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ManualsBrandsHP ManualsComputer equipmentIntegrity BL860c

Technical white paper

Benefit from HP Integrity server blade

technology and architecture

HP Integrity BL860c i4, BL870c i4, and BL890c i4 Server Blades

Table of contents

Introduction 3

Integrity server blade architecture 3

HP Integrity BL860c i4 Server Blade details 3

Balanced I/O architecture 4

HP Integrity BL870c i4 Server Blade details 5

HP Integrity BL890c i4 Server Blade details 5

Scalable blade technology 5

Supported technologies 5

Supported enclosures 7

Processor technologies 8

Multilevel caches 8

Hyper-threading 8

Instruction replay technology 9

Integrated memory controllers and Scalable Memory Interconnect 9

Enhanced instructions-level parallelism 9

QuickPath Interconnect architecture 10

Thermal logic technologies 10

Reliability, availability, and serviceability technologies 11

Processor reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) improvements 11

Memory RAS features 11

Intel QPI RAS features 11

Processor socket technology 12

I/O technologies 13

PCIe technology 13

HP Smart Array controllers 13

SAS technology 13

Optional mezzanine cards 14

Networking technology 14

Configuration and management technologies 15

HP BladeSystem Onboard Administrator 15

HP Integrity iLO 3 16

HP Insight Control for HP-UX 16

Summary of content (18 pages)

PAGE 1
Technical white paper Benefit from HP Integrity server blade technology and architecture HP Integrity BL860c i4, BL870c i4, and BL890c i4 Server Blades Table of contents Introduction 3 Integrity server blade architecture HP Integrity BL860c i4 Server Blade details Balanced I/O architecture HP Integrity BL870c i4 Server Blade details HP Integrity BL890c i4 Server Blade details Scalable blade technology Supported technologies Supported enclosures 3 3 4 5 5 5 5 7 Processor technologies Multilevel caches
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Power management technologies Power meter OS power regulation HP Dynamic Power Capping 16 16 16 16 Data security technology with TPM 17 Partition Technologies Physical nPartition support HP-UX virtual partitions 17 17 17 Conclusion 18 For more information 18
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Introduction This paper describes the architecture and implementation of major technologies in the HP Integrity c-Class server blades based on the Intel® Itanium® processor 9500 series modules. The Integrity server blades architecture opens a chapter in server scalability by using a common base two-socket (2S) base blade to build four- and eight-socket systems.
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• Intel® 7500 IOH/ICH10 chipset • HP Integrated Lights-Out 3 (iLO 3) manageability chip network accessible • Blade Link connector for system scaling Balanced I/O architecture The BL860c i4 features PCIe Gen 2 with x8 link width mezzanine cards. In addition, x4 Gen 2 PCIe links connect to each of the two Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) 10GbE LAN on motherboard (LOM) NICs. This is an uncompromised aggregate 32 GB/s I/O bandwidth.
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HP Integrity BL870c i4 Server Blade details By using the Integrity Blade Link-2, two base blades are combined to scale double the available system resources of a single BL860c i4. Resources hosted on the ICH MEZZ Card (see figure 2) are not replicated. Refer to table 1 for a view of the available resources for a BL870c i4. Now physical nPartition is supported.
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Figure 3. Integrity Blade Link-2, conjoining two base server blades for a 4S system. Also, Integrity Blade Link-4, conjoining four base server blades for an 8S system.
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Supported enclosures The HP Integrity server blade is a full-height 8U server that slides into HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosures. Two different c-Class enclosures are available to meet the needs of large or small IT environments: • The HP BladeSystem c7000 Enclosure is 10U high and holds up to 16 ProLiant server blades, up to eight BL860c i4, up to four BL870c i4, or up to two BL890c i4 server blades.
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Processor technologies Intel Itanium processor 9500 series micro-architecture features a record 3.1 billion transistors. The most significant improvements in the Itanium processor 9500 series include doubling the number of processing cores to eight from the previous Itanium processor 9300 series, increased maximum core frequency of 2.53 GHz from 1.
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Instruction replay technology The processor core pipeline management efficiency is improved by means of new error recovery path techniques. Dual domain multi-threading provides for two paths for flushing the pipeline and five paths for retrying the pipeline.
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QuickPath Interconnect architecture Each QPI consists of two unidirectional links that operate simultaneously in opposite directions using differential signaling. Unlike a typical serial bus, the QPIs transmit data packets in parallel across multiple lanes, and packets are broken into multiple parallel transfers. Each link is comprised of 20 1-bit lanes. A maximum of 16 bits (2 bytes) are used to transfer data and error correction use the remaining 4 bits. The link allows a maximum of 12.
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Reliability, availability, and serviceability technologies Processor reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) improvements Itanium processor 9500 series extends the mainframe-class RAS features from previous Itanium processors. The Itanium processor 9500 series incorporate extensive capabilities for detecting, correcting, and reporting processor soft and hard errors.
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Processor socket technology Itanium processor 9500 series uses a processor socket technology called Land Grid Array. The processor package designs no longer have pins. Instead, the processor package has pads of gold-plated copper that touch processor socket pins on the motherboard. Technicians must be careful when installing processors to avoid damaging the delicate processor socket pins.
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I/O technologies HP Integrity server blades support PCI Express (PCIe), SAS, multifunction 1GbE or 10GbE, and 8 Gb Fibre Channel. Future releases are expected to provide supports for more I/O cards and protocols. PCIe technology The PCIe serial interface provides point-to-point connections between the chipset I/O controller hub and I/O devices. Each PCIe serial link consists of one or more dual-simplex lanes.
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Optional mezzanine cards HP Integrity server blades use two types of mezzanine cards to connect to the various interconnect fabrics such as Fibre Channel, Ethernet, SAS, or InfiniBand. Type I and Type II mezzanine cards differ only in the amount of power allocated to them by the server and in the physical space they occupy on the server blade. Type I mezzanine cards have slightly less power available to them and are slightly smaller.
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The HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10 Gb technology combines the functionality of Ethernet and Fibre Channel (FC) onto a single adapter designed for the HP BladeSystem c-Class platform. VC FlexFabric optimizes network and storage traffic with hardware acceleration and offloads for stateless TCP/IP, TCP Offload Engine (TOE), and Fibre Channel. Using FlexFabric, administrators can partition the bandwidth of a single 10 Gb pipeline into multiple FlexNICs.
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HP Integrity iLO 3 Integrity server blades include the Integrity iLO 3 management processor. Each individual blade in conjoined server blades contains a physical iLO 3, but the management is aggregated into a single unified iLO 3 user interface. The c-Class enclosure includes an Ethernet management network to aggregate all iLO 3 management communications across the entire enclosure. This management network connects iLO 3 processors to the BladeSystem OA through the BladeSystem OA tray.
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Data security technology with TPM The TPM is a hardware-based system security feature that can securely store information such as passwords and encryption keys for applications running on the platform. It can also be used to authenticate the platform. Administrators can use the TPM to store platform measurements that help ensure that the platform remains trustworthy during the boot process. The Integrity server blades currently support an optional TPM v1.2.
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Conclusion The technologies in HP Integrity servers are the foundation of industry-leading solutions that are virtualized, scalable, and available. HP Integrity servers based on the Intel Itanium processor technology deliver high performance, high availability, and the ability to run multiple operating systems as well as other leading virtualization solutions.