Super Micro Computer, Inc. or Supermicro designs, develops, manufactures and
sells servers based on the x86 architecture. The company's offerings
include rackmount, tower and blade server systems, high-end workstations,
storage server systems, motherboards, chassis, and server components branded
under the Server Building Block Solutions product line.
Supermicro was founded in 1993 by engineer and current CEO Charles Liang.
The company was incorporated in Delaware in August 2006 and had its IPO in March
2007. As of June 30, 2012, Supermicro employed 1,472 full-time employees and
31 consultants at its operations in the United States, Europe, and Asia with
customers in over 89 countries. The company offers its products through
value-added resellers, system integrators, and original equipment
manufacturers, as well as through its direct sales force.
Supermicro generated about $2 billion in sales during its initial 15 years of
operation, recently posting US $1,467.2 million in revenue in the fiscal year
ending June 30, 2014. History
Following is a brief history of Supermicro business milestones:
October 1993: Founded by engineer Charles Liang in San Jose, California
July 1996: Expanded operations to Taipei, Taiwan. Expanded the
manufacturing space in San Jose from 15,000 to 45,000 square feet
August 28, 2006: Incorporated in Delaware
January 2007: Unveiled first 1U Twin March 2007: Announced UIO architecture
March 29, 2007: Announced Initial Public Offering
June 2007: Launched SuperBlade at Computex
May 2008: Surpassed $2 billion in cumulative revenue since founding
February 2008: Announced new 2U Twin server architecture
June 2009: Unveiled new class of product, the GPU Supercomputing Server
June 2014: Unveiled industry-first true hot-swap capable NVMe Server System
Product scope Supermicro offers server barebones,
motherboards, chassis, rack cabinets, networking equipment like switches,
power supplies and a number of extension cards and accessories. Supermicro is
known for the world's first double-sided storage chassis that featured 36
hot-swap 3.5" hard drive trays with 24 in the front and 12 in the rear. The
chassis, offered in 2009, was roughly the size of the ordinary desktop.
Key technologies Server Building Block Solutions
Supermicro provides a broad selection of barebones which can be configured to
create server systems for specific applications. With this methodology,
customized IT designs can be deployed for data centers, high-performance
computing clusters, high-end and GPU-intensive workstation deployments,
storage networks, as well as standalone server environments.
Universal I/O UIO cards are similar to PCI-Express
cards but can also be added to the server where all available PCI-Express
slots are already in use. This technology allows adding up to 3
expansion cards to a 1U server system or 6 expansion cards to a 2U system.
Supermicro UIO servers, in combination with a riser card and UIO card, can
provide over 20 different networking choices including SAS-2 RAID,
InfiniBand, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. UIO cards are mostly usable with Supermicro
servers only. Twin Family
Supermicro’s Twin Family includes the 1U Twin system which contains two
full-feature computing nodes in a 1U chassis. The 2U Twin contains four
independent full-feature computing nodes in a 2U chassis. Each node in these
systems maintains independent full-function system control and
management. GPU Supercomputing Servers
In March 2010 Supermicro announced a new class of servers that combines massively
parallel GPUs with multi-core CPUs in a single server system. Supermicro's claim
is that this configuration delivers performance at least an order of
magnitude better than traditional quad-core CPU-based servers. The goal
behind this technology was to give users the ability to implement tasks that were
traditionally addressed only with highly scaled systems such as supercomputers.
SuperBlade Solutions Based on growing market demand for blade
solutions, Supermicro developed and introduced in 2007 a blade server
solution called SuperBlade. These systems are self-contained servers
designed to share a common computing infrastructure, the aim of which was to
save additional space and power. The Supermicro blade solutions include the
DatacenterBlade, a 14-blade offering for data centers; the 10-blade OfficeBlade
aimed at quiet office environments; and StorageBlade for data center storage. A
14U Mini Rack Cabinet designed for office and lab environments is also
included in the SuperBlade solution line-up.
Environmental responsibility Supermicro has stated that it supports
the Climate Savers Computing Initiative as a major member and Chair of its CSCI
APEC Region. CSCI's goal is to promote the development, deployment and adoption
of smart technologies that can improve computer efficiencies, with a goal to
achieve 50% reduction in computer power consumption by 2010. It has been
publicly stated that Supermicro strives to design its products with energy
efficiency in mind to support the company's motto: We Keep IT Green.
References External links
Official website