The document discusses specifications for micro server design as outlined by the Open Compute Project (OCP). It describes how micro servers were developed to address changing workload needs like hyperscaling and reduce total cost of ownership compared to traditional servers. The OCP provides open specifications for micro server hardware designs based on system-on-chip technology. Key aspects covered include functional specifications for ARM-based multicore SOCs, memory, storage, interfaces, and power requirements. Mechanical specifications are also defined for the micro server module and chassis integration.
1. eInfochips White Paper
Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 1 of 21
Micro Server Design – Open Compute Project
Abstract:
The Micro Server is a cluster of Low Power, High Density Servers which can be
applied in growing workloads such as Distributed Computing, Cloud Computing,
Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data.
Micro Servers are application specific dedicated servers, as compared to the
traditional general purpose heavy and power hungry servers. Micro Servers are
intended to be designed for Hyperscale computing.
Hyperscale computing is the ability of a platform to scale out, as the demands are
added to the system. This typically involves ability to add the computing resources
such as memory, storage, and networking elements seamlessly and in cost effective
manner.
This whitepaper provides introduction and design approach along with the current
development and future expectation about the Micro Server Architecture.
eInfochips with strong experience in building comprehensive and connected
solutions brings together expertise on multiple tools and technologies to meet
newer product design challenges.
2. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 2 of 21
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. EVOLUTION OF MICRO SERVER .............................................................................................. 4
1.1. CHANGE IN NATURE OF SERVER WORK LOAD (HYPERSCALING)............................................. 4
1.2. TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP (TCO)..................................................................................... 4
1.3. STANDARD HARDWARE DESIGN (COMPATIBILITY) ............................................................... 4
2. THE OPEN COMPUTE PROJECT (OCP) ...................................................................................... 5
2.1. OBJECTIVES OF OCP........................................................................................................... 5
2.2. THE MAJOR AREAS OF OCP DEVELOPMENT ......................................................................... 6
2.3. MICRO SERVER DESIGN (SOC BASED) .................................................................................. 7
2.4. OCP MICRO SERVER SPECIFICATIONS .................................................................................. 8
2.4.1. MICRO-MODULE FEATURES ............................................................................................ 8
2.4.2. BLOCK DIAGRAM ........................................................................................................... 8
2.4.3. FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS......................................................................................... 9
2.4.4. MECHANICAL SPECIFICATIONS.......................................................................................11
2.4.5. ELECTRICAL SPECIFICATIONS..........................................................................................14
2.4.5.1. EDGE CONNECTOR PIN-OUT..............................................................................................14
2.4.5.2. PIN DEFINITIONS...................................................................................................................15
2.4.6. MANAGEMENT.............................................................................................................17
2.4.6.1. SERIAL CONSOLE.................................................................................................................17
2.4.6.2. POWER CONTROL ................................................................................................................17
2.4.6.3. THERMAL ALERTS ................................................................................................................17
2.4.6.4. SENSORS...............................................................................................................................17
2.4.6.5. BATTERY................................................................................................................................17
2.4.6.6. LEDs........................................................................................................................................17
2.4.7. ENVIRONMENTAL AND MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS .........................................................18
2.4.7.1. VIBRATION AND SHOCK ......................................................................................................18
2.4.7.2. PRESCRIBED MATERIALS ...................................................................................................18
2.4.7.3. COMPONENT DE-RATING....................................................................................................18
3. FUTURE PERSPECTIVE...........................................................................................................19
4. APPENDICES........................................................................................................................20
4.1. GLOSSARY OF TERMS........................................................................................................20
4.2. REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................20
About Us ...................................................................................................................................................21
Contact Us.................................................................................................................................................21
3. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 3 of 21
FIGURES
Figure 1. The Basic Building Block of Micro Server card................................................................. 8
Figure 2. Ethernet PHY Standard................................................................................................ 9
Figure 3. Mechanical Specification-1 .........................................................................................11
Figure 4. Mechanical Specification-2 .........................................................................................11
Figure 5. Block diagram of OCP Micro Server Base Board.............................................................12
Figure 6. Open Compute Micro Server chassis............................................................................13
Figure 7. Edge Connector Pin-out..............................................................................................14
Figure 8. Pin Description-1 .......................................................................................................15
Figure 9. Pin Description-2 .......................................................................................................16
4. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 4 of 21
1. EVOLUTION OF MICRO SERVER
The Evolution of the Micro Server was driven by important factors such as:
1.1. CHANGE IN NATURE OF SERVER WORK LOAD (HYPERSCALING)
A server workload is defined as how quickly the work should be done by server which is
assigned by network client along with the set of user defined parameters, which conventionally
demands high computing power, but now changes the requirement in the way that how quickly
and how many users can connect and data can be accessed which demands high network
speed and parallel processing. This represents transition from computing power to the speed
and hyper scaling.
