Speed Burst Card Reinstallation - IBM System x3850 X5 Implementation Manual

Figure 8-28 Complex scale toggle for stand-alone mode

8.4.4 Speed Burst Card reinstallation

In the event that you decide to split a 2-node complex permanently in order to use the blades
independently, always reinstall the Speed Burst Card for performance reasons.
The Speed Burst Card takes the QPI links that are used for scaling two HX5 2-socket blades
and routes them back to the processors on the same blade. Without the Speed Burst Card,
there is only one QPI link between processor 1 and 2 for exchanging memory information.
The Speed Burst Card increases the number of QPI links from 1 to 3, which will significantly
increase the bandwidth of data that can be exchanged between the memory of the two
processors. For solutions that use intensive memory, the performance boost will be
measurable. See the block diagram in Figure 8-29 on page 395.
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IBM eX5 Implementation Guide