The IBM BladeCenter was IBM's

blade server A blade server is a stripped-down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy. Blade servers have many components removed to save space, minimize power consumption and other considerations, whil ...

architecture, until it was replaced by Flex System in 2012. The x86 division was later sold to

Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, Personal computer, personal computers, ...

in 2014.

History

Introduced in 2002, based on engineering work started in 1999, the IBM

eServer IBM eServer was a family of computer servers from IBM. Announced in 2000, it combined the various IBM server brands (AS/400, Netfinity, RS/6000, S/390) under one brand. The various sub-brands were at the same time rebranded from: *IBM RS/6000 to ...

BladeCenter was relatively late to the

market. It differed from prior offerings in that it offered a range of x86

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

server processors and input/output (I/O) options. The naming was changed to IBM BladeCenter in 2005. In February 2006, IBM introduced the BladeCenter H with switch capabilities for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and

InfiniBand InfiniBand (IB) is a computer networking communications standard used in high-performance computing that features very high throughput and very low latency. It is used for data interconnect both among and within computers. InfiniBand is also used ...

4X. A web site called Blade.org was available for the blade computing community through about 2009. In 2012, the replacement

Flex System Flex or FLEX may refer to: Computing * Flex (language), developed by Alan Kay * FLEX (operating system), a single-tasking operating system for the Motorola 6800 * FlexOS, an operating system developed by Digital Research * FLEX (protocol), a com ...

was introduced.

Enclosures

IBM BladeCenter (E)

The original IBM BladeCenter was later marketed as BladeCenter E. Power supplies have been upgraded through the life of the chassis from the original 1200 to 1400, 1800, 2000 and 2320 watt. The BladeCenter (E) was co-developed by IBM and

and included: * 14 blade slots in 7U * Shared Media tray with

Optical drive In computing, an optical disc drive is a disk drive, disc drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing data to or from optical discs. Some drives ...

floppy drive A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

and

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...

1.1 port * 1 (upgradable to 2) Management modules * Two slots for Gigabit

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

switches (can also have optical or copper pass-through) * Two slots for optional switch or pass-through modules, can have additional Ethernet,

Fibre Channel Fibre Channel (FC) is a high-speed data transfer protocol providing in-order, lossless delivery of raw block data. Fibre Channel is primarily used to connect computer data storage to servers in storage area networks (SAN) in commercial data cen ...

or Myrinet 2000 functions *Power: Two (upgradable to four) power supplies, C19/C20 connectors * Two redundant high-speed blowers

IBM BladeCenter T

BladeCenter T is the

telecommunications company A telephone company, also known as a telco, telephone service provider, or telecommunications operator, is a kind of communications service provider (CSP), more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunicat ...

version of the original BladeCenter, available with either AC or DC (48 V) power. Has 8 blade slots in 8U, but uses the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter E. To keep NEBS Level 3 / ETSI compliant special Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS) compliant blades are available.

IBM BladeCenter H

Upgraded BladeCenter design with high-speed fabric options, announced in 2006. Backwards compatible with older BladeCenter switches and blades. Features: * 14 blade slots in 9U * Shared Media tray with Optical drive and

2.0 port * 1 (upgradable to 2) Advanced Management modules * Two slots for Gigabit Ethernet switches (can also have optical or copper pass-through) * Two slots for optional switch or pass-through modules, can have additional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or Myrinet 2000 functions * Four slots for optional high-speed switches or pass-through modules, can have 10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X. * Optional Hard-wired serial port capability *Power: Two (upgradable to four) power supplies, with Souriau UTG input connectors * Two redundant high-speed blowers

IBM BladeCenter HT

BladeCenter HT is the telecommunications company version of the BladeCenter H, available with either AC or DC (48 V) power. Has 12 blade slots in 12U, but uses the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter H. But to keep NEBS Level 3 / ETSI compliant special NEBS compliant blades are available.

IBM BladeCenter S

Targets mid-sized customers by offering storage inside the BladeCenter chassis, so no separate external storage needs to be purchased. It can also use 120V power in the North American market, so it can be used outside the datacenter. When running at 120V , the total chassis capacity is reduced. Features: * 6 blade slots in 7U * Shared Media tray with optical drive and 2×

2.0 ports * 1 Advanced Management module as standard (no option for secondary module) * Storage: Up to 12 hot-swap 3.5" (or 24 2.5") SAS or

SATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard to ...

drives with

RAID Raid, RAID or Raids may refer to: Attack * Raid (military), a sudden attack behind the enemy's lines without the intention of holding ground * Corporate raid, a type of hostile takeover in business * Panty raid, a prankish raid by male college ...

