About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Analysis: Inside Supermicro’s Hyper-Speed HFT Server

Subscribe to our newsletter

Super Micro Computer last month introduced a new line of “Hyper-Speed” servers, pitching them at high frequency trading applications. The company says they work by “maximising processing power and precisely tuning hardware and firmware to attain up to 30% lower latency.” And just as importantly, the servers feature “high reliability as a primary design focus.” So what are these servers, and how does Supermicro boost their performance?

* They are based on dual Intel multi-core Xeon E5-2600 (Sandy Bridge) chips. The 2U model is pitched at space-limited co-location deployment. Crucially, they are “designed for maximum airflow and custom heat sinks provide optimal thermal distribution for mission critical reliability.” Which means they provide superior cooling for the chips and other components.

* This cooling is required because the microprocessors in the Supermicro servers are over clocked – they operate at clock frequencies higher than normal, which means they execute code faster. Which translates to lower latency.

* As an example, Supermicro tested network performance processing messages with the UDP and TCP protocols, and determined that over clocking reduced latency by 31%. Moreover, jitter was reduced by 73%.

* Over clocking of its microprocessors is generally frowned upon by Intel because the implementation of over clocking can shorten their life. But because of the cooling abilities of the Supermicro servers, the chips have the same warranty as standard products. Also, Supermicro tests all of the components in its servers – including RAM and network interface cards – to ensure they will operate with an over clocked microprocessor.

* Just to be clear, the performance of the Supermicro servers is not just down to microprocessor over clocking but also to other hardware and firmware optimisations incorporated into them.

My Take:

For applications that need the fastest execution of serial code – data feed handlers are an example – over clocking should be beneficial. And Supermicro’s implementation seemingly overcomes the reliabity issues often cited for over over clocking.

For some, this approach will have merit compared to turning to specialist processors, such as FPGAs, to handle certain processing. It will mean that traditional programming techniques can continue to be used instead of requiring specialist skills. And existing mainstream code can be readily deployed, and runs faster.

It’s worth noting that Dell recently introduced its Dell Processor Acceleration Technology, an alternate approach to boosting the processing power of microprocessors, also for HFT applications.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: Unlocking Competitive Edge with Outsourcing and Managed Services in Trading Technology

Outsourcing has emerged as a strategic solution for capital markets firms as trading technology infrastructures become more complex, data volumes grow exponentially, and regulatory pressures intensify. .By leveraging third-party expertise, firms can optimise operations, reduce costs, and focus on innovation in their trading technology stack. Outsourcing potentially enables firms to scale seamlessly, meet regulatory reporting...

BLOG

Options Technology Secures Strategic Investment from Vitruvian Partners and Acquires Packets2Disk

Options Technology has announced a strategic investment from private equity firm Vitruvian Partners, to support the company’s ongoing global expansion and innovation initiatives in the capital markets sector. Known for backing high-growth companies, Vitruvian will provide both financial resources and strategic guidance to help Options accelerate growth in areas including high-performance networking, cloud computing, security,...

EVENT

RegTech Summit New York

Now in its 9th year, the RegTech Summit in New York will bring together the RegTech ecosystem to explore how the North American capital markets financial industry can leverage technology to drive innovation, cut costs and support regulatory change.

GUIDE

Dealing with Reality – How to Ensure Data Quality in the Changing Entity Identifier Landscape

“The Global LEI will be a marathon, not a sprint” is a phrase heard more than once during our series of Hot Topic webinars that’s charted the emergence of a standard identifier for entity data. Doubtless, it will be heard again. But if we’re not exactly sprinting, we are moving pretty swiftly. Every time I...