Tyan Thunder HX FT83B-B7149 Intel Xeon 6 PCIe GPU AI Server

At Computex 2024, we saw the Tyan Thunder HX FT83B-B7149. This is an Intel Xeon 6-based PCIe GPU AI server. Tyan has been making popular PCIe GPU servers for many generations, so it is neat to see the next generation of a line we have been seeing in data centers regularly since the Xeon E5 days.

Tyan Thunder HX FT83B-B7149 Intel Xeon 6 PCIe GPU AI Server

We saw the system at the MiTAC/ Tyan booth. It has eight front 2.5″ U.2 NVMe SSD slots, 11x PCIe Gen5 x16 slots, 3x OCP NIC 3.0 slots, and two PCIe Gen4 M.2 slots.

Behind that front drive and NIC section, there is a fan wall.

Behind that, we find the CPU and memory on the motherboard at the bottom of the chassis.

There are two LGA4710 sockets for two Intel Xeon 6 processors up to 350W TDP CPUs.

The PCIe switch board sits 1U higher and in the rear. We can see the MCIO connections to that board as well as the heatsinks for the PCIe switches. Something that is a bit different in Tyan’s design is that the PCIe switch PCB does not have four squared edges and instead has cutouts on the sides to make accessing power connectors easier. That is a little refinement that has happened over generations of systems.

PCIe systems like this are useful for dual-slot GPUs since they offer a lot of density. One can also do P2P transfers over the PCIe switches without having to go back to the CPUs.

The four 2.7kW 80Plus Titanium PSUs are at the bottom rear of the chassis. Old Tyan designs from many years ago had them on the sides so this is more of a design trend in these systems over time.

Final Words

Overall the Tyan Thunder HX FT83B-B7149 shows a lot of progress. Our sense is that the P-core Intel Xeon 6700P series will be better matched to this system rather than the E-core Intel Xeon 6 6700E. Higher-end AI server designs we are seeing using Granite Rapids-AP since P-cores tend to be better for AI workloads. Still, it was a cool system to see, and hopefully, we will get the 6700P series launched soon.