ASUS Announces Exclusive Power Balancer Technology and Servers with New 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors

TAIPEI, Taiwan, February 24, 2020 ASUS, the leading IT Company in server systems, server motherboards, workstations and workstation motherboards today announced exclusive Power Balancer technology to support the new 2nd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor (extended Cascade Lake-SP refresh SKUs) across all server product lineups, including the RS720/720Q/700 E9, RS520/500 E9 and ESC8000/4000 G4 series server systems and Z11 server motherboards.

In complex applications, such as high-performance computing (HPC), AI or edge computing, balancing performance and power consumption is always a challenge. With Power Balancer technology and the new 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processor, ASUS servers save up to 31 watts power per node on specific workloads and achieve even better efficiency with more servers in large-scale environments, significantly decreasing overall power consumption for a much lower total cost of ownership and optimized operations.

ASUS Power Balancer technology

Green awareness and power consumption have become important topics in the server industry in recent years, especially as more datacenters require better computing performance, more storage space and quicker connections along with more efficient power usage. In 2019, ASUS launched a server thermal-control technology called Thermal Radar 2.0, which provides real-time server temperature monitoring and dynamic fan-curve adjustments for lower fan power consumption. With the new 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processor (extended Cascade Lake-SP Refresh SKUs), ASUS is introducing Power Balancer, a power saving technology designed to continue delivering the value of optimized power-efficiency technology.

ASUS Power Balancer is an exclusive technology that enables ASUS servers to adjust overall CPU loading automatically based on real-time monitoring, decreasing overall power consumption for improved efficiency and cost/performance optimization.

The in-house ASUS server lab recently did a comparison between an ASUS server with and without Power Balancer technology. Without the technology, the server’s CPU required 130 watts of power while running at an 80% workload. With ASUS Power Balancer technology, the server achieved a 14% power savings while maintaining the same level of performance. The results clearly show that Power Balancer technology enables ASUS servers to decrease CPU power consumption in multi-threaded scenarios by adjusting the most suitable frequencies.

ASUS servers with new 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors

ASUS delivers enhanced performance on a broad range of servers and server motherboards that leverage the new 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (extended Cascade Lake-SP refresh SKUs). Intel introduced 18 new SKUs where the top frequency rate can increase up to 4.5 GHz with Turbo Boost, delivering up to a 25–36% performance improvement on the SPEC CPU2017 benchmark to support immediate customer needs. All new processors support the breakthrough system memory and storage capabilities of Intel Optane persistent memory.

ASUS Z11 series server motherboards for the new 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processor are available in ATX, EEB and CEB form factors to fit a variety of applications. Customers can use these motherboards for HPC, financial services, cloud gaming and VM performance with additional cores and higher frequencies, and a minimum effort on system reconfiguration requirements.

ASUS servers, including the RS720/720Q/700 E9, RS520/500 E9 and ESC8000/4000 G4 series, fully support the new 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors with Intel Optane persistent memory and deliver more workload-optimized solutions that accelerate and simplify the process of selecting hardware and software. The RS720/700/720Q E9 series are two-socket servers in 2U and 1U chassis form factors designed for multiple workloads, leading performance and compute density (RS720Q). The RS520/500 E9 series are mainstream servers that balance performance, efficiency and manageability in 4U, 2U and 1U chassis form factors. The ESC8000/4000 G4 series are high density GPU servers that are ideal for AI, deep learning, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), rendering and scientific research.