| Sun Netra CP3250 Blade Server User’s Guide |    
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| C H A P T E R 3 |
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Hardware Architecture |
This chapter describes the hardware components and architecture of the Sun Netra CP3250 blade server.
This chapter contains the following sections:
The Sun Netra CP3250 blade server supports dual 64-bit low voltage Intel Xeon (Harpertown) processors at 2.13 GHz with 12 MB of L2 cache and a 1066 MHz system bus. This processor is designed for high-performance, low-power communication, storage, and embedded applications. It is built on Intel’s new 65nm topology. The following are the key features of the Harpertown processor:
The architecture of the Intel E7520 Memory Controller Hub (MCH) provides the performance and feature set required for performance servers, with configuration options that facilitate optimization of the platform for workloads characteristic of communication, presentation, storage, performance computation, or database applications. To accomplish this, the MCH has numerous Reliability, Availability, Serviceability, Usability and Manageability (RASUM) features on multiple interfaces. The following list provides key features on the MCH:
The Sun Netra CP3250 blade server supports 4-Gbyte registered DDR2-667 memory, for up to 24 Gbytes memory total. When four DIMM slots or less are populated, the DIMM clock rate will be set to the max clock rate of up to 333 Mhz. When six DIMMs slots are populated, the DIMM clock rate will be set to a max clock rate of up to 267 Mhz.
For optimal performance, memory DIMMs must be installed in like pairs. The controller supports 1 bit per byte ECC and supports DDR2 667 registered DRR SDRAM modules. For more information on supported DIMM configurations, see Section 2.3.6.1, DIMM Requirements.
Additional features of the Sun Netra CP3250 blade server’s memory architecture include:
Although single channel operation is defined by the Intel Memory Controller and will function, this configuration will not be qualified, tested, or supported on the Sun Netra CP3250 blade server.
The supported configuration is dual channel, which follows the DIMM loading order: Pair 0 (first) -> Pair 1 (second) -> Pair 2 (third).
DIMMs must be loaded by pairs in the order indicated. Install DIMMs in pairs of like memory types.
Networking and I/O are provided by the following chips and interconnects:
The ICH9 I/O provides legacy function support similar to that of previous ICH-family devices, but with extensions in Serial-ATA technology and 64-bit/66 MHz PCI-X support. The ICH9 I/O also includes integrated USB 2.0 and USB 1.0 support, an LPC interface, a system management interface, a power management interface, PECI interface, integrated Gigabit Ethernet controllers (not used on Sun Netra CP3250 blade server), and an integrated DMA controller.
PCI Express 1.0 (PCIe) is a high-speed, point-to-point dual simplex chip interconnect. It is the latest extension of the PCI bus. PCIe operates at 2.5 GHz and supports land widths of x1, x2, x4, x8, x16, and x32. Additional features include:
The LPC bus is a multiplexed (command, address, and data) serialized 4-bit bus with optional side band signals. It replaces the ISA/X-bus and reduces pin count (approximately 40) over the ISA/X-bus.
LPC is designed to reduce the cost of traditional X-bus devices and meet the data transfer rate of X-bus, exceeding those data rates where appropriated. It performs the same cycle types as the X-bus: Memory, I/O, DMA and Bus Master. And, it increases the memory space from 16 Mbytes on the X-bus to 4 GB to allow BIOS sizes much greater than 1 Mbyte and other memory devices outside of the traditional 16 MByte range.
The LPC is software transparent and does not require special drivers or configuration for its interface. The motherboard BIOS configures all devices at boot up. It has the ability to support a variable number of wait states, to have I/O and memory cycles retried in SMM handler and to support wake-up and other power state transitions. The design meets LPC 1.0 design guidelines.
The LPC bus provides system connectivity to the following devices:
The Sun Netra CP3250 blade server provides redundant 1-Mbyte BIOS chips that support redundant BIOS images for increased reliability.
The redundant Flash PROMs and SRAM devices are used by the BIOS. Each PROM is an 8 MB flash device. The primary flash device (FWH0) contains the primary BIOS image, factory default settings, and user configured settings. The primary BIOS chip is automatically selected for update during a firmware upgrade.
