X-bit labs: I believe we all have noticed a while ago that the current pace at which the hardware and software develop is simply amazing. Workstations and small servers are picking up really quickly these days. High-end hardware components and advanced professional software applications have significantly increased the computational power of this type of systems. Today in a small office environment or on a home workstation platform you can do a lot of things, which back in the days could only be done on a number of monster machines working simultaneously with a lot of specialists required to operate and manipulate them. Now if you need to perform some complex scientific calculations or complete some professional video editing tasks, you can put together a powerful system on your own. 

Charles Liang: Yes, that’s true. This is a fast growing market and we will expand in this direction as well. The mainboard you just mentioned, PDSGE, is a truly optimized motherboard in this market.

X-bit labs: Speaking about this mainboard, you do not offer any solutions for computer enthusiasts but you still provided your PDSGE with overclocking-friendly features. Why? Who is this product targeted for?

Charles Liang: With this mainboard we did not promote overclocking, although the feature was there. Overclocking was not our main focus on this motherboard. Since it’s a workstation solution, we opted instead to focus on overall system stability, quality and reliability. 

X-bit labs: Then the question is, if you do not want to promote overclocking and to encourage people to overclock, then why you would take the time and trouble, invest resources into the development of the overclocking options? If the board had no tools for overclocking, people wouldn’t question that: they would accept it as Supermicro doesn’t do overclocking-friendly products. But once you got into the overclocking environment, you provided the software, and you offered a bit of an opportunity, you will feel like the users aren’t happy with that: they want more.

Charles Liang: Well, I have to admit that we do have the capability to provide a reliable overclocking system, but again it is not our focus. Maybe you could call these features a “hidden bonus” for gaming enthusiasts; you get it free of charge. :)

X-bit labs: It is a known fact that Supermicro is working closely with Intel. However, there are still some platforms designed for AMD solutions. Could you say a few words about products for AMD Opteron platform?

Charles Liang: We make Opteron solutions available to customers who request them. We recently started to sell some AMD solutions to the channel.  Right now we have quite a few very good solutions in the market and have made the information available on our website APLUS pages.