Dell’s New PowerEdge XE8545 Server: 5 Key Features

From AMD EPYC processors to Nvidia A100 GPUs, here are five features inside Dell EMC’s new PowerEdge XE8545 server that you need to know about.

Dell EMC Launches PowerEdge XE8545

Dell EMC took the wraps off its new PowerEdge XE8545 server today, that uniquely combines AMD and Nvidia technology with the company’s high-end server line.

“The Dell EMC PowerEdge XE8545 is a brand-new and incredibly powerful server that simplifies artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in your data center,” said Ravi Pendekanti, senior vice president of server solutions product management and marketing at Dell EMC in a blog post today. “These servers don’t just power your data center, they’re designed to help you innovate, adapt and grow well into the future.”

The PowerEdge XE8545 is designed for accelerated workloads and ideal for machine learning, HPC and GPU virtualization.

Here are the five key features in Dell EMC’s new PowerEdge server that you need to know about.

AMD And Nvidia

The new PowerEdge XE8545 server combines the maximum core counts of two 3rd generation AMD EPYC processors with four of the highest performing NVIDIA A100 GPUs.

PowerEdge XE8545 offers up to 128 cores of Milan CPUs, four Nvidia A100 GPUs, and optimized performance of Nvidia‘s vGPU software in a dual socket, 4U rack server.

“It is designed specifically for accelerated workloads, which make it ideal for cutting-edge machine learning models, complex high-performance computing and GPU virtualization,” said Dell EMC’s Pendekanti.

Dell EMC said other key capabilities of the PowerEdge XE8545 includes optimized CPU to GPU performance and accelerated I/O throughput.

NVMe And PCIe Gen 4

Dell EMC says it’s increased the speed of storage with NVMe and reduced data latency with PCIe to accelerate I/O throughput, which prevents performance bottlenecks when organizations are executing on large data sets. Dell was able to do this by adopting PCIe Gen4 NVMe.

“These components help you take full advantage of the server’s compute power by keeping the data close to the processing,” said Dell EMC’s Pendekanti.

Dell’s PowerEdge XE server line is purpose-built for complex, emerging workloads that require high performance and large storage which is why NVMe is critical. The server delivers the reliability and security for demanding applications inside traditional data centers or in extreme conditions stretching from outside the data center to the harsh edge environment of the IT infrastructure.

Nvidia NVLink Included

The PowerEdge XE8545 is one of the first servers on the market to have the new Nvidia NVLink baseboard with Nvidia’s A100 chips in it.

Nvidia NVLink is a high-speed, direct GPU-to-GPU interconnect that offers a significantly faster alternative for multi-GPU systems compared to traditional PCIe-based solutions, according to Nvidia.

“For example, you can boost A100 machine learning inferencing with 1.46X more images per second per GPU within the PowerEdge XE8545.1,” said Dell EMC’s Pendekanti.

Air Cooled

The PowerEdge XE8545 is completely air cooled for greater efficiency and lower cost of operation, Dell said. Being air cooled avoids the need of incorporating extra piping to accommodate for liquid cooling.

“While AI infrastructure is loaded with performance features, it also has a reputation for being difficult to deploy and manage. We’ve remedied these concerns with a server design and management features that radically simplify your experience,” Dell EMC’s Pendekanti said. “You can analyze more than 150k images per second, leveraging 2x AMD Milan CPU and 4x NVIDIA A100 SXM4 500W GPU, all with standard air cooling in the PowerEdge XE854.”

Additionally, the new PowerEdge XE8545 is a 4U standard-depth rack server, meaning it easily fits into existing data centers.

Includes iDRAC and OpenManage Enterprise

The PowerEdge XE8545 server includes iDRAC [Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller] compliance, designed for secure local and remote server management that helps IT administrators deploy, update and monitor PowerEdge serves anywhere.

The server also includes Dell EMC’s OpenManage Enterprise support that enables customers to easily monitor and maintain data centers with OpenManage integrations. OpenManage Enterprise is a systems management console that facilitates lifecycle management for Dell EMC PowerEdge servers in one console.

“Regardless of whether you’re doing training or inferencing, solving tough problems involving fluid dynamics or genomics, analyzing data or virtualizing GPU operations, it’s time to unleash the uncompromised power of the PowerEdge XE8545,” said Dell EMC’s Pendekanti. “Catalyze the development and implementation of machine learning algorithms, quickly perform advanced computations and analyze data with amazing speed. … The PowerEdge XE8545 server [is] your innovation engine.”