IBM p5 550, Technical Overview And Introduction

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IBM System p5 550 and 550Q Technical Overview and Introduction
2.5 Internal I/O subsystem
PCI-X, where the
X
stands for
extended
, is an enhanced PCI bus, delivering a bandwidth of
up to 1 GBps, running a 64-bit bus at 133 MHz or 266 MHz. PCI-X is backward compatible, so
the p5-550 or p5-550Q systems can support existing 3.3 volt PCI adapters.
The system planar provides five PCI-X slots and several integrated I/O devices. All the PCI-X
slots, except the PCI-X slot 3, are 64-bit capable running at 133 MHz and together with the
integrated I/O devices are connected through two EADS-X chips that function as PCI-X to
PCI-X bridges to the Enhanced I/O Controller. The connections of the PCI-X slots and
integrated I/O devices to the PCI-X to PCI-X bridges are properly distributed to maximize the
system performances.
PCI-X slot 4 and slot 5 can accept a short PCI-X or PCI card and their space is shared with
the optional Remote I/O expansion cards. The remaining PCI-X slots are full length cards.
PCI-X slot 3 is a PCI-X DDR 266 MHz and 64-bit capable slot and is driven by the Enhanced
I/O Controller directly. The dual 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet adapter and the Dual Channel
SCSI Ultra320 adapter are some of the integrated devices on the system planar.
Valid PCI-X slots and Remote I/O expansion cards combinations are:
򐂰 Five hot-plug PCI-X slots
򐂰 Four hot-plug PCI-X slots plus one Remote I/O expansion card occupying PCI-X slot 4
򐂰 Three hot-plug PCI-X slots plus two Remote I/O expansion cards occupying PCI-X slot 4
and slot 5
The PCI-X slots in the p5-550 or p5-550Q system support hot-plug and Extended Error
Handling (EEH). In the unlikely event of a problem, EEH-enabled adapters respond to a
special data packet generated from the affected PCI-X slot hardware by calling system
firmware, which examines the affected bus, allows the device driver to reset it, and continues
without a system reboot.
2.6 64-bit and 32-bit adapters
IBM offers 64-bit adapter options for the p5-550 or p5-550Q, as well as 32-bit adapters.
Higher-speed adapters use 64-bit slots because they can transfer 64 bits of data for each
data transfer phase. Generally, 32-bit adapters can function in 64-bit PCI-X slots; however,
some 64-bit adapters cannot be used in 32-bit slots. For a full list of the adapters that are
supported on the p5-550Q systems, and for important information regarding adapter
placement, see the IBM Systems Hardware Information Center at:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/eserver/v1r3s/index.jsp
The p5-550 or p5-550Q internal PCI-X slots support a wide range of PCI-X I/O adapters to
handle your I/O requirements.
1.65 4 21.1 52.8 4.4
1.65 8 42.2 105.6 8.8
Processor
speed (GHz) Core Memory
(GBps) L2 to L3
(GBps) GX+
(GBps)