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Thread: Appro introduces factory overclocked, liquid cooled HPC server

  1. #1
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    Appro introduces factory overclocked, liquid cooled HPC server

    Industry’s First High Frequency Server to offer Extreme Speeds for High Speed Trading

    Milpitas, CA, October 12, 2010 – Appro (http://www.appro.com), a leading provider of supercomputing solutions, once again takes the leadership role introducing the new 3U Appro HF1 server, the Industry’s first High Frequency server available based on Intel® Xeon® Processors 5600 series. This product will be available to order in limited quantities in 2010 and will ship in volume in Q1 2011.

    The Appro HF1, High Frequency server is a rack mount industry standard platform offering optimized overclocked capabilities and liquid-cooling features to maintain a stable thermal operation. This server is finely tuned to provide exceptional speed and performance for the Financial Industry delivering reliability and price/performance to support high-speed trading applications.

    The server offers dual Intel® Xeon® Processors X5680 series overclocked up to 4.4GHz on each CPU core, with a theoretical peak performance of up to 211GF. It offers up to 48GB of memory operating up to 1440MHz. This server provides extreme processor and memory performance while offering server-class reliability, availability, serviceability and manageability. The Appro HF1 server is integrated with two on board Gigabit Ethernet ports and seven PCI-e Gen 2 slots per server featuring ease of integration, network compatibility, and fast deployment. The Appro HF1 server also offers remote server management capabilities, high-speed interconnect options and a variety of configurations to include Linux Operating System.

    Ideal customers are in the Financial Industry, especially the high-frequency and electronic trading, hedge funds and proprietary trading firms. Industries that can take advantage of the high CPU clock frequency and overclocked memory will also benefit from this solution.

    “Appro’s announcement today represents a fundamental change of how we use technology,” said John Lee, VP of Advanced Technology Solutions of Appro. 'Now, customers can have high performance computing that is differentiated for their market segment demands. Appro offers innovative, customer-focused server platforms and cluster technologies that optimize the performance and utilization of IT investments.'

    “Performance-passionate customers in high frequency trading and financial systems need cutting-edge performance at the boundary of innovation,” said Rajeeb Hazra, general manager of high-performance computing at Intel Corporation. “The Appro HF1 server exemplifies Appro’s innovation in high performance computing systems. By taking full advantage of the smaller, faster and more energy-efficient transistors in our Intel Xeon Processor 5600 series, the Appro HF1 server offers an excellent platform for high-speed processing deployments and lower-latency solutions.”
    http://www.appro.com/press/view.asp?Num=198
    Appro HF1 -- Industry's First High-Frequency Server to offer Extreme Speeds for High Speed Trading Applications

    As high-frequency and electronic trading continue to proliferate, hedge funds, proprietary trading firms and other asset management firms are being forced to look for new high performance computing servers to provide competitive differentiation to attract and compete for market share. In today’s economies, exchanges must be speedy, secure, resilient, and cost efficient. Processing must be performed with the lowest latency possible while being fast, scalable and based on open and industry standards.

    With this need for reliability and higher levels of speed and performance, Appro introduced the new 3U Appro HF1 server, the Industry’s first High Frequency server based on Intel® Xeon® Processors 5600 series. The Appro HF1 server is an industry standard platform offering optimized overclocked capabilities and liquid-cooling features to maintain a stable thermal operation. This server is finely tuned to provide exceptional speed and performance for the Financial Industry delivering reliability and price/performance to support high-speed trading applications.

    The server offers dual Intel® Xeon® Processors X5680 series overclocked up to 4.4GHz on each CPU core, with a theoretical peak performance of up to 211GF. It offers up to 48GB of memory operating up to 1440MHz. This server provides extreme processor and memory performance while offering server-class reliability, availability, serviceability and manageability. The Appro HF1 server is integrated with two on board Gigabit Ethernet ports and seven PCI-e Gen 2 slots per server featuring ease of integration, network compatibility, and fast deployment. The Appro HF1 server also offers remote server management capabilities, high-speed interconnect options and a variety of configurations to include Linux Operating System.


    Ideal Environment

    Ideal customers are in the Financial Industry, especially the high-frequency and electronic trading, hedge funds and proprietary trading firms. Industries that can take advantage of the high CPU clock frequency and overclocked memory will also benefit from this solution.
    Processor
    Two six-core Intel Westmere X5680 at 4.4GHz Overclocked

    Chipset
    Intel 5520/ICH10R
    Memory Type
    Support for up to 1440 MHz (overclocked 1333 MHz DIMMS)
    Memory Capacity
    Supports 2GB, 4GB and 8GB DIMMS for up to 48GB
    Disk Controller
    On-board SATA controller, up to 6 ports (300 MBps), 2 ports (600 MBps)
    Drive Bays
    Two (2) 3.5” HDD SATAII Drives (internal, not hot swap)
    Support for one (1) DVD ROM Drive
    Storage Capacity
    2x500GB Seagate SATA disks (7200 rpm)
    Graphics
    BFG GeForce 8400 GS Video Card, 512MB DDR
    Network Interface
    On-board dual-port Ethernet controller (10/100/1000 Mbps)
    Input/Output
    6 USB 2.0 compliant ports + 2 USB 3.0 compliant ports
    Expansion Slots
    Seven PCIe Gen 2 slots:
    -- Six x8 and one x16 or
    -- Four (4) x16 (slots 1,2,3,5)
    Power Supply
    1200W High-Efficiency single or dual hot swappable power supplies
    Cooling
    Water Cooled (up to 4.4 GHz)
    Weight
    Installed: 45.5 lbs (20.6kg)
    Dimensions (HxWxD)
    5.12”(H) x 17.125”(W) x 28.33”(D)
    Temperature
    Operating: 10C-30C
    Remote Server Mgmt
    IKVM over IP Available
    http://www.appro.com/product/HF1server_overview.asp

