AMD Announces FirePro S Series: S9000 and S7000 For Servers, HPC and Virtualization

• Tweet

• Tweet

It is known that NVIDIA dominates the HPC market with their Tesla GPU cards.  In response AMD have launched new FirePro S series of graphic cards.  The FirePro S series will be composed by the FirePro S9000 and FirePro S7000. These parts are very similar  but not identical to the W9000 and W7000 parts launched earlier this month. Like the W series they are based on AMD’s Tahiti and Pitcairn GPUs respectively, but the resulting cards are constructed and speced for servers rather than workstations. For AMD this means building passively cooled cards that can also adhere to the tight TDP requirements that passive cooling brings with it.

Two new server class graphics cards, the single-slot FirePro S7000 and the dual-slot FirePro S9000, aimed at compute, VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) and workstation graphics markets. Built using Graphics Core Next architecture, the cards also feature AMD PowerTune and ZeroCore Power technologies, providing up to 95% power reduction when idle, and offering reduced operating costs.

FirePro S7000, with 4 GB GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit interface, offers up to 2.4 TFLOPS single-precision and 152 GFLOPS double-precision peak floating-point performance, along with 154 GB/s memory bandwidth. It uses a maximum of 150W, and requires a single 6-pin connector for power. It is currently the most powerful single-slot solution on the market.

FirePro S9000 is a dual-slot card, with passive cooling. It provides 3.23 TFLOPS single-precision and 806 GFLOPS double-precision peak floating-point performance. 6 GB GDDR5 memory operates with a bandwidth of 264 GB/s on a 384-bit interface. Powered via 2 x 6-pin connector, the card has maximum power consumption of 225 Watt.

Both cards need an airflow of 10 CFM to cool the passive heatsinks. They both operate on a PCI-E x16 bus, and both provide a single DisplayPort output. Features, supported by both cards, include DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.2, OpenCL 1.2 and shader model 5. Both cards also offer AMD Eyefinity Technology support.

The AMD FirePro S9000 server graphics card is available at a MSRP of $2,499, and the AMD FirePro S7000 server graphics card is priced at an MSRP of $1,249. Both FirePro cards are expected to start shipping at the end of September. Servers typically have longer upgrade cycles than the average enthusiast’s desktop, so AMD has pledged to support these FirePro cards until at least 2015.

From their press release:

Supporting Leading Virtualization Technologies

The AMD FirePro S9000 and S7000 server graphics bring improved VDI densities while supporting virtualization technologies from Citrix®, Microsoft® and VMware®, making it possible to install multiple graphics cards in a server and support multiple users remotely. Users can also access their desktops from virtually any device of their choosing, from thin clients to laptops, to tablets to smartphones – with outstanding graphics performance. A demo of VMware® ESXi direct GPU pass-through running on an AMD FirePro™ S9000 can be seen this week at VMworld® 2012 in the AMD booth (#801). With Corporate Desktop Replacement running on AMD FirePro S9000 and S7000 server graphics and Microsoft® RemoteFX™, IT professionals can power multiple end users running common office applications from one GPU installed in a server. These new server graphics cards also support direct GPU pass-through for Citrix® XenServer.

Versatility and Scalability

Both server graphics cards offer a flexible and scalable solution capable of supporting remote desktop deployments; render farms, traditional workstation graphics applications, and high performance computing (HPC) implementations that require massive floating point calculations. With a single unified driver, deploying the AMD FirePro S9000 and S7000 server graphics in the data center can enable IT groups to reduce operating costs and time spent on servicing individual systems, increase asset utilization density, improve user experience and ultimately secure critical data.

Key Features of AMD FirePro™ S9000 Server Graphics

• Unmatched Compute Power: By providing 3.23 TFLOPs of single precision compute performance, AMD FirePro S9000 server graphics are up to 2.4 times faster than the competing solution⁴, effortlessly processing the most demanding computations and graphics workflows.
• Memory Performance: Equipped with 6GB GDDR5 frame buffer, AMD FirePro S9000 server graphics deliver up to 1.49 times more memory bandwidth than competing products⁵, meaning outstanding precision and accuracy when computing complex graphics workloads.
• Optimized Power Management: AMD FirePro S9000 server graphics allow IT managers to implement high-performance solutions that can help reduce operating costs via intelligent power saving and monitoring technologies unique to AMD.

Key Features of AMD FirePro™ S7000 Server Graphics

• Powerful Single-Slot, Passively-Cooled Performance: Featuring 154 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 2.4 TFLOPS of peak single-precision floating-point performance, AMD FirePro S7000 is the most powerful single-slot, passively-cooled multifunctional server graphics card on the market². In fact, AMD is the only graphics manufacturer offering a passively-cooled, single-slot server graphics card today.
• Low Operational Costs: Consuming only 150W max power, AMD FirePro S7000 server graphics help to reduce costs and system complexity in server environments.

Pricing

Both the AMD FirePro S9000 and S7000 server graphics are rigorously tested to ensure reliable performance for demanding server environments backed by a longer term limited warranty than that typically available for consumer graphics cards, and are supported by AMD 24-hour customer support. The AMD FirePro S9000 server graphics card is available at a MSRP of $2,499 USD and the AMD FirePro S7000 server graphics card is priced at an MSRP of $1,249 USD.

See more at full AMD press release.

Tags: amd, FirePro S, hardware, HPC, virtualization

Category: News