Open AI server node
The apex system — where the host is settled reuse, and the cost and the joules concentrate in two places.
Grand Teton is an open AI platform: dual-socket host, eight accelerators on a baseboard, 48 V power. OCP standardised the entire host as settled reuse. The cost and the differentiation concentrate in two places — the accelerator silicon and the links between accelerators — and both are an energy problem.
Exploded
Decompose the product into its stack. Each layer is colour-coded: settled, cyclical, or frontier.
Bill of materials
Every part is a real, sourced component from the open baseline — no invented part numbers.
Where the value and the joules concentrate. Frontier options: the compute die itself, and co-packaged optical I/O so bits move between chips in light rather than copper — that interconnect is the photonic tile from the frontier build, in the rack. Buy off-the-shelf accelerators, or design here for energy and bandwidth.
https://www.opencompute.org/documents/ocp-accelerator-module-design-specification-v1p5-final-20220223-docx-1-pdf →Standard server CPU — refreshes on a node clock. Reuse the current generation.
https://www.opencompute.org/documents/grand-teton-intel-based-cpu-tray-specification-v1-0-pdf →Standard DIMMs. Reuse the current generation.
https://www.opencompute.org/documents/grand-teton-intel-based-cpu-tray-specification-v1-0-pdf →Settled management SoC. Reuse.
https://www.aspeedtech.com/server_ast2600/ →Standard NIC form factor. Reuse.
https://www.opencompute.org/documents/grand-teton-intel-based-cpu-tray-specification-v1-0-pdf →Standard NVMe. Reuse.
https://www.opencompute.org/documents/grand-teton-intel-based-cpu-tray-specification-v1-0-pdf →Standard rack power. Reuse.
https://engineering.fb.com/2022/10/18/open-source/ocp-summit-2022-grand-teton/ →Where openWafer can help
In an AI node the host — CPU, DRAM, NIC, BMC, power — is settled reuse; OCP standardised all of it. The cost and the differentiation concentrate in two places: the accelerator silicon and the links between accelerators. The frontier options are the compute die itself and co-packaged optical I/O — moving bits in light rather than copper, for energy and bandwidth — which is the photonic tile from the frontier build, in the rack. Buy accelerators off the shelf, or design where the joules are: both are real strategies with different cost, risk, and payoff, and the right one follows from the goal.