    Is this the world's first professional, enterprise-ready liquid cooled and factory overclocked x86/64 computer? I know IBM has used water cooling for some of their wilder non-x86 machines.. But anything like this seen before?

    I'm suddenly interested in which system they've used. I guess it's proprietary.

  2. #2
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    i could see how this would be useful. HFT is extremely latency sensitive where as most server tasks are throughput oriented. a faster computer will make you more money.

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    For a long moment I thought that said "Apple introduces…"

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    Listed on their website in the specifications as well.I guess they got a good deal,lol ?


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    Also up to 4.4 GHz,binning chips at that speed might prove very time consuming.
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    As an enthusiast that runs his X6 at 4Ghz I like this idea. But I'm also a server guy...

    If something happens you need to rely on Appro to change the CPU, because you can't just swap the processor and expect it to run at 4.4Ghz. The same thing with RAM, but at 1440Mhz it looks like a mild overclock.
    Also, what will happen when you need software support? If someone calls me asking for VMware support on a system running out of spec. the first thing that I have to tell is to run it at stock...
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    warranty? seems like a very aggressive product.
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    So what motherboard does it use that actually allows overclocking? Something custom?
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    interesting, I would be very happy to test taht and it's use on some virtualisation environment
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    Ha, ha, ha.....NO WAY.....When I show someone preparing to take a shot, I hided the cigarette....

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    Quote Originally Posted by zalbard View Post
    So what motherboard does it use that actually allows overclocking? Something custom?
    Thereis only one MB out there that I'm aware of that allows overclocking on a dual 5520 chipset and thats the ECGA SR2 board..
    Also if you look at the posted specs on the board it looks like a copy/paste from EVGA's site..
    Interesting..
    I wonder how big the smile is on Peter Tan's face seeing this?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Movieman View Post
    Thereis only one MB out there that I'm aware of that allows overclocking on a dual 5520 chipset and thats the ECGA SR2 board..
    Also if you look at the posted specs on the board it looks like a copy/paste from EVGA's site..
    Interesting..
    I wonder how big the smile is on Peter Tan's face seeing this?
    Hence me wondering why they haven't mentioned its name... They should, really.
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    Quote Originally Posted by zalbard View Post
    Hence me wondering why they haven't mentioned its name... They should, really.
    they're selling to "high frequency hedge funds", do you really think that they want to tell people which products they're rebranding so that everybody and their sisters can calculate the mark-up? They're going for the low-hanging fruits, the dudes who won't know about SR2 and will happily pay for a 4.4ghz cpu factory oc'Ed

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    Quote Originally Posted by zalbard View Post
    Hence me wondering why they haven't mentioned its name... They should, really.
    Maybe, but this you can take to the bank: It does have a SR2 board..
    I did a little checking today..
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    Pshhhh, some dudes from our WCG section can build machines like this.. LOTS of them
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    Quote Originally Posted by lkiller123 View Post
    Pshhhh, some dudes from our WCG section can build machines like this.. LOTS of them
    Certainly, there's nothing special about the machine in isolation.

    I just thought it was real peculiar to see such a machine offered by a company whose website is NOT decorated with anime characters and green flames.

    Movieman, anything about the cooling system from your secret squirrel source?

    Quote Originally Posted by Andi64 View Post
    As an enthusiast that runs his X6 at 4Ghz I like this idea. But I'm also a server guy...

    If something happens you need to rely on Appro to change the CPU, because you can't just swap the processor and expect it to run at 4.4Ghz. The same thing with RAM, but at 1440Mhz it looks like a mild overclock.
    Also, what will happen when you need software support? If someone calls me asking for VMware support on a system running out of spec. the first thing that I have to tell is to run it at stock...
    HFT companies don't care about warranties, there's such amounts of money in the HFT game that if one goes to hell they'll just toss it and get a new one. Also by the time this fails, if it even gets time to do so, they will have upgraded to a newer machine anyway.

    As for software support they only use proprietary software. There's a cutthroat environment between the investment banks when it comes to getting the latest algorithm talent onboard - check out the news for algorithm leaks and how seriously it is taken!
    Last edited by bowman; 10-13-2010 at 06:15 AM.

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    I am going to stay far far away from this. Give me Dell and HP anyday over this. As a system admin, reliability and 4 hour response times are key
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    Quote Originally Posted by bowman View Post
    there's such amounts of money in the HFT game that if one goes to hell they'll just toss it and get a new one.
    Can you tell me where are their dumpsters located?

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