0, 1, and 1E capability (RAID 5 and SAN capabilities optional with two SAS RAID controllers) ** Two optional Disk Storage Modules for HDDs, six 3.5" SAS/SATA drives each * 4 hot-swap I/O switch module bays * Power: Two 950/1450-watt, hot-swap modules and ability to have two optional 950/1450-watt modules, offering redundancy and power for robust configurations; C19/C20 connectors * Four hot-swap redundant blowers (plus one fan in each power supply)

Blade nodes list

Intel based

Modules based on

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

processors from

HS12

(2008) Features: * Processor: Celeron single-core 445 to quad-core Intel Xeon up to 2.83GHz * Memory: 6

DIMM A DIMM () (Dual In-line Memory Module), commonly called a RAM stick, comprises a series of dynamic random-access memory integrated circuits. These memory modules are mounted on a printed circuit board and designed for use in personal compute ...

slots (up to 24GB) * Hot-swap drives

HS20

(2002–2006) Features: * Processors: One or two Intel

Xeon Xeon ( ) is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted at the non-consumer workstation, server, and embedded system markets. It was introduced in June 1998. Xeon processors are based on the same arc ...

DP (single or dual-core) * Memory: 4

slots * Option for one or two 2.5" drives ( ATA100, SCSI U320 or Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) depending on generation) * Two 1Gbit/s ethernet ports * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)

HS21

(2007–2008) This model can use the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards-compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features: * Processors: One or two Intel Xeon DP (dual or quad-core) * Memory: 4

slots * Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives * Two 1Gbit/s ethernet ports * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

HS21 XM

(2007–2008) This model can use the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features: * Processors: One or two Intel Xeon DP (dual or quad-core) * Memory: 8 DIMM slots * Option for one SAS 2.5" drive or one or two SAS-based Solid State drives * Two 1Gbit/s ethernet ports * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional ethernet,

Myrinet Myrinet, ANSI/VITA 26-1998, is a high-speed local area networking system designed by the company Myricom to be used as an interconnect between multiple machines to form computer clusters. Description Myrinet was promoted as having lower protocol ...

2000 or

) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s ethernet or

4X as well as additional Fibre-Channel or ethernet ports)

HS22

(2009–2011) Features: * Processors: One or two Intel Xeon 5500 or 5600 series (up to 3.6GHz 4-core or 3.46GHz 6-core) * Memory: up to 192GB

DDR3 Double Data Rate 3 Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR3 SDRAM) is a type of synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) with a high bandwidth (" double data rate") interface, and has been in use since 2007. It is the higher-spee ...

(12 VLP

slots) * Option for two hot swap SAS 2.5" drives or SSD (

0 and 1 are possible) * Two 1Gbit/s ethernet ports (Broadcom 5709S) * 1 CIOv slot (standard

PCI PCI may refer to: Business and economics * Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards ** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors * Pro ...

-Express daughter card) and 1 CFFh slot (high-speed

-Express daughter card) for a total of 8 ports of I/O to each blade, including 4 ports of high-speed I/O * Requires Advanced Management Module

HS22v

(2010–2011) Features are very similar to HS22 but: * Memory: up to 288GB DDR3 (18 VLP DIMM slots) * Up to two 1.8" disks (SSD, not hot swapable) * Requires Advanced Management Module

HS23

(2012) Features: * Single-wide * Processors: One or two Intel Xeon E5-2600 * Memory: 16 DIMM slots, up to 1600MHz * 2 hot-swappable HDDs (SATA/SAS) or SSDs * Dual 10G/1G Ethernet onboard expandable to * Virtual Fabric / vNic's onboard * Requires Advanced Management Module

HS23E

(2012) Features: * Single-wide * Processors: One or two Intel Xeon E5-2400 * Memory: 12 DIMM slots, up to 1600MHz * 2 hot-swappable HDDs (SATA/SAS) or SSDs * Dual Gigabit Ethernet onboard ports with TOE * Requires Advanced Management Module

