160 NVMe Drives in a 4U Box: Inside Supermicro's ASG-4116S-NU160R

Supermicro unveiled the ASG-4116S-NU160R at FMS 2026, a 4U server housing 160 NVMe SSD bays. Achieving this density is no simple feat; it requires innovative design elements. The server employs a two-tier slide-out tray layout, with the top tray accommodating hot-swap SSDs and the bottom tray containing the CPU, memory, and networking components.

The challenge lies in connecting these drives, as they use PCIe for communication. Connecting all 160 drives directly would necessitate 640 PCIe lanes, far exceeding what a single CPU can provide. Supermicro addresses this issue by incorporating PCIe switches at the center of the chassis, which in turn distribute PCIe lanes from the host CPU to each drive bay, similar to SAS expanders in top-loading SAS servers.

The drives themselves are 2.5-inch U.2 NVMe SSDs, not a smaller EDSFF form factor, allowing for the high-density configuration. Power and heat management are crucial considerations for such a high-density setup. The server features hot-swappable rear fans and redundant power supplies rated at 2600W, generating approximately 130 to 137W per petabyte of storage when fully loaded.

Supermicro's design opt for 2.5-inch U.2 drives over newer form factors, such as E3.S or E1.S, to maintain compatibility with existing 2.5-inch U.2 bays. The ASG-4116S-NU160R is not meant to replace general-purpose compute nodes but rather to serve specific workloads like distributed storage clusters, AI training dataset storage, and video ingest systems.

It's a noteworthy example of how high-density NVMe servers can consolidate resources, reducing network ports, power feeds, and management overhead, ultimately leading to cost savings for hyperscalers and large storage clusters. While it may not be suitable for everyday users just yet, the architecture showcased by Supermicro offers valuable insights for future storage solutions.