How it all bolts together
Sun Confidential: Internal Only
26
Sun Fire 3800 - 6800 Quick Reference Guide
SunService Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Enterprise Services
How it all bolts together
The Sun Fire system architecture is designed with two levels of Sun
Fireplane switches. One switch level is incorporated into the system boards
and I/O boards. The second switch level is implemented as separate boards
(In the F3800, the second level switches are incorporated in the
centerplane).
Transactions originating from the first level switches (on the system and
I/O boards) are sent to the second level switches. The second level switches
direct the transactions to the correct board destination.
Note: The address “bus” is broadcast based, to ensure cache coherency. The
data crossbar is packet-switched; the DX asics provide the connections and
the SDC sets up the routing.
CPU
CPU
CPU
DCDS
MEM
DCDS
DX
System boards
Centerplane
DX
6
4
AR
DX
AR
DX
Data
Address
I/O boards
Schizo
Schizo
Schizo
2
CPU
Memory
and
CPU
Memory
and
2
2
AR
AR
L2 Interconnect
L1 Interconnect