Another fun one from Taipei since I noticed that a surprising number of folks were interested in the AMD Instinct MI325X 8-GPU baseboard handle. This is another feature of the AMD Instinct 8-GPU UBB that not many folks talk about, a small card that sits on the end opposite the UBB connectors.
This is the AMD SMC for its Instinct UBB
So far this week, I have taken apart several AMD Instinct MI300X and MI325X systems. Starting with my first one earlier this week, and when looking at a mechanical sample, I saw a slot for a card in front of the OAM slots that are used for GPUs.
In subsequent systems, the slot was populated with a card. This SMC is the management card for the UBB. It is designed to be replaced by simply removing a few screws, and then sliding the card out.
Under the heatsink is apparently an ASPEED AST2600 BMC. This is used as a management processor not for the entire server, but instead just for the UBB.
Final Words
After taking apart several AMD Instinct MI325X systems this week, I found a number of these little features. It was actually a bit surprising just how many of these small features are built into the boards. AMD is not selling as many as NVIDIA’s HGX platform, but it is leveraging UBB standards to help make it easier for systems vendors to easily integrate its 8-GPU platforms into systems. I probably did not have the full appreciation of this fact before this trip to Taipei as normally taking apart two 8-GPU systems is a lot for a week. This week, I think we have already taken apart 8-10 GPU servers so the differences and some of the nice integration features are really starting to pop out.
Hopefully folks like this quick look at a small feature. We should be getting back to the regular review schedule over the next few days. I have been learning a lot from taking apart systems from different vendors this week.
