At SC25, we found a few Ampere AmpereOne M platforms, including the Gigabyte R1A3-T40-AAV1. This is a single socket platform that uses the 12-channel memory Arm chip to provide a modern competitor to the big sockets from AMD and Intel. We covered the AmpereOne M in May, but we are finally starting to see the platforms.
Gigabyte R1A3-T40-AAV1 with Ampere AmpereOne M at SC25
The server is a 1U form factor with four PCIe Gen5 NVMe drive bays up front. You would almost think this is a natural for a 10x or 12x 2.5″ NVMe SSD chassis, so seeing 3.5″ here was unexpected.
In the center, we get the single AmpereOne M socket. You can see twelve DDR5 DIMM slots with six on each side. This is a 1 DIMM per channel (1DPC) 12-channel design.
Like many motherboards these days, we rely on cabled connections for PCIe. Here are x16 cable connectors.
We can see them on the other side as well. There is also a single PCIe Gen5 x4 M.2 slot inside.
At the rear, we can see two OCP NIC 3.0 slots then two full height PCIe Gen5 x16 slots above them. That is 64-lanes of PCIe Gen5 for use on the rear panel. For those who prefer that in networking terms, you can power four 400GbE ports out of the rear in addition to the 1GbE port and management port.
The connectors at the rear of the motherboard are MCIO x8 connectors.
Final Words
In a 1U platform, it appears Gigabyte is exposing not just the 12-channel memory configuration but also ~84 of the platform’s maximum 96 PCIe Gen5 lanes, which is quite impressive. Hopefully, we get to try one of these AmpereOne M platforms out in the not-too-distant future. If nothing else, the NVIDIA pull for Arm servers, and even development platforms like the NVIDIA DGX Spark/ GB10 are really helping the Arm ecosystem.