HS40

(2004) Features: * Double-wide (needs 2 slots) * Processors: One to four Intel Xeon MP * Memory: (8

slots) * Option for one or two ATA100 2.5" drives * Four 1Gbit/s ethernet ports * Two

expansion slot Expansion may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * '' L'Expansion'', a French monthly business magazine * ''Expansion'' (album), by American jazz pianist Dave Burrell, released in 2004 * ''Expansions'' (McCoy Tyner album), 1970 * ''Expansi ...

s for up to four additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional ethernet,

2000 or

)

HC10

(2008) This blade model is targeted to the workstation market, Features: * Processor: Single Intel Core 2 Duo * Memory: 8GB max (4

slots) *

NVidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

video adapter * One SATA 60GB HDD * Two 1Gbit/s ethernet ports

HX5

(2010–2011) This blade model is targeted at the server virtualization market. Features: * Processors: 2 to 4 Intel E7, 6500 or 7500 series Xeon (410 cores per CPU, up to 2.67GHz) * Memory: 256GB Max (16

slots); Expandable to 40 slots with a 24 DIMM MAX 5 memory blade (640GB total). * Two 1Gbit/s ethernet ports per blade

AMD based

Modules based on

processors from

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...

LS20

(2005-2006) Features: * Processors: One or two

AMD Opteron Opteron is AMD's x86 former server and workstation processor line, and was the first processor which supported the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64 or AMD64). It was released on April 22, 2003, with the ''Sledge ...

(single or dual-core) * Memory: DDR (4 VLP

slots) * Option for one or two SCSI U320 2.5" drives * Two 1Gbit/s ethernet ports * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet,

2000 or

)

LS21

(2006) This model can use the high-speed I/O of the BladeCenter H, but is also backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features: * Processors: One or two

(dual-core), support 65nm Quad core after BIOS update (tested) * Memory: up to 32GB of RAM (8

slots) * Option for one SAS or SATA 2.5" drive * Two Gigabit Ethernet ports * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet,

2000 or

) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s Ethernet or

4X)

LS22

(2008) Upgraded model of LS21. Features: * Processors: One or two 45nm

(quad or 6-core) * Memory: up to 64GB of RAM (8

slots) * Option for two SAS or SATA 2.5" drive * Two Gigabit Ethernet ports * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet,

2000 or

) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or

4X)

LS41

(2006–2007) This model can use the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features: * Double-wide (needs 2 slots) * Processors: One to four

(dual-core) * Memory: up to 64GB of RAM (16

slots) * Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives * Four Gigabit Ethernet ports * Two expansion slots for up to four additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet,

2000 or

) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s Ethernet or

4X) * Data Storage Capacity ?

LS42

(2008–2009) Upgraded model of LS41. Features: * Double-wide (needs 2 slots) * Processors: One to 4

(quad or 6-core) * Memory: up to 128GB of RAM (16

slots) * Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives * Four Gigabit Ethernet ports * Two expansion slots for up to four additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet,

2000 or

) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s Ethernet or

4X)

Power based

Modules based on

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

- or

Power ISA Power ISA is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) currently developed by the OpenPOWER Foundation, led by IBM. It was originally developed by IBM and the now-defunct Power.org industry group. Power IS ...

-based processors from IBM.

JS20

(2006) Features: * Can run

AIX Aix or AIX may refer to: Computing * AIX, a line of IBM computer operating systems *An Alternate Index, for a Virtual Storage Access Method Key Sequenced Data Set * Athens Internet Exchange, a European Internet exchange point Places Belgi ...

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

* Processors: Two

PowerPC 970 The PowerPC 970, PowerPC 970FX, and PowerPC 970MP are 64-bit PowerPC processors from IBM introduced in 2002. When used in PowerPC-based Macintosh computers, Apple referred to them as the PowerPC G5. The 970 family was created through a collab ...

at 1.6 or 2.2 GHz * Memory: 4

slots for PC2700 ECC (max 8 GB) * Option for one or two ATA100 2.5" drives * Two Gigabit Ethernet ports * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet,

2000 or

)

JS21

(2006) This model can have the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features: * Can run

** Can do

virtualization In computing, virtualization or virtualisation (sometimes abbreviated v12n, a numeronym) is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something at the same abstraction level, including virtual computer hardware platforms, stor ...

, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) capabilities * Processors: Two PowerPC 970FX single-core at 2.7 GHz or two

PowerPC 970MP The PowerPC 970, PowerPC 970FX, and PowerPC 970MP are 64-bit PowerPC processors from IBM introduced in 2002. When used in PowerPC-based Macintosh computers, Apple referred to them as the PowerPC G5. The 970 family was created through a collab ...

dual-core at 2.5 GHz * Memory: 4

slots for PC2-3200 or PC2-4200 ECC (max 16 GB) * Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives * Two Gigabit Ethernet ports * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or

) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or

4X)

JS22

(2009) Features: * Can run

IBM i IBM i (the ''i'' standing for ''integrated'') is an operating system developed by IBM for IBM Power Systems. It was originally released in 1988 as OS/400, as the sole operating system of the IBM AS/400 line of systems. It was renamed to i5/OS in ...

** Supports

, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) and IBM Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) * Processors: Two

POWER6 The POWER6 is a microprocessor developed by IBM that implemented the Power ISA v.2.03. When it became available in systems in 2007, it succeeded the POWER5+ as IBM's flagship Power microprocessor. It is claimed to be part of the eCLipz projec ...

dual-core at 4.0 GHz * Memory: 4

slots ECC Chipkill

DDR2 SDRAM Double Data Rate 2 Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR2 SDRAM) is a double data rate (DDR) synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) interface. It superseded the original DDR SDRAM specification, and was itself superseded by DDR3 ...

(max 32 GB) * One 2.5" SAS drive up to 146 GB * Two Gigabit Ethernet ports card * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet,

2000 or

) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or

4X)

JS23

(2009) Features: * Can run

** Supports

, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) and IBM Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) * Processors: Two

dual-core at 4.2 GHz ** 64 MB

L3 cache A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer to reduce the average cost (time or energy) to access data from the main memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory, located closer to a processor core, whic ...

(32 per processor) * Memory: 4

slots ECC Chipkill

(max 64 GB) * One 2.5" SAS up to 300 GB or one SSD drive * Two Gigabit Ethernet ports card * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet,

2000 or

) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or

4X) * One CIOv PCIe expansion slot

JS43 Express

Features: * Double-wide *Can run

** Supports

, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) and IBM Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) * Processors: 4

dual-core at 4.2 GHz ** 128 MB

(32 per processor) * Memory: 8

slots ECC Chipkill

(max 128 GB) * Up to two 2.5" SAS (up to 300 GB) or up to two SSD drives * Two Gigabit Ethernet ports card * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet,

2000 or

) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or

4X) * Two PCIe CIOv expansion slots

JS12 Express

Features: * Can run

** Supports

, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) and IBM Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) * Processor: One

dual-core at 3.8 GHz * Memory: 8

slots ECC Chipkill

(max 64 GB) * Zero to two 2.5" SAS drive up to 146 GB * Two Gigabit Ethernet ports, with optionan dual Gbit card * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet,

2000 or

) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (4 Gbit/s Fibre Channel,

iSCSI Internet Small Computer Systems Interface or iSCSI ( ) is an Internet Protocol-based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities. iSCSI provides block-level access to storage devices by carrying SCSI commands over a TCP/IP ...

, or

4X)

PS700

Branded as part of

IBM Power Systems Power Systems is a family of server computers from IBM that are based on its Power processors. It was created in 2008 as a merger of the System p and System i product lines. History IBM had two distinct POWER- and PowerPC-based hardware li ...

. Features: * Can run

Linux on Power PowerLinux is the combination of a Linux-based operating system (OS) running on PowerPC- or Power ISA-based computers from IBM. It is often used in reference along with ''Linux on Power'', and is also the name of several Linux-only IBM Power Sys ...

** Can do

, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) capabilities. * Processor: One

POWER7 POWER7 is a family of superscalar multi-core microprocessors based on the Power ISA 2.06 instruction set architecture released in 2010 that succeeded the POWER6 and POWER6+. POWER7 was developed by IBM at several sites including IBM's Roche ...

quad-core at 3 GHz * Memory: max 64 GB * Two Gigabit Ethernet ports, with optionan dual Gbit card

PS701

Features are very similar to PS700, but * Processor: 8-core * Memory: max 128 GB

PS702

Think two PS701 tied together back-to-back, forming a double-wide blade

PS703

Features are very similar to PS701, but * Processors: Two 8-core at 2.4 GHz

PS704

Think two PS703 tied together back-to-back, forming a double-wide blade.

