Technologies for the ProLiant ML570 G4 and ProLiant DL580 G4 servers

Expansion slot options
The ML570 G4 is optimized for expansion, and the DL580 G4 is optimized for efficient use of space
in a server rack. Because of the different design goals, the two servers offer different expansion slot
configurations.
The ML570 G4 has the following expansion slots:
• Four 64-bit/100-MHz PCI-X slots
• Six PCI Express x4 slots
An x4-x8 PCI Express bus expander is available for converting two PCI Express x4 slots into one PCI
Express x8 slot. When installed in a PCI Express x4 slot, the expander converts the adjacent slot into
a PCI Express x8 slot. The ML570 G4 can support up to three x4-x8 PCI Express bus expander cards.
Expander cards can be installed only in slots 6, 8, and 10.
The DL580 G4 features the following expansion slots on all models:
• One 64-bit/133-MHz PCI-X slot
• Four PCI Express x4 slots
In addition, the DL580 G4 has a mezzanine option that can be ordered in one of the following
configurations:
• The PCI-X mezzanine option adds two 64-bit/133-MHz PCI-X slots.
• The PCI Express x4 mezzanine option adds two PCI Express x4 slots.
• The PCI Express x8 mezzanine option adds one PCI Express x8 slot.
The x4-x8 PCI Express bus expander is also available for the DL580 G4. It can only be installed in
slots 5 and 7.
Updated networking technologies
The ProLiant ML570 G4 and the ProLiant DL580 G4 include an embedded, dual-port, NC371i
multifunction, gigabit Ethernet network adapter. Technologies enabled by the NC371i include TCP
Offload Engine (TOE), Receive Side Scaling (RSS), and iSCSI (internet SCSI).
TCP Offload Engine
Network bandwidth has improved steadily since the early days of TCP/IP networking, and along with
this improvement in speed has come increased demand for CPU cycles to manage the network
protocol stack. A busy, full-duplex gigabit Ethernet connection can consume the available computing
power of a 1-GHz Pentium 4 processor. Unfortunately, this means that even a modern, high-powered
CPU will show degraded performance in processing application instructions while data is being
transferred onto or off of the network. Computers most susceptible to this problem are application,
web, and file servers that have a high number of concurrent connections.
To reduce this burden on the CPU, the embedded NC371i network controller in both the ML570 G4
and the DL580 G4 is designed with TOE (TCP Offload Engine) capabilities.
TOE NICs (network interface cards) are designed with on-board logic to process common and
repetitive tasks of TCP network traffic. Because the CPU does not have to devote cycles to processing
these tasks, it can be used more efficiently to significantly increase application performance on
servers attached to gigabit Ethernet networks.
TOE is supported on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with the Scalable Networking Pack installed.
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