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Active PCI slots
(Hot Swap)
Ethernet controller
Video controller
Keyboard and mouse
connectors
Service processor
Trusted Platform Module
(TPM)
Power supply
Mechanical
2.5 System scalability
If you plan to increase performance of your system, consider the following
issues:
Application scalability
Operating system scalability
Server scalability
Storage scalability
This section discusses application and operating system scalability.
Adding processors can improve server performance under certain circumstances
because software instruction execution can be shared among the additional
processors. However, both the operating system and, more important, the
applications must be designed to take advantage of the extra processors. Merely
adding processors does not guarantee a performance benefit.
For example, not all applications can use the full power of four processors in one
server. File and print servers often only take advantage of one or two processors
and popular mail systems typically only scale well to four processors. Table 2-3
on page 65 shows the suitability of multi-processor systems to application types.
64
Planning, Installing, and Managing the IBM System x3950 M2
x3950 server
Six
Broadcom 5704 dual
Gigabit Ethernet
ATI Radeon 7000M 16 MB
onboard
PS/2
RSA II SlimLine standard
None
Two 1300W supplies
3U height
x3950 M2 server
Two
Broadcom 5709C dual
Gigabit Ethernet
ATI ES1000 16 MB
memory on RSA II
USB
RSA II standard
TPM with TCG V1.2
compliance
Two 1440W supplies
4U height
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