AMD FirePro S7100X Is An MuGPU For Blade Servers

AMD revealed its latest multi-user GPU (MuGPU), the FirePro S7100X. This new graphics card is designed for use in blade servers, and it’s making its debut in Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s ProLiant WS460c Gen9 Graphics Server Blades.

The AMD FirePro S7100X sports the same Tonga-based GPU as its predecessor (the AMD FirePro S7150), in addition to the same stream processor count (2048). It also features the same 8 GB of ECC GDDR5 and 256-bit memory interface as the other MuGPUs in AMD’s catalog. However, the TDP has been reduced to 100 watts, and the die package sits on an MXM 3.1 module, making it the only blade-sized enterprise graphics card from AMD that offers MuGPU capabilities.

MuGPU technology is built on the Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) standard, which is designed to enable access to consistent, predictable and secure performance from a single hardware-based graphics appliance for multiple users in a virtualized environment. The AMD FirePro S7100X offers the same functionality as the previously-released FirePro S7150 and S7150X2, with compatibility for a range of virtualization platforms including VMware, Solidworks, and Siemens NX and Solid Edge.

The HPE WS460c server blade is designed specifically for such a workload, offering up to 16 or 8 expansion blades in a single 10U rack space that can accommodate up to 48 GPUs. With 16 users per GPU, you could sufficiently host 768 virtualized workstations with that many AMD FirePro S7100X graphics modules.

The AMD FirePro S7100X is available now in Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s WS460c Gen9 Graphics Server Blades.

Derek Forrest is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware and Tom’s IT Pro. Follow Derek Forrest on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.