HP BL680c - ProLiant - G5 Quick guide

Technologies in HP ProLiant G5 c-Class
server blades
technology brief
Abstract.............................................................................................................................................. 2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 2
ProLiant c-Class server blade architecture................................................................................................ 2
Processor technologies ......................................................................................................................... 5
Intel processors ................................................................................................................................ 5
Xeon 5200, 5300 and 5400 Series processors............................................................................... 5
Xeon 7300 and 7400 Series processors......................................................................................... 6
AMD Opteron™ quad-core processors ...............................................................................................7
Thermal Logic technologies ................................................................................................................... 8
Processor socket technology.................................................................................................................. 8
Memory technologies ........................................................................................................................... 9
I/O technologies ................................................................................................................................. 9
PCI Express technology..................................................................................................................... 9
Serial Attached SCSI technology...................................................................................................... 10
SAS and SATA Small Form Factor hard drives ................................................................................... 10
Solid state drives............................................................................................................................ 11
Optional mezzanine cards.............................................................................................................. 11
Networking technologies ................................................................................................................ 11
TCP/IP Offload Engine................................................................................................................ 12
Receive-side Scaling (RSS) ........................................................................................................... 12
iSCSI Acceleration...................................................................................................................... 12
iSCSI boot for Linux .................................................................................................................... 12
Virtual Connect .......................................................................................................................... 13
Configuration and management technologies .......................................................................................14
BladeSystem Onboard Administrator................................................................................................ 14
ProLiant Onboard Administrator (Integrated Lights-Out 2) for ProLiant server blades ............................... 15
HP Insight Control suite ................................................................................................................... 15
Power management technologies......................................................................................................... 15
Power meter .................................................................................................................................. 16
HP Power Regulator for ProLiant....................................................................................................... 16
HP Dynamic Power Capping and HP Power Capping ........................................................................ 16
Data security technology with the Trusted Platform Module ..................................................................... 17
Conclusion........................................................................................................................................ 17
For more information.......................................................................................................................... 18
Call to action .................................................................................................................................... 18

Abstract
This technology brief describes the architecture and the implementation of major technologies in HP
ProLiant G5 c-Class server blades based on Intel® Xeon® and AMD Opteron™processors. These
technologies include processors, memory, connections, power, management, and the latest serial
input/output (I/O) technologies.
It is assumed that the reader is familiar with HP ProLiant server technology and has some knowledge
of BladeSystem architecture. For more information about the infrastructure components, see the HP
website: www.hp.com/go/bladesystem/.
Introduction
As HP began planning the next generation of BladeSystem architecture, it became clear that
significant changes affecting I/O, processor, and memory technologies were on the horizon. HP
designed the BladeSystem architecture to accommodate these new technologies. HP BladeSystem
architecture uses full-featured server blades. For complete specifications of each server blade, see the
HP website: http://www.hp.com/go/bladesystem/.
ProLiant c-Class server blade architecture
An HP ProLiant c-Class Server Blade is a complete server that slides into an HP BladeSystem c-Class
Enclosure. Three different c-Class enclosures are available to meet the needs of large or small IT
environments:
•The HP BladeSystem c7000 rack enclosure is 10U high and holds up to 16 ProLiant c-Class server
blades.
•The HP BladeSystem c3000 rack enclosure is 6U high and holds up to 8 ProLiant c-Class server
blades.
•The HP BladeSystem c3000 tower enclosure is designed with casters for sites without racks. It holds
up to 8 ProLiant c-Class server blades inserted vertically.
The rack enclosures fit in HP 10000 series racks and can operate with as few as one server blade
installed. The greatest advantage of blade architecture, however, is the ease of adding more server
blades. ProLiant c-Class server blades are built in standard form-factors, referred to as half-height (4U)
and full-height (8U). Both half-height and full-height server blades fit into any device bay in a
BladeSystem c-Class enclosure.1
ProLiant c-Class server blades include enterprise-class technologies:
•Two or four AMD or Intel x86 processors
•Thermal Logic technologies
•Advanced memory technologies
•Multiple slots for I/O cards
•Integrated multifunction Ethernet network adapters that support TCP/IP offload engine (TOE)2and
iSCSI acceleration
•Hot-plug internal disk drives
1More information about BladeSystem c-Class enclosure configuration options can be found at
http://www.hp.com/go/bladesystem/.
