Installation Guide, Fifth Edition - HP 9000 rp8420 Server

Chapter 1

Introduction

Overview

Front Panel

Front Panel Indicators and Controls

The front panel, located on the front of the server, includes the power switch and status LEDs. See Figure 1-4.

Status LEDs

The following status LEDs are on the front panel:

• Standby Power status LED (green)

• MP (Management Processor) Present status LED (green)

• Status LEDs: Run (green), Fault (red), Attention (yellow), and Power (green) LEDs

• Remote port status LED (green)

Figure 1-4 Front Panel LEDs and Power Switch

Cell Board

The cell board contains the processors, main memory, and the cell controller (CC) application-specific

integrated circuit (ASIC) that interfaces the processors and memory to the I/O. The CC provides a connection

that allows communication with other cell boards in the system. It connects to the processor-dependent

hardware (PDH) and micro controller hardware. Each cell board holds up to 16 DIMMS. There can be one to

four cell boards installed in an HP 9000 rp8420 server. A cell board can be selectively powered down for cell

replacement without affecting cells in other configured partitions.

System Backplane

The server backplane board contains a pair of crossbar chips (XBC), the clock generation logic, the reset

generation logic, some power regulators, and two local bus adapter (LBA) chips that create internal PCI buses

for communicating with the core I/O cards. The backplane also contains connectors for attaching the cell

boards, PCI-X backplane, MP core I/O cards, SCSI cables, bulk power, chassis fans, front panel display,

intrusion switches, external system bus adaptor (SBA) link connectors, and the system scan card.

I/O Subsystem

All of the I/O is integrated into the system by way of the PCI busses. The CC on each cell board communicates

with one system bus adapter (SBA). The SBA converts the SBA link protocol into “ropes.” A rope is defined as

a high-speed, point-to-point data bus. The SBA can support up to 16 of these high-speed bi-directional links

for a total aggregate bandwidth of approximately 4GB/s. The server supports a maximum of two SBAs with

the capability of supporting an additional two SBAs in an externally connected I/O cabinet known as the HP

Server Expansion Unit.

There are LBA chips on the PCI-X backplane that act as a bus bridge, supporting either one or two ropes and

capable of driving 33 MHz or 66 MHz for PCI cards. The LBAs can also drive at 66 MHz or 133 MHz for PCI-X

cards.

RUN

Fault

Attention Remote

MP Present

Standby Power

Power

Switch