Super Micro Computer, Inc.^[1] or Supermicro^[2] (NASDAQ: SMCI) designs, develops, manufactures and sells servers based on the x86 architecture. The company's offerings include rackmount, tower server and blade server systems, high-end workstations, storage server systems, motherboards, chassis, and server components branded under the Server Building Block Solutions product line.

Established in 1993 and headquartered in San Jose, California, Supermicro employed 803 employees at its operations in the United States, Europe, and Asia with customers in over 76 countries, as of June 30, 2008. 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, posting US $540.5 million in annual revenue in FY 2008 (year ending June 30, 2008). 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.

History[link]

Following is a brief history of Supermicro business milestones:

• Founded by engineer Charles Liang in October, 1993 in San Jose, CA
• Expanded operations to Taipei, Taiwan in July, 1996
• Incorporated in Delaware on August 28, 2006
• Unveiled first 1U Twin in January, 2007
• Announced UIO architecture in March, 2007
• Announced Initial Public Offering on March 29, 2007
• Launched SuperBlade at Computex in June, 2007
• Surpassed $2 billion in cumulative revenue since founding in May, 2008
• Announced new 2U Twin server architecture in February, 2008
• Unveiled new class of product, the GPU Supercomputing Server, in June, 2009

Product scope[link]

5016T-MTFB server barebone^[3]

Supermicro offers server barebones ("superservers"), motherboards, chassis, rack cabinets, networking equipment like switches, power supplies and a number of extension cards and accessories^[4]. 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^[5]. The chassis, offered in 2009, was roughly the size of the ordinary desktop (4 HE).

Key technologies[link]

• 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)

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.^[6] 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[link]

Supermicro has stated that it supports the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI) 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.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website