NVIDIA GPUs with high-speed interconnects
• Eight NVIDIA H100 700W SXM5 GPUs with 80GB HBM3 GPU memory per GPU
• Eight NVIDIA H200 700W SXM5 GPUs with 141GB HBM3 GPU memory per GPU
• Eight NVIDIA B200 1000W SXM5 GPUs with 180GB HBM3e GPU memory per GPU
• Support for DDR5 system 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)
• DIMMs operate at 5600 MHz with 1 DIMM per channel, or 4400 MHz with 2 DIMMs per channel
• Using 32x 96GB RDIMMs, the server supports 3TB of system memory
• Up to 11 PCIe 5.0 x16 slots:
• Front: 8x PCIe 5.0 x16 FHHL slots with GPU Direct support
• Rear: Up to 3x PCIe 5.0 FHHL slots
• Supports eight NDR 400Gb/s InfiniBand adapters with high-speed GPU Direct connections, installed in front-accessible PCIe 5.0 x16 slots.
• Supports a NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU adapter to enable software-defined, hardware-accelerated IT infrastructures
• Supports up to 12x PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives (8x front, 4x rear) for high-speed internal storage. The use of NVMe drives maximizes drive I/O performance, in terms of throughput, bandwidth, and latency.
• Supports two M.2 NVMe drives with RAID support using Intel VROC for convenient 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 RAID support with Intel VROC 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+N redundancy
• Proactive Platform Alerts (including PFA and SMART alerts): Processors, voltage regulators, memory, internal storage (SAS/SATA HDDs and SSDs, NVMe SSDs, M.2 storage, flash storage adapters), 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 2 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 an XClarity Controller 2 (XCC2) to monitor server availability. Optional upgrade to XCC Platinum to provide remote control (keyboard video mouse) functions, support for the mounting of remote media files, FIPS 140-3 security, enhanced NIST 800-193 support, boot capture, and other management and security features.
• Lenovo XClarity Administrator offers comprehensive hardware management tools 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.
• Dedicated RJ45 port at the rear of the server for remote management using standard management protocols
• 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:

• To maximize performance and energy efficiency, the major components are cooled using direct water cooling, with up to 75% of the heat removed using warm water. The server implements four independent water loops:
• Water loop for the two CPUs
• Water loop for the four front GPUs
• Water loop for the four rear GPUs
• Water loop for the NVLink switches
• 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.