2TOE technology is designed to move processing transactions from the main processor on a server blade to a
processor embedded on the network interconnect card. This frees the main processor for other work.
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•Power management
With the exception of the BL2x220c G5 double-dense server blade, half-height server blades support
up to two processors, six to sixteen DIMM slots, up to two hot-plug or non hot-plug drives, one or two
integrated Ethernet adapters, and up to two mezzanine slots. Optional mezzanine cards provide a
variety of different I/O fabric connectivity to the interconnect bays (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Example of a half-height HP BladeSystem Server Blade (an HP BL260c G5 server)
Because of their larger size, full-height G5 server blades support up to 4 processors, up to 16 DIMM
slots, 2 or 4 hot-plug drives, 4 integrated Ethernet adapters, and 3 mezzanine slots for optional I/O
cards. Full-height server blades also provide twice as much I/O bandwidth to the interconnect
modules as the half-height server blades provide (Figure 2).
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Figure 2. Example of a full-height HP BladeSystem Server Blade (an HP BL685c G5 server)
The BladeSystem BL2x220c G5 double-dense server blade is two server nodes in a half-height server
blade form factor. It is designed for data centers where extreme density, compute performance, and
power efficiency are essential. Each node within the BL2x220c G5 supports up to two CPUs and four
DIMM slots. In Figure 3, Server A refers to the base unit that connects to the midplane. Server B refers
to the upper unit that connects through Server A. Although both mezzanine slots are physically
located on Server A, electrically, Server A uses one and Server B uses the other. In fully configured
c7000 enclosures, BL2x220c G5 server blades can scale to provide up to 1024 cores and 4 TB of
RAM per 42U rack. Each server node has two 1-Gigabit (Gb) Ethernet ports; options are available to
upgrade to 10 Gb Ethernet or InfiniBand for high performance, low-latency interconnects.
Figure 3. Internal view of the HP BladeSystem BL2x220c G5 Server Blade
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Processor technologies
HP BladeSystem ProLiant G5 c-Class server blades use multi-core technologies from Intel and AMD. A
multi-core processor has two or more separate execution cores on one or more physical dies so that it
can perform more work within a given clock cycle. To take advantage of multi-core processing,
software must be multi-threaded to distribute the work across multiple execution cores.
Intel processors
Intel-based ProLiant G5 server blades use one of the following processor chipsets:
•Intel 5000P chipset (5200, 5300, and 5400 Series)
•Intel 7300 chipset (7300 and 7400 Series)
Depending on the server model, ProLiant G5 server blades contain either Intel Xeon 5000 Sequence
or 7000 Sequence processors based on the Intel Core™ microarchitecture. They use less power and
produce less heat than previous-generation Intel processors. To avoid saturation of the front side bus
(FSB), the Intel 5000 chipsets widen the interface by providing dual independent buses. Intel Core
microarchitecture features additional technologies that improve per-watt performance and energy
efficiency: Hardware Virtualization, Enhanced Intel Speed-Step® Technology, Supplemental
Streaming SIMD Extension 3 (SSSE3), and Intel Execute Disable Bit technology.3
Xeon 5200, 5300 and 5400 Series processors
ProLiant G5 server blades with two Intel processors use the Intel 5000P chipset. This chipset contains
two main components: the Memory Controller Hub (MCH) and the I/O controller hub. The
Northbridge MCH supports DDR2 fully-buffered DIMMs.
The 64-bit Intel Xeon 5200 Series processors have two complete processor cores, including caches,
buses, and execution states. The Xeon 5200 Series processors operate at a maximum frequency of
3.33 GHz (1333 MHz FSB), with 3 MB of L2 cache per core (6 MB total).
Intel Xeon 5300 and 5400 Series processors were the first quad-core processors for dual-socket
platforms (Figure 4). Each Xeon 5300 and 5400 Series processor has two dual cores that share L2
cache. The 5300 processor operates at a maximum frequency of 3.0 GHz (1333 MHz FSB) with a
total of 8 MB of L2 cache. The 5400 processor operates at a maximum frequency of 3.16 GHz
(1333 MHz FSB) with a total of 12 MB of L2 cache.
