A highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket SMP server, for application
serving in Web environments
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.
1
Product Guide
March 2008
IBM System x3550
Product Overview
CONTENTS
Product Overview
1
Selling Features
1
Key Features
4
Key Options
11
x3550 Images
12
x3550 Specifications
13
The Bottom Line
16
For More Information
18
Legal Information
18
Outstanding performance and manageability in only 1U
Suggested Uses: Medium-to-large businesses requiring a general-purpose server in space-
constrained data centers, and Scientific/Technical computing customers who require cluster
nodes.
Your challenge is to do more with less—serve more Web pages, handle more secure
connections, support more e-mail users—all while reducing costs and saving space. The
dual-
socket IBM
®
System x3550, incorporating IBM X-Architecture
™
features, meets that challenge.
It supports the latest
quad- and dual-core Intel
®
Xeon
™
processors (including
50W low-voltage
quad-core Xeon processors), designed with up to a leading-edge 1333MHz front-side bus (FSB),
64-bit extensions (EM64T), and either 6MB or 4MB (dual-core) or 8MB or 12MB (quad-core) of
L2 cache, to help provide you with the computing power you need to match your business needs
and growth. In addition, the x3550 uses industry-standard
fully buffered 667MHz memory with
Chipkill
™
ECC (Error Checking and Correcting) protection—for high performance and reliability.
For even higher levels of availability, the x3550 also offers a choice of optional online hot-spare
memory or memory mirroring.
Dual integrated high-speed Gigabit Ethernet controllers with TOE
(TCP Offload Engine) and
Jumbo Frame support are standard, as are high-performance adapter
slots (
PCI-E x8 and optional PCI-X/133).
All models offer impressive scalability, including dual-processor support, up to
32GB of memory
and a choice of high-performance hard disk drives with an internal storage capacity of
600GB
(
two 3.5-inch hot-swap Serial-Attached SCSI), 587.2GB (four 2.5-inch hot-swap SAS) or
2TB (two 3.5-inch simple-swap Serial ATA II).
The integrated SAS controller provides
hardware-based
RAID-0/1/10 standard for SAS drives. (SATA models offer firmware-based RAID
0/1 support standard.) Additional RAID support is available via the optional IBM ServeRAID
™
family of SAS and SATA controllers. The ultradense
1U form factor allows businesses to increase
their computing power and spread their workload without outgrowing their current data center. Up
to
42 of these 1U servers can be installed in a single 42U rack, for a total of up to 84 processors,
offering tremendous deployment flexibility. Optional Advanced Connectivity Technology (
ACT)
interconnect cabling reduces cable clutter and cost and minimizes installation time when
interconnecting many rack-mounted servers.
Standard in the x3550 is an integrated Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) that enables
the user to manage and control the server easily—both locally and remotely. This high level of
manageability is designed to keep costs down and the system up—even when network usage
increases. The drop-down
light path diagnostics panel enables quick servicing of the system if
a problem develops. These advanced features help maximize network availability by increasing
uptime, as do
simple-swap SATA HDDs; hot-swap/redundant SAS HDDs, power and fans;
Active Memory
™
; integrated
RAID; temperature-controlled fans with Calibrated Vectored
Cooling
™
;
IPMI 2.0 support, including highly secure remote power control and Serial over
LAN; as well as text-console redirect over LAN.
With the inclusion of unique IBM service and support features such as the BMC, light path
diagnostics,
IBM Director, IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager for x86 (formerly
known as PowerExecutive),
IBM ServerGuide
™
and
support for the optional slotless
Remote
Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine, the x3550 is designed for superior uptime.
If you need highly manageable, dual-socket/multi-core computing power in a rack-dense
package, the x3550 is the ideal system.
Selling Features
Price/Performance
The x3550 offers numerous features to boost performance and reduce product and operating
costs:
• Up to two quad- or dual-core Xeon processors, high-end 1333MHz or 1066MHz front side
bus and
4MB to 12MB (processor-specific) of integrated Level 2 cache per processor, offer