SeaMicro
Ultra-dense microservers for data centers and cloud services.
SeaMicro, Inc., an AMD subsidiary focused on ultra-dense computer servers, shut down on April 16, 2015. Founded in July 2007 by Andrew Feldman, Gary Lauterbach, and Anil Rao, the company secured Series A funding from Crosslink Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson in December 2007, followed by a Series B round led by Khosla Ventures in 2009. AMD acquired SeaMicro in 2012 for $334 million. Its microservers were widely used in data centers, including the Gene Center at LMU Munich for scientific research. In 2013, SeaMicro AMD teamed up with Verizon Communications to power new cloud services, enabling Verizon to offer fine-grained server configurations where administrators could select processor speeds from 500 MHz to 2 GHz and adjust DRAM in 512 MB increments.
The first product, the SM10000, along with the SM10000-XE, earned Red Hat Certification in 2011 for use with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The later SeaMicro SM15000 supported Citrix Xen Servers, VMware ESXi, Linux, and Microsoft Windows. Newer versions achieved benchmarks of 5 petabytes of storage, 64 CPUs, 1,000 virtual machines, and 1.28 Tb/s bandwidth. Another product, the 10U Rack Unit, delivered 2,048 CPU cores and 16 TB of RAM, with data transferred via a custom "Freedom Fabric" unique to SeaMicro microservers. Awards included GigaOM’s GreenNet 2011 10 Big Ideas Winners, Silicon Valley/San Jose Journal’s Best Emerging Cleantech Company 2011, 2011 Best Electronic Design Winners in the Computer Category, and Platts’ 2011 Rising Star award.
Quick Facts
- Industry
- Data center, Rack Storage Hardware
- Founded
- 2007
- Founder
- Gary Lauterbach / Andrew Feldman / Anil Rao
- Defunct
- 2015-04-16
- Hq Location City
- Santa Clara, CA
- Hq Location Country
- United States
- Key People
- Dhiraj Malik
- Services
- Computer data storage
- Parent
- AMD
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
SeaMicro was founded in July 2007 by Andrew Feldman, Gary Lauterbach, and Anil Rao. Series A investments from Crosslink Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson closed in December 2007, and Khosla Ventures led the series B investment round in 2009. In 2012, AMD acquired SeaMicro for $334 million. The company's servers were used in data centers such as the Gene Center at LMU Munich for scientific research. In 2013, SeaMicro AMD collaborated with Verizon Communications to power its new cloud services, enabling fine-grained server configuration options that allowed administrators to select processor speeds between 500 MHz and 2 GHz and to scale DRAM up and down in 512 MB increments.
The first product was the SM10000, along with the SM10000-XE, which achieved Red Hat Certification in 2011 when operating on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. A later model, the SeaMicro SM15000, supported Citrix Xen Servers, VMware ESXi software, and both Linux and Microsoft Windows operating systems. Specifications of newer versions reached computing benchmarks of 5 petabytes of storage, 64 CPUs, a 1,000 virtual machine capacity, and 1.28 Tb/s of bandwidth. Another product was the 10U Rack Unit, which could provide a total of 2,048 CPU cores and 16 TBs of RAM, with data transferred through a custom 'Freedom Fabric' for supercomputers unique to SeaMicro microservers.
Reader's Guide
SeaMicro's significance lies in its pioneering role in the ultra-dense microserver market, which addressed the need for high-density, energy-efficient computing in data centers. Its acquisition by AMD for $334 million in 2012 integrated its technology into a major processor manufacturer's portfolio. The collaboration with Verizon Communications in 2013 demonstrated the practical application of its fine-grained server configuration, allowing unprecedented flexibility in instance-sizing for cloud services. The company's products, such as the SM10000 and SM15000, achieved certifications and supported multiple operating systems and hypervisors, indicating their versatility. The custom 'Freedom Fabric' interconnect for supercomputers highlighted a unique architectural approach. SeaMicro's legacy includes its contributions to scientific research at institutions like the Gene Center at LMU Munich and its recognition through awards such as the GigaOM GreenNet 2011 10 Big Ideas Winners and the Silicon Valley/San Jose Journal Best Emerging Cleantech Company 2011. The company ceased operations on 16 April 2015, but its innovations in microserver density and configurability influenced subsequent data center designs.
Did You Know?
- The SM10000-XE achieved Red Hat Certification in 2011.
- SeaMicro's 10U Rack Unit could provide 2,048 CPU cores and 16 TBs of RAM.
- The company won the Platts 2011 Rising Star award.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was SeaMicro?
SeaMicro was a hardware company that built ultra-dense 'microserver' systems, packing enormous amounts of processing power and storage into a fraction of the rack space that conventional data-center servers required.
Who founded SeaMicro and when?
Andrew Feldman, Gary Lauterbach, and Anil Rao launched the company in July 2007, and it quickly drew venture backing from Crosslink Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Khosla Ventures.
What made SeaMicro's microservers stand out in the storage world?
Starting with the SM10000 and evolving into the SM15000, the systems were engineered around extreme physical density, with the newer model capable of holding up to 5 petabytes of data in a single chassis.
Where did SeaMicro hardware see real-world deployment?
Their microservers powered Verizon's cloud infrastructure and also ran scientific workloads at the Gene Center of LMU Munich, showing the design's appeal beyond generic data-center use.
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