IBM eServer OpenPower 720, Technical Overview And Introduction

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Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview
37
Shared Ethernet adapter
The Shared Ethernet adapter is a new service that acts as a layer 2 network switch to route
network traffic from a Virtual Ethernet to a real network adapter. The Shared Ethernet
Adapter must run in a Virtual I/O Server partition.
The advantages of the virtual Ethernet services is that partitions to communicate outside the
system without having a physical network adapter attached to the partition. At the time of
writing, up to 16 Virtual Ethernet x 18 VLANs can be shared on a single network interface.
The amount of network traffic will limit the number of client partitions served through a single
network interface.
Virtual SCSI
Access to real storage devices is implemented through the Virtual SCSI services, a part of
the Virtual I/O Server partition. Logical volumes created and exported on the Virtual I/O
Server partition will be shown at the Virtual Storage Client partition as a SCSI disk. All current
storage device types, such as SAN, SCSI, and RAID, are supported. iSCSI and SSA are not
supported.
2.10 Service processor
The service processor (SP) is an embedded controller based on a PowerPC 405GP
processor (PPC405) implementation running the SP internal operating system. The SP
operating system contains specific programs and device drivers for the SP hardware
(Figure 2-13 on page 37).
The OpenPower 720 uses the SP implementation. The key components include a FSP-Base
(FSP-B) and an Extender chipset (FSP-E). FSP-B and FSP-E are implemented on a
dedicated card.
Figure 2-13 Service processor logical diagram
Note: The Shared Ethernet adapter and Virtual SCSI server function is provided in the
Virtual I/O Server that is an optional orderable software feature. An HMC is required.
HMC1
HMC2
RJ45
Ethn.1
Ethn.2
RJ45
S1
S2
SPCN1
SPCN2
System planar
Rear ports
FSP
MUX
Rear serial
ports system
UART
#2
UART
#1
UART
#3
UART
#4
FSP-E
FSP-B
Flash
NVRAM
DDR
Interface
DDR
64 MB
ALE
SRAM
1 MB
Flash ROM
48 MB
NVRAM
controller