Chapter 1: Introduction
1-9
1-2 Chipset Overview
Built upon the functionality and the capability of the 5500/5600 Series Processor
platform, the X8DTT/-F/-IBX/-IBXF/-IBQ/-IBQF motherboard provides the perfor-
mance and feature set required for dual-processor-based systems with confi gu-
ration options optimized for intensive applications, High Performance Computing
(HPC)/Cluster and server platforms. The 5500/5600 Series Processor platform
consists of the 5500/5600 Series (LGA 1366) processor, the 5520 (North Bridge),
and the ICH10R (South Bridge). With the Intel QuickPath interconnect (QPI) con-
troller built-in, the 5500/5600 Series Processor platform is the fi rst dual-processing
platform to offer the next generation point-to-point system interconnect interface
that replaces the current Front Side Bus Technology, substantially enhancing
system performance by utilizing serial link interconnections, allowing for increased
bandwidth and scalability.
The IOH connects to each processor through an independent QPI (QuickPath
interconnect) link. Each link consists of 20 pairs of unidirectional differential lanes
for transmission and receiving in addition to a differential forwarded clock. A full-
width QPI link pair provides 84 signals. Each processor supports two QuickPath
links, one going to the other processor and the other to the 5520.
The 5520 supports up to 36/24 PCI Express Gen2 lanes peer-to-peer read and
write transactions. The ICH10R provides multiple PCI-Express SATA and USB
connections.
In addition, the 5500/5600 Series Processor platform also offers a wide range of
RAS (Reliability, Availability and Serviceability) features. These features include
memory interface ECC, x4/x8 Single Device Data Correction (SDDC), Cyclic Re-
dundancy Check (CRC), parity protection, out-of-band register access via SMBus,
memory mirroring, memory sparing, and Hot-plug support on the PCI-Express
Interface.
Note
: Intel 5500 Chipset is available for OEM only.
Main Features of the 5500/5600 Series Processor and the
5520 Chipset
•
Four processor cores in each processor with 8MB shared cache among cores
•
Two full-width Intel QuickPath interconnect links, up to 6.4 GT/s of data transfer
rate in each direction
•
Virtualization Technology, Integrated Management Engine supported
•
Point-to-point cache coherent interconnect, Fast/narrow unidirectional links, and
Concurrent bi-directional traffi c
