QuickSpecs

I/O Architecture
I/O ArchitectureI/O Architecture
I/O Architecture Components within the I/O subsystem are the I/O controllers, internal peripheral bay, and multifunction
Core I/O. The Integrity I/O architecture utilizes industry standard PCI buses in a unique design for
maximum performance, scalability, and reliability.
ThThe HP Integrity rx8640 Server contains two master I/O controller chips located on the PCI-X
backplane. Each I/O controller contains sixteen high performance 12-bit wide links, which connect to
sixteen slave I/O controller chips supporting the PCI-X card slots and core I/O. Two links, one from each
master controller is routed through the crossbar backplane and is dedicated to core I/O. The remaining
thirty links are divided among the sixteen I/O card slots. This one card per link architecture leads to
greater I/O performance and higher availability. Each controller chip is also directly linked to a host cell
board. This means that at least two cell boards, located in cell slots 0 and 1, must be purchased in order
to access all sixteen I/O card slots. With one cell board, access to eight slots is enabled.
The HP Integrity rx8640 Server can be purchased with either one or two core I/O boards (if an SEU-2 is
added, then four core I/O boards with two core I/O in the SEU). Both core I/O boards are identical and
provide console, SCSI, serial, and Management Processor (MP) functionality. The second core I/O is
used to enable the dual hard partitioning in the HP Integrity rx8640 Server and provide access to a
second set of disk drives.
The internal peripheral bay is divided into two identical halves. Each half supports up to two low profile
disks and one removable media device. A SCSI controller chip located on each core I/O board supports
each half of the internal peripheral bay. This means that both core I/O boards must be purchased to
access both halves of the peripheral bay.
The first eight slots starting from the left are designated as I/O bay 0. The second set of eight slots on the
right are designated I/O bay 1. I/O bay 0 is supported by Cell slot 0 and connects to Core I/O slot 0.
Likewise, I/O bay 1 is supported by Cell slot 1 and connects to Core I/O slot 1. I/O bays will function
only when the corresponding Cell slot is populated. I/O slots are labeled 1 through 8 starting from the
left of each I/O bay (as viewed from the rear).
PCI Backplane
PCI BackplanePCI Backplane
PCI Backplane Eight of sixteen I/O card slots are supported by dual high performance fat links. Each link is capable of
providing 1060 MB/s of bandwidth. This means that half HP Integrity rx8640 Server I/O slots are
capable of sustained 2.12 GB/s. Six of the sixteen I/O card slots are supported at 1060 MB/s of
bandwidth. Aggregate I/O slot bandwidth is approximately 23 GB/s. In addition, because each I/O slot
has a dedicated bus, any slot can be "hot-plugged" or serviced without affecting other slots. The hot plug
operation is very easy, and can be done with minimal training and effort.
The HP Integrity rx8640 Server supports a number of PCI and PCI-X HBA (I/O) cards for I/O expansion
(see the Supported HP-UX I/O Cards
Supported HP-UX I/O CardsSupported HP-UX I/O Cards
Supported HP-UX I/O Cards table below for HP UX servers, the Supported Windows I/O
Supported Windows I/OSupported Windows I/O
Supported Windows I/O
Cards
CardsCards
Cards table below for Windows 2003 servers, the Supported Linux I/O cards
Supported Linux I/O cardsSupported Linux I/O cards
Supported Linux I/O cards table below for Linux, and
the Supported OpenVMS I/O Cards
Supported OpenVMS I/O CardsSupported OpenVMS I/O Cards
Supported OpenVMS I/O Cards table below for OpenVMS).
NOTE:
NOTE: NOTE:
NOTE: The PCI-X backplane is backward compatible with the older PCI backplane and can support
many PCI HBA (I/O) cards.
When HP 9000 rp8400 servers are upgraded to HP Integrity rx8640 servers using the chassis upgrade
kit, the older and slower PCI backplanes in the HP 9000 rp8400 server must be upgraded to the newer
and faster PCI X backplanes (AB314A) of the HP Integrity rx8640 Server.
When the rx8640 Server Expansion Unit 2 is connected to the HP Integrity rx8640 Server, its I/O
backplanes act as PCI-X I/O backplanes. See the rx8640 Server Expansion Unit 2 section for more
details.
QuickSpecs
HP Integrity rx8640 Server
HP Integrity rx8640 ServerHP Integrity rx8640 Server
HP Integrity rx8640 Server
Configuration
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