Number of small mobile devices with network connectivity increase eventually as the peoples
wants to share the data (Pictures, Mails, Videos, contact information etc.) to and from the
remote servers, display of web pages etc.
Large cloud data centers are undergoing rapid growth due to consumer adoption of mobile
computing and emerging Internet of Things (IoT) devices and infrastructure
This leads to huge no. of small workload on the remote server as compared to the conventional
heavy loads. The need for Micro Server has in part been fuelled by the growth of the web and
online services.
1.2. TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP (TCO)
It’s all about getting the amount of useful work you can get done per watt per dollar, i.e.
technology based on how much application performance it can get out of it at lowest cost
Servers as defined they are mostly equipped with the chips from Intel and AMD and are
designed to run heavy computational tasks, they are expensive, they needs large space,
consuming huge power and generates large amount of heat, they need fair amount of cooling
and water, and they have considerable impact on the environment .
Micro Server on the other hands are based on the SoC (System on Chip) based designs mostly
ARM based (but not necessarily be), are energy efficient, takes muck less space, are scalable,
reliable, standardized design and are specifically suited for wide variety of Hyperscale
computing tasks dealing with large numbers of users, data and applications like Web services,
content sharing, media sharing like video, audio, images etc.
1.3. STANDARD HARDWARE DESIGN (COMPATIBILITY)
In the server industry we are currently facing the problem that most of the Servers designed
are highly monolithic, our processors are inextricably linked to our motherboards, for example
the motherboard designed for Intel chip will not work for AMD processor and vice versa.
This leads to highly monolithic and poorly configured platform that can't keep pace with rapidly
evolving Software and OS.
There should be some standard design that truly fit the workloads they run and whose
components can be replaced or updated independently of each other.
Facebook realized these facts and took the initiative to start the Open Compute project (OCP),
which has provided the specification for the SoC based Micro Server design.
5. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 5 of 21
2. THE OPEN COMPUTE PROJECT (OCP)
The OCP is an initiative taken in April-2011 by Facebook to openly share custom data center designs
with a goal to build efficient computing infrastructures at the lowest possible cost across the
industry by designing and developing standardized and open custom Server and Motherboards,
Software, Mechanical (Server racks) and the Data centers.
The Open Compute Project is a “set of technologies that reduces power consumption and cost,
increases availability, reliability and choice in the market, and simplifies maintenance and
operations”. The key objective of OCP is openness. The focus and aim of Open Compute project is
efficient and scalable server, storage, and data center hardware designs for scalable computing.
This project has a goal of helping the IT, cloud, and data center industries to scale beyond current
limitations more efficiently and more reliably, with much better adherence to industry-wide
standards.
2.1. OBJECTIVES OF OCP
It aims to provide the standardized and open hardware platform like open source:
Every aspect of Open Compute shall be open source from Motherboards & Servers, Data
Centers, Software and Mechanical Racks. Anyone from individual to organization can contribute
to the OCP.
Its Goal is Efficiency:
The goal of Open Compute project is power efficient servers, storage, and data center
hardware design, high computation efficiency. While considering the efficiency every aspect of
platform has been considered such as the hardware used, space used, environmental impact,
power usage, and water usage, environmental impact. All this adds up to a significant cost and
space savings as well as a much smaller carbon footprint.
Hardware Design Specifications and mechanical designs are available to everyone:
The approach of the Open Compute Project is to keep everything transparent; anyone can
access and contribute to the specifications and mechanical designs of nearly every aspect of the
platform, which means anyone, can help to implement designs and improve the system.
By sharing and opening the source, mechanical specifications, the hardware design, and the
schematics, it is now possible for engineers and architects across the industry to help make the
data centers far more reliable, efficient, and cost effective.
It’s fully standards compliant:
Open Computes idea of standards goes beyond software openness and will apply to hardware
and mechanical design, and It is based on the industry approved standards, platform and
technologies.
6. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 6 of 21
2.2. THE MAJOR AREAS OF OCP DEVELOPMENT
• Motherboard and Server Design
Open Compute server and motherboards are standardized designs which are energy-
optimized and provide the lowest acquisition capital and operating costs. Many features
available to conventional motherboards have been removed from the design and they
are more specific designs.