3For additional information about Intel processors, see the HP technology brief titled “The Intel processor
roadmap for industry-standard servers”:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00164255/c00164255.pdf.
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Figure 4. Major components of Intel Xeon 5300 and 5400 Series processors
Xeon 7300 and 7400 Series processors
The Intel Xeon 7300 and 7400 Series processors use the Intel 7300 chipset, which features
Dedicated High-Speed Interconnects (DHSI). DHSI is an independent, point-to-point interface between
the chipset and each processor that allows full front-side-bus bandwidth to each processor (Figure 5).
The point-to-point interface significantly reduces data traffic on the DHSI, providing lower latencies
and greater available bandwidth. The chipset also features a 64-MB snoop filter that manages data
coherence across processors, eliminating unnecessary snoops and boosting available bandwidth.
Figure 5. Intel Xeon 7300 series processors with the Intel 7300 chipset and Dedicated High-Speed Interconnects
Intel Xeon 7300 Series processors consist of two dual-core silicon chips on a single ceramic module,
similar to the Xeon 5300 Series processors. Each pair of cores shares L2 cache; up to 4 MB of L2
cache can be allocated to one core. Intel Xeon 7400 Series processors consist of up to six cores that
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share a 16 MB L3 cache (Figure 6). Intel Xeon 7300 and 7400 Series processors are available on
the ProLiant BL680 G5 server blade.
Figure 6. Major components of Intel Xeon 7300 and 7400 Series processors
AMD Opteron™ quad-core processors
Third generation, quad-core AMD Opteron 2300 and 8300 Series processors feature
HyperTransport™ technology, which provides a direct, scalable bandwidth interconnect between the
processor, the I/O subsystem, and the chipset. Each quad-core processor operates at speeds of up to
3.1 GHz, has 512 KB of L2 cache memory, and shares a total of 6 MB of L3 cache (Figure 7). The
processor has an integrated memory controller that supports PC2-6400 (DDR2-800) DIMMs. The
AMD Direct Connect™ architecture replaces the FSB with direct communication links between each
CPU, between CPU and I/O, and between CPU and memory. 4
Quad-core AMD Opteron 2300 and 8300 Series processors feature AMD Dual Dynamic Power
Management™. This feature powers the processor core and memory controller voltage planes
independently and delivers increased performance and improved power management.
Figure 7. Major components of AMD Opteron quad-core processors
4For additional information about AMD processors, see the HP technology brief titled “The AMD processor
roadmap for industry standard servers”:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00428708/c00428708.pdf.
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Thermal Logic technologies
For ProLiant c-Class server blades, HP designed smaller heat sinks than rack-mount servers use. The
server blade heat sinks have vapor chamber bases, thinner fins, and tighter fin pitch than previous
designs to achieve the largest possible heat transfer surface in the smallest possible package
(Figure 8). The smaller heat sink allows more space on the server blades for DIMM slots and hard
drives.
Precise ducting on ProLiant c-Class server blades manages airflow and temperature based on the
unique thermal requirements of all the critical components. The airflow is tightly ducted to ensure that
no air bypasses the server blade and to obtain the most thermal work from the least amount of air
moved. Ducting produces high pressure that reduces the amount of required airflow, which in turn
reduces the power draw of fans. The lower airflow requirement has the added benefit of optimizing
the available data center cooling capacity.
Figure 8. Processor heat sink using fully ducted design (left) and traditional heat sink used in a 1U rack-mount
server (right)
Top view
Side view
More information about HP Thermal Logic technologies is available on the HP website:
www.hp.com/go/thermallogic.
Processor socket technology
The latest AMD and Intel processors use a processor socket technology called Land Grid Array (LGA).
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. Because pin damage could require replacing the motherboard, HP engineers developed
a special installation tool to simplify processor installation and reduce the possibility of damaging the
socket pins (Figure 9).
