Bamboo Systems Launches Next Generation Server

Bamboo Systems, a provider of transformative Arm-based servers, today announced the availability of its newest systems, the B1000N Series, based on a revolutionary new system architecture, Bamboo PANDA. 

Bamboo Systems’ patent-pending Parallel Arm Node Designed Architecture (PANDA), is a revolutionary new approach to server design, crafted to meet the demands of both modern software structures and the challenge of energy-hogging data centers. PANDA-based servers use embedded systems methodologies designed to run modern microservices-based workloads while consuming minimal energy and delivering industry-leading density for high throughput computing. Kubernetes-based applications, edge computing, data analytics and AI/ML deployments are solutions that are well suited for Bamboo.

Bamboo’s PANDA-based systems utilize Arm processors and deliver individually balanced servers by reducing many of the well-known traditional server architecture bottlenecks, often caused by very large processors having to share limited resources. Each B1000N system can be configured with either one or two blades in 1U, with each blade containing four compute nodes and a non-blocking embedded L3 switch exposing dual 40Gb QSFP uplink ports. Each compute node is an independent Arm-based server capable of running Linux, or other compliant operating systems. Nodes use a SolidRun COM Express Type 7 module utilizing the NXP Semiconductors Layerscape LX2160A with 16 Arm Cortex-A72 processors with up to 64GB of DDR4 ECC DRAM, hardware accelerated dual 10Gb/s network interfaces and an integrated PCIe NVMe drive, up to 8TB.

A fully configured B1008N consists of 8 servers providing 128 cores, 16 DDR4 memory channels to 512GB DRAM, 24GB/s to 64TB of NVMe storage, fed through 160Gb/s network bandwidth – all in a single rack unit – at approximately 50% of the cost of a traditional Intel-based server.

Bamboo servers include a web-based interface, the intuitive Pandamonium Management Software, based on Bamboo’s REST API for integration with orchestration platforms. Pandamonium provides control over system configuration, status updates of components, and the ability to power off individual compute nodes if they are not being used, enabling additional energy savings.

B1000N Series benefits include:

• Typical savings of 50% of acquisition cost as compared to equivalently configured x86 systems
• Up to 75% less energy consumption
• Up to 80% less rack space used
• Directly attached NVMe flash storage to every application processor to reduce the need for large amounts of DRAM or network bandwidth, delivering high performance throughput to large locally cached datasets
• Integrated NIC with hardware encryption/decryption and compression/decompression offloading work from the application processor​
• Dedicated network resources for each node
• Significantly reduced external switch and cable management​ costs
• Balanced system resources deliver the computing infrastructure for high-throughput and modern microservices-based software designs

“The x86 system architecture hasn’t particularly changed since the 1980’s and can no longer cope with the demands of modern application workloads or data center energy challenges,” said Tony Craythorne, chief executive officer, Bamboo Systems. “Without the constraints of legacy designs, we are able to deliver servers that are built for today’s microservices-based software, but which consume a fraction of the energy of traditional systems. This enables compute densities never before seen and for a far less cost than that of legacy x86 systems. Our servers are the future of data center and enterprise computing.”

The B1000N starts at under $9,995 and will be available in the USA and Europe in Q3.