The key players in this field are:
Intel
AMD
ARM
• Micro Server Design (SoC Based)
• Power Supply Design
• Data Centre (Data Storage) Designs
• Open Rack Designs (Mechanical Design)
7. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 7 of 21
2.3. MICRO SERVER DESIGN (SOC BASED)
The micro-servers are built on a PCI Express - like card that hosts the SoC (System on Chip),
dynamic memory for the SoC, and a storage device. This micro-server can be installed in slots
on a baseboard. The baseboard provides power distribution and control, board management
capabilities, and network distribution. The baseboard can be plugged into a mid plane.
The OCP based Micro Server are aimed to be designed on the ARM 64-bit (earlier designs were
based on 32-bit) architecture and they take the benefit of very low power consumption of ARM
architecture. x86 based architecture (CISC) consumes more power because they higher gate
count compare to RISC machines ,hence less power consumption and less heat dissipation in
case of RISC architecture , which result in less operating cost and higher efficiency.
The Micro Server is very efficient for Hyperscale computing and parallel processing, which can
take many number of small workloads instead of heavy workloads.
These Micro Servers are application specific or application defined servers as compared to the
general purpose servers. They are not as powerful as conventional heavy servers. But when
they utilized for the specialized tasks such as in cloud computing, media streaming, web
content sharing, they are the most efficient and effective computing platform.
The Micro Server is designed to achieve very high computational efficiency at very less power
consumption, with much less area requirement and with greater reliability and flexibility
(scalable) as compared to the conventional Severs which are used in data centers.
As per one of the analysis these ARM based Micro Server use only about 1/10 of the power,
and occupy considerably less than 1/10 of the space of traditional heavy servers (for systems of
equivalent computing power). The acquisition and installation cost for these servers is 50% less
than the conventional servers. So by using the Micro Server will result in 50-70% reduction in
overall cost.
8. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 8 of 21
2.4. OCP MICRO SERVER SPECIFICATIONS
2.4.1. MICRO-MODULE FEATURES
The ARM based Micro Server computing platforms are System-on-chip based designs which
involves complete system on a very small chip - multiple CPU cores, memory controllers,
input/output controllers for SATA, USB, PCIe and others, high speed interconnect fabrics, high-
speed network interconnect switches, etc.
Micro Server Motherboards shall be designed around the latest available Multicore SoCs
(Multiple cores of ARM (32/64 bit)) from chip manufacturers like Applied Micro (X-GeneTM
),
AMD (SeattleTM
), Texas Instruments (Keystone IITM
architecture) etc.
2.4.2. BLOCK DIAGRAM
Below Figure show the basic building blocks of the Micro Server card, Connector Interface, and
Communication interfaces. The Figure shows different block as recommended by the OCP for
Micro Server Card design.
Micro Server Card
Storage Device
mSATA
10G
Ethernet
Controller
ARM based Multicore SOC
64-bit ARM CORES ARM or DSP Cores
SATA 3.0
PCIe
GEN3.0
USB3.0
I2C ,
UART, SPI
72-Bit
DDR3
Controller
PCIe Edge Connector- 98 Pin
x8 (or x16) card
High Speed Interconnect Fabric
Memory Section
DDR3 DDR3
DDR3 DDR3
Min. 4GB of Memory
MicroServer Power Supply
Figure 1. The Basic Building Block of Micro Server card
.
9. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 9 of 21
2.4.3. FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS
OCP as has specified below minimum functional requirement for the SoC:
a) SoC Core: High Performance ARM Based Multicore SoCs (ARM 64 bit), which must
provide the highly efficient scale out computing platform at very less power
consumption.
b) Memory: Each card must support a minimum of 4GB of DDR3L low-voltage SDRAM
memory. Memory may be provided as one or more modules (SODIMM), or soldered
directly to the card.
c) Storage: Each card must support a minimum of 128GB of low-cost, MLC flash to be used
as a boot device. If the flash is SATA-based, it must be connected to SATA port 0.
