Chapter 1 Overview; Configuration - DEC AlphaServer 8200 Technical Manual

The computer system is an AlphaGeneration server very similar to but
with twice the performance of DEC 7000/10000 systems. It is built around
the TLSB bus and supports the OpenVMS Alpha and Digital UNIX operat-
ing systems. It is manufactured in two models: AlphaServer 8200 and Al-
phaServer 8400. The AlphaServer 8400 features nine nodes, while Al-
phaServer 8200 supports only five nodes.
The system uses three types of modules:
NOTE: Unless otherwise specified, all discussions in this manual apply to both Al-
phaServer systems.

1.1 Configuration

The system provides a wide range of configuration flexibility:
• CPU modules, each containing one or two DECchip 21164 CPUs
• Memory modules
• I/O ports that interface to other I/O buses (XMI, Futurebus+,and PCI)
• A 9-slot system centerplane bus that supports up to nine CPU, mem-
ory, or I/O nodes, and can operate at speeds ranging from 10 ns (100
MHz) to 30 ns (33.33 MHz).
• The system supports from one to 12 DECchip 21164 CPUs. Each CPU
has a 4-Mbyte backup cache. The CPU module design supports a range
of processor clocks from 7.0 ns (142.9 MHz) to 2.8 ns (357 MHz).
• The system supports a range of memory sizes from 128 Mbytes to 14
Gbytes. Memory is expandable using 128-Mbyte, 256-Mbyte, 512-
Mbyte, 1-Gbyte, and 2-Gbyte modules.
• The system supports up to three I/O ports, providing up to 12 I/O chan-
nels. Each I/O channel connects to one of the following:
— XMI, for attaching legacy XMI I/O devices for high performance
— Futurebus+, for attaching high-performance third-party peripherals
— PCI, for attaching low-cost, industry-standard peripherals, and for
compatibility with other DECchip 21164 platforms offered by Digi-
tal
• The system supports an integrated I/O port providing direct access to
two twisted-pair (10BaseT) Ethernet ports, one FDDI port, and four
SCSI ports. The integrated I/O port can also connect to one XMI,
Chapter 1
Overview
Overview 1-1