Cell based

Modules based on

Cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...

processors from IBM.

QS20

Features: * Double-wide (needs 2 slots) * Can run

* Processors: Two Cell processors at 3.2 GHz * Memory: 1 GB XDRAM (512 MB per processor) * 40 GB IDE100 2.5" drive * Two Gigabit Ethernet ports * Optional

4X connectivity

QS21

Features: * Single-wide * Can run

* Processors: Two Cell processors at 3.2 GHz * Memory: 2 GB (1 GB per processor) * Two Gigabit Ethernet ports * One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet,

2000 or

) * One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or

4X)

QS22

Features: * Single-wide * Can run

* Processors: Two

PowerXCell 8i Cell is a multi-core microprocessor microarchitecture that combines a general-purpose PowerPC core of modest performance with streamlined coprocessing elements which greatly accelerate multimedia and vector processing applications, as well as ...

at 3.2 GHz * Memory: Up to 32 GB of

* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports * Expansion slots for SAS daughter card,

4X DDR daughter card and 8 GB uFDM Flash Drive

UltraSPARC based: 2BC

Themis computer announced a blade around 2008. It ran the Sun

Solaris operating system Solaris is a proprietary Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. After the Sun acquisition by Oracle in 2010, it was renamed Oracle Solaris. Solaris superseded the company's earlier SunOS in 1993, and became known for it ...

from

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

. Each module had one

UltraSPARC T2 Sun Microsystems' UltraSPARC T2 microprocessor is a multithreading, multi-core CPU. It is a member of the SPARC family, and the successor to the UltraSPARC T1. The chip is sometimes referred to by its codename, Niagara 2. Sun started selling ...

with 64 threads at 1.2 GHz and up to 32 GB of

processor memory.

Advanced network: PN41

Developed in conjunction with CloudShield, features: * Single-wide * Processor: Intel IXP2805 network processor * Full payload screening with

deep packet inspection Deep packet inspection (DPI) is a type of data processing that inspects in detail the data being sent over a computer network, and may take actions such as alerting, blocking, re-routing, or logging it accordingly. Deep packet inspection is oft ...

(DPI) * Full Layer 7 processing and control * User programmability using Eclipse-based IDE and RAVE open development language * Quad 1 Gbit + quad 10 Gbit Ethernet controllers * Up to 20 Gbit/s DPI throughput per blade * Selective traffic capture, rewrite and redirect * Has LAN and WAN Interfaces

Modules

Switch modules

The BladeCenter can have a total of four switch modules, but two of the switch module bays can take only an Ethernet switch or Ethernet pass-though. To use the other switch module bays, a daughtercard needs to be installed on each blade that needs it, to provide the required SAN, Ethernet,

function. Mixing of different type daughtercards in the same BladeCenter chassis is not allowed.

Gigabit Ethernet

Gigabit Ethernet In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use i ...

switch modules were produced by IBM,

Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in Montreal, Quebec, ...

, and

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

. BLADE Network Technologies produced some switches, and later was purchased by IBM. In all cases speed internal to the BladeCenter, between the blades, is non-blocking. External Gigabit Ethernet ports vary from four to six and can be either copper or

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

Storage Area Network

A variety of SAN switch modules have been produced by QLogic,

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

McData Brocade is an American technology company specializing in storage networking products, now a subsidiary of Broadcom Inc. The company is known for its Fibre Channel storage networking products and technology. Prior to the acquisition, the comp ...

(acquired by Brocade) and

Brocade Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in colored silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian ''broccato'' meaning "embos ...

ranging in speeds of 1, 2, 4 and 8 Gbit Fibre Channel. Speed from the SAN switch to the blade is determined by the lowest-common-denominator between the blade HBA daughtercard and the SAN switch. External port counts vary from two to six, depending on the switch module.

InfiniBand

A InfiniBand switch module has been produced by

. Speed from the blade InfiniBand daughtercard to the switch is limited to IB 1X (2.5 Gbit). Externally the switch has one IB 4X and one IB 12X port. The IB 12X port can be split to three IB 4X ports, giving a total of four IB 4X ports and a total theoretical external bandwidth of 40 Gbit.

