About Blade I/O Connections

The Server Modules (blades) use HyperTransport links to provide PCI Express I/O connectivity to the Network Express Modules (NEMs), and in the Sun Blade 8000 Chassis also to the PCI Express ExpressModules (EMs).

Blade to NEM Connections

Up to four NEMs can be installed in a Sun Blade 8000 Chassis, numbered 0-3, with 0 being the bottom NEM slot and 3 the top NEM slot. Up to two NEMs can be installed in a Sun Blade 8000 P Chassis, numbered 0-1, with 0 being the bottom NEM slot and 1 the top NEM slot.

Each NEM provides 10 individual Gigabit Ethernet NICs, one for each blade, which are numbered 0-9 right-to-left as viewed from the back of the chassis. Each NIC has two external network ports. For each pair of external ports (for each blade), the top is port 0 and the bottom is port 1.

Blade

BL9

BL8

BL7

BL6

BL5

BL4

BL3

BL2

BL1

BL0

NEM NICs

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

Blade to EM Connections

EMs are supported only in the Sun Blade 8000 Chassis. Up to 20 EMs can be installed in a chassis, with two EM slots assigned to each blade. The blade to EM connections are logically defined by the midplane as shown in the following table.

Blade

BL9

BL8

BL7

BL6

BL5

BL4

BL3

BL2

BL1

BL0

EM slots

EM 9.0/EM 9.1

EM 8.1/EM 8.0

EM 7.0/ EM7.1

EM 6.1/EM 6.0

EM 5.0/EM 5.1

EM 4.1/EM 4.0

EM 3.0/EM 3.1

EM 2.1/EM 2.0

EM 1.0/EM 1.1

EM 0.1/EM 0.0