Selling Features - IBM 7944E2U User Manual

Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and
expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server

Selling Features

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All models require Chipkill-enabled DIMMs (provided standard) for Chipkill protection.
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With the inclusion of unique IBM service and support features such as the IMM, light path
diagnostics, IBM Systems Director 6.1, IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager
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ServerGuide and support for the optional Virtual Media Key for remote presence capability, the
x3550 M3 is designed for superior uptime.
If you need highly manageable, dual-socket/multi-core computing power in a rack-dense
package, the x3550 M3 is the ideal system.
Price/Performance
The x3550 M3 offers numerous features to boost performance and reduce costs:
• Up to two 6-core or 4-core Xeon 5600 Series or 4-core Xeon 5500 Series processors and
12MB or 4MB of cache per processor, offer superior performance capable of tackling the
toughest jobs. 64-bit extensions provide the flexibility to run 32-bit and 64-bit applications
concurrently. Xeon 5600 series processors offer up to 43% better performance than the
previous-generation 5500 series processors (depending on workload). For an even lower
entry price, a 2-core 5500 Series processor is available via CTO.
• Low-voltage processors draw less energy and produce less waste heat than high-voltage
processors, thus helping to reduce data center energy costs. Selected 4-core Xeon 5600
Series processors use only 40W and selected 6-core processors consume only 60W. This is
less than half the wattage consumed by 130W processors.
• Eighteen DIMMs of ultra-fast registered 1333MHz DDR3 ECC memory with Chipkill
protection (optional) provide speed, high availability, and a memory capacity of up 192GB.
• x3550 M3 servers using the L5640 and X56xx processors support 2 DIMMs per channel
(2DPC) at 1333MHz; those using the X55xx processors support 2DPC at 1333MHz via the
special bid process.
• Optional 50GB solid-state drives (SSD) use only 2W of power per drive, vs. 9-10W for 2.5-
inch HDDs. This is as much as 80% less power than a 2.5-inch HDD would use (with a
corresponding reduction in heat output).
• The altimeter works in conjunction with IMM to govern fan rotation. which can help save
money at lower altitudes because the fans do not have to spin at high speed.
• Two high-speed PCIe x16 adapters (Gen 2) slots offer investment protection by supporting
high-performance adapters, such as 10Gb Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand™ cards,
none of which will run in older 33MHz and 66MHz conventional PCI slots.
• The integrated ServeRAID-BR10il v2 controller (model-specific) provides RAID-0/1/1E and
full-duplex (bidirectional 3Gbps) data transfers for SAS/SATA/SSD drives without consuming
a valuable adapter slot. Other server models include the 6Gbps ServeRAID-M1015 (RAID-
0/1/10, optional 5 with Self-Encrypting Disk, or SED) or the ServeRAID-M5014 controller
standard, which provide RAID-0/1/10/5/50 (optional 6/60 SED). The ServeRAID-M5014 also
offers higher performance, due to 256MB of optional onboard cache and battery backup.
• Up to 8 2.5-inch hot-swap SAS/SATA hard disk drives offer high-performance with high
availability. SSDs offer even higher availability, with extremely high IOPS rates.
• The integrated dual Gigabit Ethernet controllers with IPMI 2.0 provide high-speed network
communications. Two more NICs can be added to the planar with an additional dual-port Gb
Ethernet daughtercard. The TCP Offload Engine (TOE) feature offers higher performance for
TCP/IP traffic, with less overhead on the system processor.
• A high degree of device integration—including SAS/SATA HDDs or SSDs, multiple
ServeRAID options, Gigabit Ethernet ports, systems management and video controllers—
lowers costs and frees up valuable adapter slots.
Flexibility
The x3550 M3 has the ability to grow with your application requirements, thanks to
• A choice of 4-core or 6-core processors with 1.86 to 3.46GHz clock rates, up to 6.4
gigatransfers per second, and 40W to 130W maximum power draw. (An additional choice, a
2-core 5500 Series processor, is available via CTO.)
• Up to 192GB of high-speed registered DDR3 system memory.
• A choice of either standard 1.5V DIMMs, or 1.35V DIMMs that consume 10% less energy.
• Two available high-performance PCIe x16 adapter slots in all models. Optionally, one riser
card supporting PCI-X/133 adapters can be exchanged for one PCIe slot.
• Upgrading to the ServeRAID-M5015 controller provides 512MB of battery-backed cache to
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