Additional SATA connections are connected to port 1 and higher. The flash may be
provided as mSATA or NGFF card, or be soldered directly to the card.
d) EEPROM: Each card must include an I2C based serial EEPROM. The EEPROM must be
accessible from the I2C connection going to the baseboard and be at least 128Kbits. This
EEPROM should be used to store the board specific information and unique ID of Micro
Server.
e) Ethernet: At least one Ethernet connection (GE0_TX/RX) is required on the card. To
enable maximum compatibility and a variety of potential topologies, this Ethernet port
is a PHY layer device and must be capable of the following:
Figure 2. Ethernet PHY Standard
Ideally, the Ethernet port should be a 10GbE port, but a first generation design may
support 1GbE or 2.5GbE. The port is capable of auto-negotiating down to lower speeds
as necessary but 1GbE is the minimum required.
f) SATA: The SATA port should be SATA SATA3.0 (6 GB/s) but minimum of SATA2.0 (3 GB/s)
should be supported.
g) PCIe: The PCIe interface should be minimum of PCIe 2.0, but desired to support PCIe 3.0.
h) I2C: The single I2C connection is the primary server management interface. It supports a
speed of 1MHz. The card does not contain a BMC, as the primary BMC shall be located
on the Baseboard. The BMC on the baseboard will act as the I2C bus master during
normal operation but during POST (Power on self test), the SoC may also function as
master. The SoCs and BMC should communicate using the IPMI 2.0 commands over the
I2C interface. Both the BMC and SoC may acts as bus masters therefore a multimaster
environment should be supported.
i) USB: The USB ports should suppport minimum of USB2.0 (480Mbps) and should be
needed to support USB3.0 (4.8Gbps).
10. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 10 of 21
j) Power: Power Specifications are given below:
o Input Power for the card is provided via five 12V pins on the PCIe connector. For x8
card each pin supports up to 1.1A of current for a maximum of 5.5A per card, the
card is designed to only support a maximum of 60W. The nominal voltage is 12.0V,
for x16 card but may vary between 10.8V and 13.2V. the future version (x16) will
may be designed for higher power capacity.
o All Voltage regulators on the card should be capable of delivering over 15W and are
at least should be 91% efficient when loaded between 30% and 90%.
o The total load capacitance on the input 12V supply should not exceed 400uF.
11. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 11 of 21
2.4.4. MECHANICAL SPECIFICATIONS
a) Form Factor of the Board:
The OCP has specified the possible dimensions for the micro server board as shown in
the figure-3 given below. Figure shows x8 (98 pin) connector for low power and high
density solution, future development should include x16 version of the card for high
power and high connectivity solution.
b) Card Mechanical Outline:
The card should adhere to the mechanical dimensions provided in Figures 3 and 4. The
Dimensions are defined to accommodate multiple card lengths, but only on one end of
the card.
Figure 3. Mechanical Specification-1
Figure 4. Mechanical Specification-2
c) PCIe Edge Connector
System on a chip, or SoC, is a micro-server built on a PCIe-like card that hosts the SoC,
the key dimensions of the card edge connector should match the PCIe card electro-
mechanical specification, x8(x16 for future designs) type of PCIe card should be used.
Layout and grounding rules should be follows as per the PCIe guidelines to avoid signal
integrity problems.
12. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 12 of 21
d) Baseboard Design
One possible implementation of the baseboard provides 10x micro-server card slots.
The slots are situated as 5x slots in two rows at a pitch of 33mm (centre to centre).
Future designs may accommodate thicker card designs to support higher-power
versions and could have less pitch to accommodate more cards on the baseboard.
Figure-5 shows the block diagram of OCP based Micro Server Base Board.
BMCPower Distribution
StorageandNetwork
Distribution
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
Base Board
BMCPower Distribution
StorageandNetwork
Distribution
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
Base Board
Figure 5. Block diagram of OCP Micro Server Base Board
The Base Board Management Controller (BMC) takes the overall control and
management of power supply distribution, network and storage connections.
13. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 13 of 21
e) Micro Server chassis:
Micro Server chassis will essentially have many Base Boards mounted on a single
chassis, to provide the Scale-out computing platform.
BMCPower Distribution
StorageandNetwork
Distribution
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
Base Board
Network,StorageandPowerDistribution
BMCPower Distribution
StorageandNetwork
Distribution
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
Base Board
BMCPower Distribution
StorageandNetwork
Distribution
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
96 Pin uServer Card Socket
Base Board
Figure 6. Open Compute Micro Server chassis
14. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 14 of 21
2.4.5. ELECTRICAL SPECIFICATIONS
2.4.5.1. EDGE CONNECTOR PIN-OUT
The card should plug into an x8 PCIe (x16 for future development) edge connector on the
base board. Figure-7 shows one of the possible implementation of the pin-out of the edge
connector; different pin configurations are possible, use of the reserve pins for different
connectivity solutions are possible.
