Samsung Shows Intel Sapphire Rapids PCIe Gen5 Server at OCP Summit 2021

This is something we did not expect. At OCP Summit 2021, Samsung’s keynote showed inside a next-generation Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids server. This is part of the Samsung Poseidon V2 platform. Samsung’s platform is designed to handle the company’s next generation DDR5, CXL memory, PCIe Gen5 SmartSSDs/ SSDs and more.

Samsung Shows Intel Sapphire Rapids PCIe Gen5 Server at OCP Summit 2021

Samsung Poseidon V2 is the company’s next generation PCIe Gen5 server designed to handle EDSFF E3 drives. You can learn more about EDSFF and E3 in our piece E1 and E3 EDSFF to Take Over from M.2 and 2.5 in SSDs. Samsung has a flexible backplane that allows for standard E3.S and also 2T devices so that higher-power devices can be used.

Then Samsung detailed the next-generation system. Specifically, we can see the “SPR Xeon CPU”. SPR is the abbreviation for Sapphire Rapids. Here we can see features that we know that Sapphire Rapids will have including DDR5, PCIe Gen5, and CXL. One can also see the socket (covered) along with eight DIMMs on each side of the CPU for sixteen DDR5 DIMMs per socket.

Samsung has models for E3.S PCIe Gen5 SSDs, but also versions with CXL Memory Expanders and SSDs. The other option they are showing is also accelerators such as its SmartSSD.

Samsung is interested in these platforms because it makes a large number of products that get plugged in. The cost of components such as memory, storage, and accelerators goes well beyond the CPU costs.

Overall, Samsung is looking at how to take Poseidon plus its software solutions to drive consumption of its portfolio of products.

Final Words

It is usually uncommon to see a company like Samsung show off a server for one of Intel’s new platforms in an open keynote. OCP Summit often has next-generation hardware since the hyper-scale folks tend to be a bit ahead of the market. Still, it is cool to see something that will be coming in the future.