I’ve most likely taken aside over two dozen GPU servers through the years. I’ve taken aside no less than two AMD Intuition MI300X / MI325X methods this week in Taipei, plus just a few different enjoyable servers. I lastly requested a query that I felt ashamed to easily ask. What is that this factor on these huge GPU baseboards?
It is a Enjoyable AMD Intuition MI325X 8-GPU Baseboard Characteristic
As a fast refresher, the AMD Intuition MI300X was the 192GB HBM3 reminiscence GPU that is available in an OAM kind issue. Eight of those come on a Common Baseboard (UBB), and that meeting is roughly in step with a NVIDIA HGX 8 GPU platform, besides NVIDIA has the NVLink Change structure on its HGX 8 GPU platforms.
The AMD Intuition MI325X is the HBM3e replace with 256GB of HBM3e reminiscence for greater capacitity and extra reminiscence bandwidth. It is available in a really related platform. Within the entrance of the platform’s huge heatsink array there’s a huge black steel piece.
Right here is the opposite aspect the place there’s one other one among these steel towers becoming across the PCIe retimer heatsink.
We needed to swap an AMD Intuition MI325X 8-GPU baseboard in the present day and this stuff are heavy. The transport field with foam is round 39.5kg or 87lbs. These black steel loops I used to be instructed are literally handles to easily assist transfer the enormous meeting.
After being left within the mud by a gentleman who used these handles and changed your complete UBB in beneath 90 seconds, I simply needed to double-check that I had seen these in methods earlier than and by no means knew. Right here is a reasonably clear picture from the 2021 Inspur NF5488A5 8x NVIDIA A100 HGX Platform Review and we will see the steel deal with right here as properly.
The humorous half is that I’ve seen these handles for years and throughout many methods, and simply by no means knew what they have been.
Last Phrases
Fashionable 8-GPU assemblies from AMD and NVIDIA are heavy as a result of they require plenty of steel of their heatsinks. Even the liquid cooled coldplate variations might look smaller, however the copper blocks are sometimes heavy. Having these handles makes dealing with these costly baseboards a lot simpler.
Perhaps within the new 12 months there’s a key takeaway right here: simply ask a query even when it appears foolish. The aim of this publish is that if I had the query, then there’s a good likelihood another person has the same one.