Figure 7. Edge Connector Pin-out
15. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 15 of 21
2.4.5.2. PIN DEFINITIONS
Figure-8 & 9 provides a detailed explanation of the pins. The direction of the signals is
always defined from the perspective of the micro-server module.
Figure 8. Pin Description-1
17. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 17 of 21
2.4.6. MANAGEMENT
The primary server management functions shall be provided using a BMC on the baseboard. The
BMC on the baseboard will use the I2C connection as basic interface for controlling and
accessing the SoC cards on the base board. This section identifies the major required
information that should be accessible from the BMC.
The SoCs and BMC should communicate using the IPMI 2.0 commands over the I2C interface;
each card must have unique ID which is stored in the I2C based serial EEPROM on the card.
2.4.6.1. SERIAL CONSOLE
The SoC provides a serial UART that is connected directly to the card edge. This connection
shall be used as the BIOS or OS serial console and will also be available as a Serial over LAN
(SOL) connection via the BMC.
2.4.6.2. POWER CONTROL
The BMC controls power on/off, power and controls the board reset directly via the signals
defined in the pin-out.
If 12V to the card is lost and returns (“AC Lost”), the BIOS must be configurable to enable
immediate or delayed power-on or the last power state prior to the event.
2.4.6.3. THERMAL ALERTS
The SoC provides a mechanism to provide thermal alerts and over-temperature notifications
are temperature sensors is provided on the Micro Server card. The BMC must be able to
receive these alerts in a timely fashion to allow it to take action quickly. The I2C alert signal
must be used. In some cases, an over-temperature condition may occur, which forces the
SoC to power-off immediately.
2.4.6.4. SENSORS
The following lists of analog and discrete sensors are provided and are reported by the BMC.
Analog sensors are CPU temp/thermal margin, DIMM temp and Ambient temp. And there
are several Discrete Sensors like POST error, MemHot assertion, Memory error, CPU thermal
trip, Power threshold event, ProcHot assertion, etc.
2.4.6.5. BATTERY
A battery on the card is not required to keep the BIOS settings. The BIOS itself shall be able
to fetch its settings from non-volatile memory.
2.4.6.6. LEDs
Each Micro Server card should contain a power LED that glows when the power-on
sequence on the card has completed successfully. The LED is blue in colour and placed on
the leading edge of the card (cold-aisle).
18. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 18 of 21
2.4.7. ENVIRONMENTAL AND MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS
The system with the all the Micro Server card installed meets the follow environmental
requirements:
a) Gaseous Contamination: Severity Level G1 per ANSI/ISA 71.04-1985
b) Storage relative humidity: 10% to 90% (non-condensing)
c) Storage temperature range: -40°C to +70°C (long-term storage)
d) Transportation temperature range: -55°C to +85°C (short-term storage)
e) Operating altitude with no de-rating to 1000m (3300 feet)
2.4.7.1. VIBRATION AND SHOCK
The motherboard should meet the shock and vibration requirements according to the
following IEC Standard & Levels.
• IEC78-2-(*)
• IEC721-3-(*)
2.4.7.2. PRESCRIBED MATERIALS
Disallowed Components
The following components should not to be used in the design of the motherboard and
server design:
• Components disallowed by the European Union's RoHS 6
• Trimmers and/or potentiometers
• Dip switches
2.4.7.3. COMPONENT DE-RATING
For capacitors, inductors and FETs, de-rating analysis is based on at least 20% de-rating.
19. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 19 of 21
3. FUTURE PERSPECTIVE
The range of workloads and tasks handled by Micro Server are broadening. The first generation was
focused on relatively light tasks, such as serving static elements on web pages, media sharing etc. but
the second generation focusing on wider range of more powerful (but still energy-efficient) SoCs.
Currently the market shred by Micro Server is only 2-5 %, but looking in to the potential of the Micro
Server huge growth in development is expected in coming years.
Different chip manufacturers are coming with their own ARM 64 bit chip in the server market, Applied
Micro (APM) is leading the way by their X-GeneTM
SoCs which are 64 bit ARM8 based architecture are
running with core frequency up to 2.4 GHz (Gen-1), are working for X-GeneTM Gen-2 and Gen-3 (can run
up to 3GHz). AMD also launched the ARM 64 bit based SoC named as Seattle. Texas Instruments is
focusing on the cloud computing market with its Keystone architecture based low power high
performance SoCs.
