Computing power, as the core productivity driving the rapid development of the digital economy, is propelling the digital transformation of various industries. With applications becoming increasingly diverse, general-purpose servers face more complex customization demands. Intel has proposed building a "modular server ecosystem" and, leveraging the Intel® Partner Alliance (IPA), has collaborated with Yiqi Research Institute to launch the open and collaborative Open Common Server Platform (OCSP) community. This initiative aims to flexibly customize high-quality, high-value servers for different customer industry scenarios, driving business optimization and innovation across sectors.
Cloudtop Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Cloudtop Information"), as one of the first companies to participate in the OCSP community and one of the earliest system integrator partners, has actively engaged in discussions and contributed to the formation of standards. Based on the OCSP community's standard specifications, Cloudtop Information continuously incorporates the latest technologies and innovative designs while maintaining backward compatibility. This approach meets the market competitiveness needs of OEMs, server suppliers, and users in terms of small-batch customization, quality, and cost, collectively building an ecosystem for China's server industry. Meanwhile, Cloudtop Information has enriched its product portfolio through practice and now possesses end-to-end capabilities for constructing intelligent computing centers, from planning, design, implementation, and validation to maintenance, offering comprehensive one-stop services for intelligent computing projects.
Agile Customization, Delivering Diverse Products
Adhering to the principles of openness, quality, flexibility, and value, the OCSP community not only provides modular and standardized server design concepts but also defines a series of compatibility and interoperability standards, making the server design and manufacturing process more efficient and flexible. As a new industry collaboration model, the OCSP community accelerates innovation and development in the server industry through the co-creation of standards, communities, and ecosystems.
As one of the earliest members of the community, Cloudtop Information actively participated in and contributed to the design of the OCSP 2.0 standard during its formulation, leveraging market insights and customer needs. Contributions include the design of PCIe modules above rear power supplies and the design of Riser card fixing methods.
Modularization involves standardizing module interfaces. The OCSP community defines servers into six major components and provides open decoupling standards for chassis, power supplies, motherboards, hard drives, fans, and I/O expansion modules. Currently, Cloudtop Information's entire series of Intel servers are developed based on OCSP-standard motherboards, covering the 3rd, 4th, and 5th generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor platforms. Development of motherboards for the 6th generation Xeon processors is underway, allowing partners to optimize usage by selecting different module combinations based on scenario requirements.
Based on OCSP standards, Cloudtop Information has designed and mass-produced the 2U dual-socket general-purpose server product R7260 X6 (Qianjiang Tide). This product supports rich configurations, multi-dimensional software customization (BMC, BIOS, etc.), and agile hardware customization from L3 to L12, offering the following key advantages:
- Rich and flexible configurations: The entire system is based on OCSP standards and implements modular design, allowing customers to flexibly choose from various front hard drive cages, middle fan modules, middle hard drive/card cages, and rear hard drive/card cages, achieving "transformer-level" flexible configurations.
- Extensive AVL: Compatible with major mainstream operating systems and a wide range of components.
- High hardware specifications: Industry-leading support for maximum PCIe slots, GPU cards, and hard drives.
- Top-notch software features: Cloudtop CloudBMC, developed based on OpenBMC, offers rich functionalities such as RAID configuration under the BMC interface and 3D visualization of server internal temperatures. The BIOS provides manageability, scalability, maintainability, usability, and serviceability.
- Excellent craftsmanship and reliability: Tool-free disassembly simplifies maintenance, rational layout ensures smooth wiring, structural components feature protective coatings, and packaging is designed for easy transport.
- Flexible customization: Extensive software and hardware customization options with full certification support.
With the best compatibility and maximum openness, Cloudtop Information delivers more efficient and scalable products and solutions based on the OCSP community. This approach significantly reduces the "reinventing the wheel" problem in server design. Standardized components and interfaces enable rapid iteration and customized production, greatly accelerating the time-to-market for new-generation servers. This helps server suppliers and users reduce costs, connect customer needs, and efficiently support the growing demand for computing infrastructure across industries.
Connecting Needs, Accelerating Intelligent Applications
Since its establishment, Cloudtop Information has been deeply involved in computing, communication, and AI fields, mastering core technologies and building strong R&D capabilities. The company closely monitors and continuously meets the needs of niche scenarios. Currently, Cloudtop Information operates two R&D centers in Hangzhou and Beijing, filing dozens of patents annually to fuel continuous innovation in products and technologies. For AI training, inference, and other scenarios, Cloudtop Information provides more flexible options to facilitate the integration of AI technologies into enterprise applications.
Currently, the R7260 X6 (Qianjiang Tide) 2U general-purpose server, based on OCSP standards, meets the needs of various niche application scenarios across industries:
- Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning: Supports AI model training, inference, and deployment, accelerating the development and application of AI.
- Scientific Computing: For research projects requiring complex data processing and computation, such as weather forecasting, earthquake simulation, and genetic research.
- Big Data Processing: For storing, analyzing, and mining massive datasets, such as data warehouses and data lakes.
- Network Storage: Provides high-capacity storage solutions with efficient data access and backup functionality, ensuring data reliability and security.
- Cloud Computing and Virtualization: Serves as the infrastructure for cloud computing and virtualization platforms, offering robust computing power and scalability to support multiple virtual machines or containers.
The R7260 X6 (Qianjiang Tide) supports two 4th or 5th generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors, including processors with integrated HBM memory. It features rich software capabilities, integrating OpenBMC for standardization, scalability, reliability, and security. The BIOS offers faster boot speeds, comprehensive and precise RAS features, and batch import/export of configurations. Additionally, its high hardware specifications include support for up to 22 PCIe expansion slots (20 standard slots and 2 OCP slots), 4 FHFL dual-width GPU cards, 19 HHHL single-width GPU cards, 24 3.5-inch hard drives, and 45 2.5-inch hard drives.
Conclusion
With the rapid development of data centers and cloud computing technologies, the server industry is facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges. As an open and innovative platform, OCSP provides new momentum and direction for the development of the server industry.
Cloudtop Information has fully demonstrated the immense potential of OCSP standards in practical applications, building a server product line spanning multiple generations of Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors. It offers OCSP-compliant components and systems, including motherboards, and provides personalized development to deliver industry-leading storage and GPU expansion capabilities for server suppliers and enterprise users, meeting the computing and storage demands of the AI era.