IBM HS21 - BladeCenter - 8853 Product Manual - page 6
Workhorse 2-socket dual and quad-core Intel Xeon blade server
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6.
processors, similarly, contain
four cores. The processors also contain one (dual-core)or two
(quad-core) shared
caches. The shared cache is dynamically allocated between pairs of cores
as needed. The two cores appear to software as two physical processors. The dual-core
processors offer considerably higher performance than a same-speed Xeon processor with a
single core. Likewise, quad-core processors offer considerably higher performance than a
same-speed Xeon processor with dual cores.
Intelligent Power Capability powers individual processor elements on and off as needed, to
reduce power draw.
Intel
Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T) 64-bit extensions allow Xeon processors to
use large memory addressing when running with a 64-bit operating system. This can result in
higher performance. Additional registers and instructions (SSE3) can further boost performance
for applications written to use them. Contact your software providers to determine their software
support for EM64T.
DDR II ECC Fully Buffered Memory with Chipkill Protection
The HS21 ships with
PC2-5300 fully-buffered double data rate II (DDR II) memory (operating
at
667MHz) for faster access, and provides Active Memory features, including advanced
Chipkill memory protection (using 1GB or larger DIMMs), for up to 16X better error correction
than standard ECC memory. The HS21 supports up to
16GB of memory in four DIMM slots.
Adding a 30mm
Memory and I/O Expansion Unit doubles the memory support to 32GB in
eight DIMMslots.
The fully buffered memory in the HS21 provides up to
triple the memory bandwidth of the older
HS20 (up to
21.3GBps in four channels of PC2-5300 fully-buffered DIMMs vs. a maximum of
6.4GBps in two channels of unbuffered PC2-3200 memory. By performing reads and writes
simultaneously, it eliminates the previous memory read-to-write blocking latency. In addition, it
also offers innovative data reliability and security features to help improve data integrity,
including enhanced CRC protection, data retry on error detect and buffer registers for improved
fault isolation.
For increased availability, the HS21 offers two additional (but mutually exclusive) levels of IBM
Active Memory protection: online
memory mirroring, and online hot-spare memory.
Memory mirroring works much like disk mirroring. The total memory is divided into two channels.
Data is written concurrently to both channels. If a DIMM fails in one of the DIMMs in the primary
channel, it is instantly disabled and the mirrored (backup) memory in the other channel becomes
active (primary) until the failing DIMM is replaced. One-half of total memory is available for use
with mirroring enabled. (Note: Due to the double writes to memory, performance is affected.)
When online hot-spare memory is enabled, using single and/or dual-rank DIMMs
one rank is
set aside per channel as online spares in case one of the other ranks in that channel fails. The
spare rank must have capacity at least that of the largest active rank. (In other words, if a
combination of 2GB and 4GB DIMMs are used in a branch, one rank on each 4GB DIMM will be
used for sparing.) In an HS21 with
16GB installed, up to 12GB (using 4 dual-rank 4GB DIMMs)
of memory is available when the hot-spare feature is active.
Both mirroring and sparing are handled at the hardware level; no operating system support is
required.
PC2-5300 fully buffered memory is available in
1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB memory kits (two
512MB, 1GB, 2GB or 4GB DIMMs per kit, respectively). DIMMs are installed in pairs for
increased performance, provided by dual-interleaving.
Gigabit Ethernet Controllers
The HS21 includes
two integrated Broadcom BCM5708S Gigabit Ethernet controllers for up to
10X higher maximum throughput than a 10/100 Ethernet controller. The controllers offer
TOE
(TCP Offload Engine) support, as well as
failover and load balancing for better throughput and
system availability. They also support highly secure remote power management using
IPMI
2.0,
plus Wake on LAN
®
and PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) Flash interface.
For additional Gigabit Ethernet controllers, an optional
Memory and I/O Expansion Unit may
be added. This provides
two Broadcom BCM5714S controllers (no TOE support). An optional
2-port Ethernet expansion card adds two additional Gigabit Ethernet ports per HS21 server.
Flexible HDD Storage
The HS21 offers a choice of disk storage, supporting up to
two internal fixed 2.5-inch SAS or
solid-state drives, as well as an expansion unit that offers additional direct-attached storage.
• SAS–based 10K RPM 2.5-inch HDD — 73.4 or 146.8GB capacities(293.6GB maximum)
• SAS-based 15K RPM 2.5-inch HDD — 73.4GB capacities(146.8GB)
• SATA-based solid state — 15.8GB or 31.4GB
capacities (
62.8GB maximum)