The secondary flash device (FWH1) contains a backup copy, normally of the last known good BIOS image, factory default settings, and last good user-configured settings. The secondary BIOS chip retains the original BIOS image, and can be used through manual configuration if the primary BIOS is corrupt.
In the event of a checksum or other failure during boot of the primary BIOS image, the H8 switches the system over to the secondary device to allow system boot recovery.
The Sun Netra CP3250 blade server provides a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip, which enables various security features, including hardware and software authentication. This chip is reserved for future use on the Sun Netra CP3250 blade server.
The H8S/2166 IPMC provides the IPM controller function on the Sun Netra CP3250 blade server. The IPMC provides PICMG 3.0 board management functionality, and interfaces to the payload through a serial interface.
The IPMC provides the following:
A Serial port is available on the front panel using an RJ-45 connector. This same port is also wired through the Zone 3 connectors to provide a copy of this port on the ARTM. This connector shares the SuperIO chip Port A with the H8-IPMI controller, to allow console messages to be directed to the H8 when the external ports are not in use. The blade server detects a valid RS232 connection to either the front or rear port and will automatically disconnect the SuperIO port from the H8 and connect to the external ports.
| Note - The front and rear ports cannot be used at the same time because they share the same wires. |
The Broadcom 5715C Gigabit Ethernet chip used on the Sun Netra CP3250 blade server provides two 10/100/1000 MBASE-T interfaces to the Zone 2 connectors. It incorporates the media access control (MAC) and physical (PHY) layer functions for the two LANs used as the ATCA base fabric.
The Sun Netra CP3250 blade server is equipped with one Sun Dual 10-Gbit Ethernet/Quad 1-Gbit RGMII Network Interface chip (Sun 10 GbE Multithreaded Networking Technolgy) that is specifically designed to support multicore and multithreaded processor with minimum CPU load while maximizing network I/O thoughput.
Sun 10 GbE Multithreaded Networking Technolgy provides two 10-Gbit XAUI Ethernet connections to the ATCA backplane extended fabric, where four lanes are driven at 3.125 Gbyte/sec (if the ATCA switch supports 10-Gbit Ethernet) or a single lane at 1.25 Gbyte/sec if the switch is a 1-Gbit Ethernet device.
Sun 10 GbE Multithreaded Networking Technolgy also provides two 1-Gb RGMII Ethernet connections to the Broadcom BCM5482H chip, which converts to SERDES and routes the SERDES signals through an 8 port switch and providing two 1 Gb LANS to Zone 3-RTM and to each AMC slot.
The Sun Netra CP3250 blade server contains one AMC slot, which is available from the front panel. The slot is a single-width, mid-height slot. If needed, AMC I/O connectivity can be accessed from the front panel (depending on the AMC installed) and through the optional advanced rear transition module.
The Sun Netra CP3250 blade server conforms to the PICMG Advanced Mezzanine Card AMC.0 specification R1.0 ECR_002 D0.9, June 29, 2006, and supports AMC.1 Type 8S2E2 cards, as defined by the same specification.
An EIDE/ATA-133 bus is derived from a SATA port on the ICH9 IO Hub via an SPF223A SATA to IDE converter.
The Sun Netra CP3250 blade server contains one on-board 50-pin Type II Compact Flash connector for use with a Compact Flash Card. The connector is located so that access to the Compact Flash card is provided only when the card is removed from the ATCA chassis.
The Sun Netra CP3250 blade server supports AMC drives (SAS or SATA), that contain their own PCIe based controller chip connecting to the system via the PCIe Bus. The Sun Netra CP3250 blade server supports an AMC that contains drives using Port 2 or 3 SAS connections only when the Netra CP32x0 ARTM-HD is present. The SATA lines from the ICH9 chip are not connected.
If present, the Netra CP32x0 ARTM-HD drives the AMC Port-2 signals. This support speeds up to 3 Gb/sec.
There is no support for drives mounted directly to the blade server, and the Sun Netra CP3250 blade server itself does not contain any native support for SAS or SATA drives.
| Sun Netra CP3250 Blade Server User’s Guide | 820-5195-11 |
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