Intel has launched the Atom (C2000 series) based lower power SoCs called AvatonTM
series Intel’s 22-
nanometer process technology. ARM based SoC manufacturers like TI, Qualcomm are also having the
ARM 64 –bit architecture.
The new specification contributed by OCP Micro Server Architecture shall be the foundation for
purpose-built cloud and enterprise server deployments specifically focusing on increased density and
field serviceability resulting in a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
Group Hug: Open Compute have announced a common daughter card specification that can link
virtually any processor to the motherboard. A swappable daughter card will allow AMD, Intel, and even
ARM CPUs etc. to be interchanged. Intel, AMD and ARM and their respective CPU architectures required
different sockets, different power supply design, different motherboards design, In short seperate
servers design. But now with this specification, The Group Hug card shall be connected via a simple x8
(or x16) PCI Express connector to the main motherboard. AMD, Applied Micro, Intel, and Calxeda have
already adopted the new board standard called as “Group Hug.”
The Micro Server are facing the challenges in terms the Software and OS compatibility, currently they
are running only Linux based systems. The majority of the server market is shared by the Intel and AMD,
and all the software is running is designed for x86 based systems, which is major blockage for Micro
Server growth. However as the adoption rate increases industry will find the solution to this problem.
20. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 20 of 21
4. APPENDICES
4.1. GLOSSARY OF TERMS
OCP Open Compute Project
uServer Micro Server
SoC System on Chip
ARM Advance RISC Machine
IEC International Electro-technical Commission
BMC Baseboard Management Controller
RISC Reduced Instruction Set Computing
CISC Complex Instruction Set Computing
TCO Total Cost of Ownership
RoHS Restriction of Hazardous Substances
SATA Serial ATA Interface for Hard disk drive
SODIMM Small Outline Dual in Line Memory Module
NGFF Next Generation Form Factor
IPMI Intelligent Platform Management Interface
BIOS Basic Input output System
ANSI American National Standards Institute
ISA International Society of Automation
PCIe Peripheral Component Interconnect Express
DDR Double Data rate
4.2. REFERENCES
1. Open_Compute_Project_Micro-Server_Card_Specification_v0.5
http://www.opencompute.org/projects/motherboard-design/
2. Open_Compute_Project_MicroServer_AppliedMicro_MicroModuleMotherboard_Specification_
v0.3
http://www.opencompute.org/projects/motherboard-design/
3. http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/products/moonshot/index.aspx
4. http://opensource.org/
5. http://www.opencompute.org/
6. The Bernstein Research: Long View - Timing and Implications of ARM-Based Server for
Semiconductor and Software Companies.
7. Oppenheimer : Cloudy with a Chance of ARM
8. The Functional, Mechanical & Electrical requirements/specifications in above paper are from
Open Compute Project Organization.
21. Authors: Ashvin Geete, Hitesh Jani Page 21 of 21
About Authors
Mr. Ashvin Geete holds Masters Degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering and he is Lead
Hardware Applications Engineer at eInfochips.
Mr. Hitesh Jani holds Bachelors Degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering with 14 Years of
Experience in Embedded Systems Design & Development.
About eInfochips
eInfochips is an end-to-end product engineering services company, with over 18 years of experience in
designing solutions customized to address specific business problems. With a strong focus on product
innovation, we have developed over 50 solution accelerators – reusable solution components – that
help our clients reduce time-to-market and keep development costs in check.
With 400+ products built for 100+ global clients across 3 continents, our experience runs across key
industries like Avionics, Healthcare, Transport, Retail, Security, Surveillance, Media, Consumer
Electronics, Semiconductor and Telecom.
Contact Us
India Head Quarter:
eInfochips, 11 A/B, Chandra Colony,
Off CG Road, Ahmedabad 380006
Gujarat, India
Phone +91-79-2656-3705
Fax +91-79-2656-0722
marketing@eInfochips.com, www.eInfochips.com
Disclaimer:
This document has been prepared in good faith on the basis of information available on Open Compute Project
organization and our study on the development of Micro Server design. eInfochips does not guarantee or warrant
the accuracy, reliability, completeness of the information in this publication nor its usefulness in achieving any
purpose. The recipient is encouraged to perform all due diligence with respect to design and analysis for assessing
the relevance and accuracy of the content of this publication. eInfochips will not be liable for any loss, damage,
cost or expense incurred or arising by reason of any person using or relying on information in this publication.
All trademarks and logos used if any in this paper are property of their respective owners.