Why the hardware compatibility for the Tesla K80 is not disclosed? We would like to install it in one of our servers, but there is no information in regards of the mobos that could be used. I understand that there is more information about the K40, but we should be able to see if we can use the product before we buy it. We contacted the tech support and their answer was that I have to purchase a server from some of the Nvidia partners. We wont be doing that. Where can I get more information?
K80 isn’t designed to be plugged into any particular motherboard. It is designed to be used in a properly qualified server. There are quite a few issues besides just motherboard compatibility, such as power and cooling.
In general, the Tesla M class products (including K80) have a special temperature monitoring system that uses a sideband of PCIE (i.e. not ordinary PCIE traffic) to communicate temperature data to the host BMC. The host BMC must have special firmware to read this temperature data, and adjust system fans accordingly.
For this and other reasons like it, you won’t find published hardware/motherboard compatibility lists for Tesla M class products. They are simply not designed to be used in a build-your-own system.
Tesla C class products are more widely usable. Unfortunately, at this time, there is no C class variant of K80. K40c would be the highest performing currently available C class Tesla product.
Of course, you’re welcome to do whatever you want. And there may be anecdotal accounts of people who have done just that with a K80. But the above is the answer to your question “Why the hardware compatibility for the Tesla K80 is not disclosed?” If you’re looking for officially published, technical information of this type, you simply won’t find it. NVIDIA does not publish details about how to “build your own system” around a Tesla K80.
Thanks for the information. It is a very interesting business model.