Time：2021-09-08
Recently, ZTE Corporation has been presented with 2021 Global Server Product Innovation Award by Frost & Sullivan, based on the investigation and analysis of 2021 global server product market, as well as the research and evaluation on mainstream server competitors within the industry. The recognition from the world-renowned growth strategy consulting and research firm has once again driven the market’s attention to ZTE’s innovative new generation of G4X servers, which have just set new world records in terms of performance results in the evaluation of SPECCPU in this June.
How has ZTE’s G4X server become a strong leader in China’s competitive market of x86 server? To cut a long story short, ZTE has achieved the three-fold major breakthrough into comprehensive improvement of the x86 servers.
First, ZTE never compromises with product quality and focuses on improving product strength.
Product strength is always the first competitiveness. Any vendor must develop its products based on product performance, and servers are no exception.
"The development of 5G, AI, big data and other new applications promotes the development of servers to diversify computing power, distribution, and intelligent hardware acceleration. Based on this, ZTE has launched new G4X series server which is more improved/advanced version of its last generation." said Guo Shubo, Vice President of ZTE.
In terms of product performance, the general computing power, storage capability and IO capability of the G4X server are improved to a great extent, and the performance indexes are raised comprehensively. The computing performance is improved by 50%, floating-point computing performance is improved by 52%, and the workload running speed is improved comprehensively. The G4 server fully utilizes the advantages of CPU and is embedded with 16 channels and 32 memory slots. It supports the new-generation Intel® Optane™ Memory. The memory capacity and intelligent system acceleration capability are fully integrated, increasing the memory bandwidth by 47% and the memory capacity by 33%, to support big data application effectively. At the same time, compared with the last-gen product, with the introduction of new PCIe4.0, the G4X server provides more interconnection channels, significantly increases the PCIE bandwidth by 2.6 times as compared to last generation.
In terms of heterogeneous computing support, the G4X server is equipped with the third-generation Intel® Xeon® scalable processor. As a DC-level CPU, it provides end-to-end data science tools and a huge intelligent solution ecosystem to deal with various application scenarios effectively and with more flexibility.
In addition, the G4X server is designed for multiple application scenarios such as big data, cloud computing, AI and 5G. It fully supports a variety of heterogeneous computing platforms, improving AI performance by 200% and NFV load performance by 60%.
Taking intelligent manufacturing scenario as an example, based on the powerful AI computing and network forwarding performance provided by ZTE’s G4X server, it can easily cope with the complex multicomputing, massive data processing and high-concurrency real-time processing challenges faced by industrial manufacturing enterprises. It supports innovative applications such as machine vision, unmanned operation, cloudified AGV and digital twin and many more.
In terms of security, "with the rise of data security concerns, ZTE’s G4X server enhances the security design with respect to firmware level, system level and hardware level." said Guo Shubo. The G4X server makes appropriate use of security features provided by Intel CPU, such as SGX, TME and TXT, to fully defend against network attacks, and realize the encrypted memory domain with the granularity of process, container, and VM, to enhance the system security and anti-attack capability. By supporting dual-BIOS partitioning and dual-BMC partitioning, it greatly reduces the potential risks caused by version upgrade. Through the external TPM/TCM modules, the security chip, which is adopted as the core of the trusted computing technology, implements encrypted storage, identity authentication, and encrypted transmission of sensitive data to ensure user data security.
In terms of energy consumption, the G4X server helps users save more energy while ensuring performance: Through the optimized power supply solution, optimized chassis layout, optimized component model selection and design, and intelligent heat dissipation management, the system heat dissipation capability is improved by more than 30%.
Second, strong End-to-end customization and service capabilities to satisfy customer requirements
In addition to excellent technical strength, a vendor needs profound understanding and accumulation in the industry to respond to user requirements and provide customized solutions.
Adhering to the principle of focusing on user experience and customers satisfaction/support, ZTE’s G4X server designing took more than two years, collected over 20,000 user demands/inputs, and conducted nearly 10,000 tests for validating the server performance, added by Guo Shubo. By building multi-level soft power, ZTE has been widely recognized for continuously improving its delivery capabilities day by day.
In 2012 , ZTE started the journey of self-development of servers. Through its exhaustive research and extensive technical expertise in the CT industry for more than 30 years, ZTE, with1,200 invention patent applications, has developed into one of the few server vendors in China that have independently developed hardware equipment, operating system, database, storage software and virtualized software.
As a result, ZTE’s G4X servers cover smart computing scenarios in all the industries, including AI, big data and cloud computing. ZTE is determined to improve server performance day by day to meet differentiated requirements of various industries and users. By providing end-to-end comprehensive solutions and making customized software development and pre-test certification to meet specific industry requirements, ZTE provides customize computing solutions for various industries such as finance, government affairs, telecommunications, power, and transportation.
It is worthwhile mentioning that the built-in Intel® Xeon® scalable processor of ZTE’s G4X server has a steady architecture and a variety of integrated acceleration capabilities. Irrespective of deployment scenarios, whether on the cloud or at the edge, the performance of ZTE G4X server offers adequate elasticity to 5G, AI, IoT or high performance computing, laying a solid foundation for its customization capability.
In addition, ZTE has several production bases in Shenzhen, Heyuan, Changsha, Xi'an and Nanjing, with a production capacity of up to 40,000 units per month. At the same time, ZTE always follows carrier-grade standards to control the entire R&D and manufacturing process of servers, to ensure servers delivery without any deficiency and to achieve high-quality with less time to market.
Following the trend of accelerating the implementation of information application innovations of China Mobile, the telecom industry has gradually increased its requirements for PC servers. In June 2021, ZTE stood first in the bid for the X86 platform and contributed 60% share with supply of more than 17,000 servers, winning order for the third consecutive year of PC server for China Mobile's centralized purchase from 2019 to 2020. In 2021, ZTE was once again preferred as supply partner for the largest share of China Mobile’s general server project. ZTE’s server absolutely matched the network’s cloud scenario, and outcome of its product design, function, and performance resulted into excellent test results. Thus, ZTE won the recognition of the telecom industry’s customer to meet stringent standard requirements, and able to establish long-term relationships.
Third, ZTE conducts various compatibility tests and certification, in collaboration with its partners to build an open ecosystem.
In this competitive global market, it would be difficult for anyone to work independently to meet the development requirements. To improve product competitiveness, comprehensive and outstanding technologies would be required, which are not viable for vendors to specialize in the industry. Working closely with partners to build a technology ecosystem and enhancing product influence from an open perspective have become the common choice of most forward-looking vendors.
In addition to its technical strength, ZTE has always been adhering to the principle of collaboration for win-win situation with its partners in the industry chain, to concentrate on improving product competitiveness and achieve cross-industry development.
After years of cooperation with top suppliers in the industry, ZTE has maintained a good cooperation relationship with the industry-leading suppliers with respect to hard disk and memory, and the components used by ZTE have always maintained high industry standards, fully supporting the overall high performance of servers.
ZTE not only provides ideal hardware and a high-quality industrial chain ecosystem, but also conducts compatibility tests and certification together with software vendors with respect to operating system, database, and middleware. The mutual collaboration and mutual promotion helps its customers reduce system risks and bring greater value.
This is the way of compatibility and collaboration, which allows ZTE to collaborate with many partners, such as Intel, to continuously achieve technological innovation and help its customers achieve better digital transformation with higher product quality, stronger technical capabilities, and better user experiences. ZTE is always on the way to make upgrade and breakthroughs.
