IBM 7944E2U User Manual page 9

Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and
expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server
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SED support.
The 6Gbps (x8 PCIe) ServeRAID-M5014 SAS/SATA controller offers enhanced performance
with 256MB of cache memory, and supports RAID-0/1/10/5/50 for up to 8 drives.
The 6Gbps (x8 PCIe) ServeRAID-M5015 SAS/SATA controller offers enhanced performance
with 512MB of cache memory and battery backup, and supports RAID-0/1/10/5/50 for up to 8
drives.
The IBM ServeRAID M5000 Series Advance Feature Key adds RAID-6/60 with SED support to
the M5014 and M5015. The IBM ServeRAID M5000 Series Battery Key adds battery backup
support to the M5014.
For external storage, the 3Gbps ServeRAID-MR10M controller enables connection to up to four
IBM System Storage EXP3000 SAS expansion units (48 HDDs total). It provides RAID-
0/1/10/5/50 support and 256MB of onboard cache.
High-Performance Adapter Slots
The x3550 M3 provides two x16 ("by 16") 16GBps PCIe Gen 2 (PCI Express) Gen 2 I/O slots
for long-term investment protection. PCI Express Gen 2 is the next-generation of high-
performance, low-latency, serial I/O bus. Each slot is capable of supporting x1/x4/x8/x16 Gen 1
or Gen 2 adapters at full speed. One slot is full-height, half-length. The other is low profile.
Each is convertible to one PCI-X/133 MHz using an optional riser. High-performance x16 Gen 2
slots are ideal for digital media, 2D graphics environments, and other I/O-intensive applications.
There is also a dedicated riser card in the x3550 M3 that provides a x8 PCIe connector wired with
x4 lanes for an internal ServeRAID card.
Dual-Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller
The x3550 M3 includes one dual-port integrated Broadcom 5709S Gigabit Ethernet controller
standard, for up to 10X higher maximum throughput than a 10/100 Ethernet controller, as well as
support for TOE (TCP Offload Engine), as well as load-balancing and failover capabilities
between the two ports.
TOE helps improve overall system performance by offloading TCP/IP protocol processing from
the system microprocessor to the onboard Ethernet TOE processor.
It also supports highly secure remote power management using IPMI 2.0, plus Wake on LAN
and PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) flash interface. Optional PCI adapters offering failover
and load balancing between adapters are available for added throughput and increased system
availability.
Integrated quad Gb Ethernet ports:
• Up to four Gb Ethernet ports, ideal for virtualization and I/O-intensive workloads
• 2 ports standard, plus two additional ports via optional daughtercard
• Improves system performance by offloading protocol processing from CPU to a separate TOE
engine
• Primary performance improvement for data copying (CPU) where CPU utilization is 90-100%
Two Broadcom 5709S Gigabit Ethernet controllers (one on-board and one on an optional
daughter card) provide four Gigabit ports supporting IEEE 802.3 for 1000Base-T, 100Base-TX,
and 10Base-T applications (802.3, 802.3u, 802.3ab) through a RJ-45 connector to an Ethernet
network over a CAT 5 twisted-pair cable. This controller supports PXE 2.0 remote boot and TOE.
TOE support on Windows is available today, but requires the Windows Scalable Network Pack
(SNP) installed. Linux has no plan to support TOE at this time.
10 Gigabit Ethernet Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapter for IBM
The Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter for x3550 M3 (part number 49Y4200 with special riser card,
support by CTO) is an industry-leading performance and scalability per watt, dual-port network
adapter for 10Gbps Ethernet (10GbE) networks. It offers the benefits and flexibility of I/O
convergence in a single end-to-end solution. Protocol offload for stateless TCP/IP and TCP
Chimney provide maximum bandwidth with minimum use of CPU resources. It achieves line rate
10Gbps performance with support for TCP/IP stateless offloads and TCP Offload Engine (TOE)
support. TOE reduces system processor utilization, providing increased system performance and
reducing overall system power requirements.
The Emulex 10Gb/s Virtual Fabric Adapter for IBM System x3550 M3 is based on the Emulex
OneConnect Universal Converged Network Adapter (UCNA) platform that also includes the
capability for future upgrades to Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and iSCSI protocol offloads.
By using a common infrastructure for Ethernet and storage networks, data centers can reduce
capital expense (CapEx) for adapters, switches and cables, and operational expense (OpEx) for
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