Today with the announcement of the Intel Xeon D family (codename Broadwell-DE) we are seeing a number of launches from Intel’s partners around the new platforms. The ASRock Rack D1540D4X is the company’s first announcement on launch day. It is an extended ITX motherboard that carries the current flagship Intel Xeon D-1540 processor. It appears from the specs and the board layout that one can choose between dual 10Gbase-T or SFP+ based on the PHY card selected. There are four DDR4 DIMM slots that can take up to 128GB of ram using 4x 32GB RDIMMs. One of the more unique features of the motherboard is that it has a PCIe 3.0 x16 and x8 slots making this one of the more expandable Xeon D platforms we have seen to date.
Another very interesting feature of this motherboard is that it does not use a standard 24-pin ATX power connector, likely due to space constraints. One can see a 12 pin connector along the edge of the motherboard. There also seem to be seven 4-pin PWM fan headers so this motherboard has the capacity to drive a fairly large chassis.
It is great to see motherboard vendors creatively using the new Intel Xeon D platform and exposing a host of expansion option
ASRock Rack D1540D4X Specs
- Extended ITX
- Dual ports 10G Ethernet or Dual Ports 10G SFP+ depends on PHY cards options.
- Single Socket SoC supports Intel Xeon D processors.
- Support 4 X DDR4 ECC UDIMM and RDIMM.
- Supports 6 x SATA3 ports ( Two ports SATA DOM possible)
- NGFF to SATA DOM transferring possibility.
- 1 x PCIex16, 1 x PCIe x8, 1 x PCI-E x4
- IPMI 2.0 dedicated LAN
From the ASRock Rack D15400D4X press release:
Taipei, Taiwan, 10th, March, 2015 – ASrock Rack, the innovative server technology provider, focuses on high performance and high-efficiency server products targeting HPC, Cloud Computing and Datacenter, announces today the latest D15400D4X motherboard series ready to support Intel Xeon D processors. The new series completely utilizes Intel’s latest processor technology to offer perfectly optimized computing solution.
Intel Xeon D product families, as the first Intel® Xeon® SoC, pushes the performance, efficiency and the TCO to the next level with greater density and integration. The upgrade 14nm process technology and higher levels of I/O integrations scales the performance and reliability to lower power design points, yet includes the datacenter processor features. ASRock Rack’s latest D1540D4X series features strong computing performance in E5 level, memory capacity and satisfying I/O expandability. The series is ideal for HPC-based micro servers based on its form factor. It also gives the benefits for users to build up substantial computing nodes under cloud environment. Besides, the series is perfect for hyperscale storage server, thanks to SoC integration. Moreover, the series is a comprehensive solution for mid-communication server under a cost-effective yet reliable condition. Overall, D15400D4X takes the full advantage of Intel’s latest processor technology, offering a low power and compact server solution for customers to cope with the existing critical issue in Datacenter and Cloud environments.
ASRock Rack will exhibit D1540D4X series in CeBIT 2015, several models will release shortly in Arpil, 2015. For more information, please visit www.asrockrack.com or Follow ASRock Rack on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/ASRockRack] and LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/3568757] to receive the latest news and announcements. [emphasis added]
I have looked around, and the same lacking of info….
WTF are the 5 possible RF connectors in the middle area of the board?
This would be a nice replacement for my current serverboard. Does anyone know what the expected pricerange will be?
$800-$1000
They look like (clock) probes, likely this board is just an engineering sample.
John’s $800-1000 is mostly due to the $650 price tag on the D1540. If Asrock released a D1520 board like this, it would be about $400 less due to the $250 price tag on that processor.
First company to use the 24 PCIe 3 and 8 PCIe 2 lanes as follows has sold me one of these:
– Three PCIe 3 8x slots (8x elextrically in 8x slots)
– Two PCIe 2 4x slots (4x electrically in 8x slots) –OR– one 4x and three 1x.
I would also consider substituting any of the above for an on board LSI SAS RAD card, preferably one that can be flashed to an HBA in IT mode for ZFS use.
I have no use for an m.2 port, and 16x slots are just wasting PCIe lanes on a server board IMHO.