{
 "id": "4.04",
 "slug": "motherboards-cpu-trays-switch-trays",
 "url": "/parts/servers-racks-and-integration/motherboards-cpu-trays-switch-trays",
 "name": "Motherboards, CPU trays, switch trays",
 "qualifiers": null,
 "layer": {
  "id": 4,
  "name": "Servers, racks & integration"
 },
 "parent_id": null,
 "children": [],
 "summary": "The non-GPU trays in a rack — CPU-only compute trays, host motherboards and the switch trays carrying scale-up switch silicon — built by the same board makers as the GPU trays.",
 "description_md": "This part covers the trays that round out a rack-scale system alongside the GPU baseboard (4.03): CPU-only compute trays for control and orchestration nodes, conventional server motherboards, and switch trays that carry the scale-up switch silicon (3.01) linking GPU trays together. The same ODM tier that builds GPU baseboards builds these, joined by motherboard specialists who don't necessarily compete for GPU-tray business. AI racks need more of this category than a conventional data center rack: a rack-scale cabinet carries dedicated switch trays purely to fan out the scale-up fabric, a tray type that barely existed before rack-scale GPU systems. For investors, this is a lower-margin, higher-volume counterpart to the GPU baseboard — less differentiated, more competitive — so the interesting question is less \"who wins\" and more whether a builder's exposure here dilutes or complements its GPU-tray economics.",
 "ai_delta": "Rack-scale GPU systems require dedicated switch trays purely to fan out the scale-up fabric between GPU trays, a tray category that has little equivalent in conventional servers.",
 "bottleneck_status": null,
 "scale_tiers": [
  "enterprise",
  "hyperscale_building",
  "ai_campus",
  "gw_class"
 ],
 "density_modes": [
  "any"
 ],
 "scale_notes": "switch-tray count scales with the number of GPU trays and the scale-up fabric's radix, so it grows faster than headcount-style server metrics as racks get larger.",
 "flow": [
  "compute",
  "power"
 ],
 "companies": [
  {
   "company_id": "asrock-rack",
   "name": "ASRock Rack",
   "role": "manufacturer",
   "confidence": "inferred",
   "ownership_type": "public",
   "ticker": "3515.TW",
   "product_note": null,
   "note": null,
   "source_url": null
  },
  {
   "company_id": "asus",
   "name": "ASUS",
   "role": "manufacturer",
   "confidence": "inferred",
   "ownership_type": "public",
   "ticker": "2357.TW",
   "product_note": null,
   "note": null,
   "source_url": null
  },
  {
   "company_id": "gigabyte",
   "name": "Gigabyte",
   "role": "manufacturer",
   "confidence": "inferred",
   "ownership_type": "public",
   "ticker": "2376.TW",
   "product_note": null,
   "note": "the same ODMs plus",
   "source_url": null
  },
  {
   "company_id": "mitac",
   "name": "MiTAC (Tyan)",
   "role": "manufacturer",
   "confidence": "inferred",
   "ownership_type": "public",
   "ticker": "3706.TW",
   "product_note": null,
   "note": null,
   "source_url": null
  },
  {
   "company_id": "msi",
   "name": "MSI",
   "role": "manufacturer",
   "confidence": "inferred",
   "ownership_type": "public",
   "ticker": "2377.TW",
   "product_note": null,
   "note": null,
   "source_url": null
  }
 ]
}