There are three basic building blocks in the Superdome system architecture: the cell, the crossbar backplane and the PCI-X based
I/O subsystem.
Cabinets
Cabinets
Cabinets
Cabinets
Starting with the sx1000 chip set, Superdome servers will be released with the Graphite color. A
Superdome system will consist of up to four different types of cabinet assemblies:
One Superdome left cabinet.
No more than one Superdome right cabinet (only Superdome 64-socket system)
The Superdome cabinets contain all of the processors, memory and core devices of the system.
They will also house most (usually all) of the system's PCI-X cards. Systems may include both left
and right cabinet assemblies containing, a left or right backplane respectively.
One or more HP Rack System/E cabinets. These 19-inch rack cabinets are used to hold the system
peripheral devices such as disk drives.
Optionally, one or more I/O expansion cabinets (Rack System/E). An I/O expansion cabinet is
required when a customer requires more PCI X cards than can be accommodated in their
Superdome cabinets.
Superdome cabinets will be serviced from the front and rear of the cabinet only. This will enable
customers to arrange the cabinets of their Superdome system in the traditional row fashion found in most
computer rooms. The width of the cabinet will accommodate moving it through common doorways in the
U.S. and Europe. The intake air to the main (cell) card cage will be filtered. This filter will be removable
for cleaning/replacement while the system is fully operational.
A status display will be located on the outside of the front and rear doors of each cabinet. The customer
and field engineers can therefore determine basic status of each cabinet without opening any cabinet
doors.
Superdome 16-socket and Superdome 32-socket systems are available in single cabinets. Superdome
64-socket systems are available in dual cabinets.
Each cabinet may contain a specific number of cell boards (consisting of CPUs and memory) and I/O.
See the following sections for configuration rules pertaining to each cabinet.
Cells (CPUs and Memory)
Cells (CPUs and Memory)
Cells (CPUs and Memory)
Cells (CPUs and Memory) A cell, or cell board, is the basic building block of a Superdome system. It is a symmetric multi processor
(SMP), containing up to 4 processor modules and up to 16 GB of main memory using 512 MB DIMMs,
up to 32 GB of main memory using 1 GB DIMMs and up to 64 GB of main memory using 2 GB
DIMMs. It is also possible to mix 512 MB, 1 GB DIMMs and 2 GB DIMMs on the same cell board. A
connection to a 12 slot PCI X card cage is optional for each cell.
The Superdome cell boards shipped from the factory are offered with 2 sockets or 4 sockets. These cell
boards are different from those that were used in the previous PA RISC releases of Superdome.
The Superdome cell board contains:
Itanium 2 1.5 GHz CPUs or Itanium 2 1.6-GHz CPUs (up to 4 processor modules for a total of 4
CPUs) or mx2 dual processor modules (up to 4 modules for a total of 8 CPUs)
Cell controller ASIC (application specific integrated circuit)
Main memory DIMMs (up to 32 DIMMs per board in 4 DIMM increments, using 512 MB, 1 GB,
or 2-GB DIMMs - or some combination of both.)
Voltage Regulator Modules (VRM)
Data buses
Optional link to 12 PCI-X I/O slots
QuickSpecs
HP Integrity Superdome Servers 16-socket, 32-socket,
HP Integrity Superdome Servers 16-socket, 32-socket,
HP Integrity Superdome Servers 16-socket, 32-socket,
HP Integrity Superdome Servers 16-socket, 32-socket,
and 64-socket
and 64-socket
and 64-socket
and 64-socket
Configuration
DA - 11717 Worldwide — Version 20 — May 3, 2005
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