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Figure 9. Diagram showing how the processor installation tool simplifies installation
Memory technologies
Depending on the model, HP ProLiant c-Class G5 Server Blades support the following memory
technologies:
•Registered PC2 (DDR2) DIMMs
•Fully buffered PC2 (DDR2) DIMMs
DDR2 memory devices operate at 1.8V. DDR2 devices use high clock frequencies to increase data
transfer rates and on-die termination control to improve signal quality. For example, at a clock
frequency of 400 MHz, the data transfer rate is 800 megatransfers per second (MT/s), which
translates to a memory bandwidth of 6400 MB/s per DIMM. Single-rank registered DDR2 DIMMs
place only one load per DIMM on the memory bus. Fully buffered DIMMs implement a serial
architecture to increase memory bandwidth and capacity.5
I/O technologies
HP ProLiant c-Class Server Blades support PCI Express (PCIe), serial attached SCSI (SAS), serial ATA
(SATA) I/O technologies, Multifunction 1 Gb or 10 Gb Ethernet, 4 Gb Fibre Channel, and 4X DDR
(20 Gb) InfiniBand.
PCI Express technology
The PCI Express (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. Each
lane contains a send pair and a receive pair to transmit data at the signaling rate in both directions
simultaneously (Figure 10). ProLiant G5 server blades support PCIe 1.0 slots, which have a signaling
rate of 2.5 Gb/s per direction per lane. After accounting for 20 percent serializing/deserializing
encoding overhead, the resulting effective maximum bandwidth is 2 Gb/s (250 MB/s) per direction
per lane. Therefore, a x4 link with 4 send and receive pairs has an effective bandwidth of 2 GB/s. A
5For additional information, refer to the HP technology brief titled “Memory technology evolution: an overview of
system memory technologies":
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00256987/c00256987.pdf.
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x8 link has an effective bandwidth of 4 GB/s. This flexibility allows slower devices to transmit on a
single lane with a relatively small number of pins while faster devices can transmit on more lanes as
required.6
Figure 10. PCI Express bandwidth
Link
size
Max. bandwidth
(Send or receive)
Total
Bandwidth
(Send and
receive)
x1 250 MB/s 500 MB/s
x4 1 GB/s 2 GB/s
x8 2 GB/s 4 GB/s
A PCIe 2.0 device can be used in a PCIe 1.0 slot. For best performance, however, each card should
be used in a slot that supports its logical link size.
Serial Attached SCSI technology
SAS is a serial communication protocol for direct-attached storage devices such as SAS and SATA
Small Form Factor (SFF) disk drives. It is a point-to-point architecture in which each device connects
directly to a SAS port rather than sharing a common bus, as parallel SCSI devices do. Point-to-point
links increase data throughput and improve the ability to locate and fix disk failures. More
importantly, SAS architecture solves the parallel SCSI problems of clock skew and signal degradation
at high signaling rates.7
A battery-backed write cache (BBWC) is available as an option for the Smart Array controllers. The
battery prevents information in the buffer from being lost in case of an unexpected system shutdown.
In the case of a complete system failure, IT administrators can move the controller and disks to a
different server where the controller will flush out the cache to the disks after power is restored. In the
case of a controller failure, administrators can move the cache module and disks to a working
controller where the cache will be flushed out to the disks. The battery will last up to two days without
receiving any power from the computer.
SAS and SATA Small Form Factor hard drives
The SAS architecture enables system designs that deploy high-performance SAS and high-capacity
SATA8SFF drives. This capability provides a broad range of storage solutions that give IT managers
the flexibility to choose storage devices based on reliability, performance, and cost.
6For additional information about PCI Express technology, see the technology brief titled “HP local I/O
technology for ProLiant and BladeSystem servers”:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00231623/c00231623.pdf.
7For more information about SAS technology, refer to the HP technology brief titled “Serial Attached SCSI
storage technology”:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01613420/c01613420.pdf.
8For more information about these features, refer to the technology brief “Serial ATA technology”:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00301688/c00301688.pdf.
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