General Micro Systems (GMS) Brings Nimble “Shorty” 1U and 2U Rackmount Servers to Space-Constrained U.S. Naval Applications
4th-generation Intel^® Scalable Xeon^® CPUs with 5th-gen PCI Express power pair of ultra-rugged, full-featured 16-inch shallow rackmount servers ideal for non-rackmount installations

SAN DIEGO, CA, February 12, 2024 - General Micro Systems (GMS), the world’s leading technologyindependent supplier of computing engines in boxes, boards and servers, today launched its ultra-rugged, naval-focused 1U and 2U “Shorty 4” servers. At only 16-inches deep, the servers flexibly mount in table-top, equipment tray, sideways or vertical orientations, or can be rack mounted in space-constrained naval applications where full-sized server racks are too enormous to be practical. Surface combatants, sub-surface vessels, fast boats, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) drones and manned naval aircraft all need leading-edge scalable rackmount server performance in the smallest possible size, weight and power (SWaP).

 

“If you’ve been on a ship, no matter how large, you see that the hallways and equipment rooms are very tight and jammed with equipment. This is especially true in submarines and other specialized vessels such as littoral and fast insertion boats,” said Ben Sharfi, CEO and Chief Architect, GMS. “With a footprint similar to a gaming laptop but with 10 times the performance, these two Shorty servers are ideal for cramped and constrained naval applications. No rack is required with Shorty 1U or 2U.”

 

The leading-edge Shorty 4 servers come equipped with Intel’s 4th generation Scalable Xeon® CPUs, PCIe Gen5, and DDR5 ECC memory, and are available in 1U and 2U versions. Both servers use GMS’ “egg crate” honeycomb-like design, which mechanically divides the server into rigid quadrants to resist flex to dramatically enhance the unit’s shock and vibration performance. Constructed from heavy gauge steel or super lightweight aluminum, plus internal gussets and cross braces on internal structures, the servers can survive high shock and vibration but are still cost effective. GMS RuggedDNA™ methodology for design, ergonomics and environmental tolerance is inspired by MIL-SPEC design guidelines found in GMS’ rugged Level 4 and Level 5 full MIL-SPEC VMEbus, OpenVPX, small form factor, and rugged smart display products used by the Navy in airborne and ship-based applications such as the P-8A Poseidon aircraft, DDG, Aegis and LCAC.

 

Big Features; Small Space
Shorty 4 servers are inspired by GMS’s successful S1U-401MD 1U red/black multi-domain airborne server as well as the quad Titan 1U and 2U servers used by the Navy on the P-8A. Exceptionally rugged for airborne or shipboard use, there are also value-priced Shorty 4’s with commercial-only options available.

Based on an extended ATX-sized motherboard, Shorty servers are available immediately with the following features:
- RuggedDNA and mechanical short rack 1U and 2U sizes at a mere 16-inches deep
- Dual CPU sockets for 4th gen Intel Scalable Xeon CPUs, up to 44 cores per CPU for a total of 88 cores
- 16 DIMM slots (eight per CPU), DDR5 ECC memory
- Flexible external storage with NVMe or SATA SSDs:
  • Up to 4x 15mm SSDs (up to 100TB using 25TB Micron SSD)
  • Up to 8x 7mm SSDs
  • Dual 4-drive canisters support 7mm SSDs
- Internal storage: 2x M.2 PCIe Gen 5, x4 lanes
- PCI Express Gen 5 busses, up to x16 lanes
- 2x 10GbE, 2x 1GbE and 1x 10/100/1GbE Service LAN port
- 2U expansion slots:
  • 6x PCIe Gen5 x16 expansion slots or
  • 2x PCIe Gen5 x16 expansion slots with up to 550W GPGPU AI/vector accelerator
- 1U expansion slot: 1x PCIe Gen5 x16
- Miscellaneous I/O: 1x USB 2.0, 3x USB 3.0, VGA
- Dual-redundant 1000W CRPS power supplies (2U; single PSU for 1U)
- Front-to-back cooling with both power and fan profiles for tuning power and fan noise
- RHEL 6.8 and 7, Windows 10, Windows Server 2019, CentOS 7

 

Download the "Shorty" Datasheet