Pass-through

Two kinds of pass-through module are available: copper pass-through and fibre pass-through. The copper pass-through can be used only with Ethernet, while the Fibre pass-through can be used for Ethernet, SAN or

Bridge

Bridge modules are only compatible with BladeCenter H and BladeCenter HT. They function like Ethernet or SAN switches and bridge the traffic to

. The advantage is that from the Operating System on the blade everything seems normal (regular Ethernet or SAN connectivity), but inside the BladeCenter everything gets routed over the

High-speed switch modules

High-speed switch modules are compatible only with the BladeCenter H and BladeCenter HT. A blade that needs the function must have a high-speed daughtercard installed. Different high-speed daughtercards cannot be mixed in the same BladeCenter chassis.

10 Gigabit Ethernet

A 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch module was available from BLADE Network Technologies. This allowed 10 Gbit/s connection to each blade, and to outside the BladeCenter.

InfiniBand 4X

There are several InfiniBand options: * A high-speed InfiniBand 4X SDR switch module from

. This allows IB 4X connectivity to each blade. Externally the switch has two IB 4X ports and two IB 12X ports. The 12X ports can be split to three 4X ports, providing a total of eight IB 4X ports or a theoretical bandwidth of 80 Gbit. Internally between the blades, the switch is non-blocking. * A High-speed

pass-through module to directly connect the blades to an external

switch. This pass-though module is compatible with both SDR and DDR

speeds. * A high-speed InfiniBand 4X QDR switch module from Voltaire (later acquired by

Mellanox Technologies Mellanox Technologies Ltd. ( he, מלאנוקס טכנולוגיות בע"מ) was an Israeli-American multinational supplier of computer networking products based on InfiniBand and Ethernet technology. Mellanox offered adapters, switches, softwa ...

). This allows full IB 4X QDR connectivity to each blade. Externally the switch has 16 QSFP ports, all 4X QDR capable.

Roadrunner TriBlade (custom module)

The

IBM Roadrunner Roadrunner was a supercomputer built by IBM for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA. The US$100-million Roadrunner was designed for a peak performance of 1.7 petaflops. It achieved 1.026 petaflops on May 25, 2008, to become the ...

supercomputer used a custom module called the TriBlade from 2008 through 2013. An expansion blade connects two QS22 modules with 8 GB RAM each via 4

PCIe PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common mo ...

x8 links to a LS21 module with 16 GB RAM, two links for each QS22. It also provides outside connectivity via an

Infiniband InfiniBand (IB) is a computer networking communications standard used in high-performance computing that features very high throughput and very low latency. It is used for data interconnect both among and within computers. InfiniBand is also used ...

4x DDR adapter. This makes a total width of four slots for a single TriBlade. Three TriBlades fit into one BladeCenter H chassis.

References

External links

IBM BladeCenter homepageLenovo Press
- replaced IBM Redbooks for Bladecenter
BladeCenter HS23 (E5-2600) Product GuideLenovo BladeCenter E Product Guide - Lenovo PressInstalling VMware vSphere 5.5 on IBM BladeCenter H22
* ttps://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/servers/server-products.html Intel Server Productsbr>x4live.com - Latest News and Links on Modular System x, Modular BladeCenter and Systems ManagementIBM's Online Server Configuratorcoreipm.com - Board Management Controller (BMC) firmware & other information for building BladeCenter compatible blades
{{IBM midrange computers

BladeCenter The IBM BladeCenter was IBM's blade server architecture, until it was replaced by Flex System in 2012. The x86 division was later sold to Lenovo in 2014. History Introduced in 2002, based on engineering work started in 1999, the IBM eSe ...

Cell BE architecture Blade servers Computer-related introductions in 2002

History

Enclosures

IBM BladeCenter (E)

IBM BladeCenter T

IBM BladeCenter H

IBM BladeCenter HT

IBM BladeCenter S

Blade nodes list

Intel based

HS12

HS20

HS21

HS21 XM

HS22

HS22v

HS23

HS23E

HS40

HC10

HX5

AMD based

LS20

LS21

LS22

LS41

LS42

Power based

JS20

JS21

JS22

JS23

JS43 Express

JS12 Express

PS700

PS701

PS702

PS703

PS704

Cell based

QS20

QS21

QS22

UltraSPARC based: 2BC

Advanced network: PN41

Modules

Switch modules

Gigabit Ethernet

Storage Area Network

InfiniBand

Pass-through

Bridge

High-speed switch modules

10 Gigabit Ethernet

InfiniBand 4X

Roadrunner TriBlade (custom module)

See also

References

External links