Processor Configurations; Flexmem Bridge; Table 9. Supported Intel Xeon Processor 6500 And 7500 Series - Dell PowerEdge M910 Technical Manual

Table 9.
Model
X7560
X7542
X6550
E7540
E6540
E7530
E6510
L7555
L7545
E7520

Processor configurations

The PowerEdge M910 is designed to support either a two-processor configuration with FlexMem
Bridge or a four-processor configuration. In either configuration, all I/O and memory is available in
the system. While not formally supported, single processor configurations with a processor installed
in CPU1 will allow the system to boot for diagnostic purposes.
The Intel Xeon E7-2800 product family and Intel Xeon processor 6500 series are for two-socket
configurations only and cannot be upgraded to four-socket configurations.

FlexMem Bridge

In a four-processor configuration, the PowerEdge M910 uses only one memory controller per
processor. This single controller connects to two memory buffers through Intel SMI links. Each
memory buffer in turn connects to four DDR3 DIMMs. In a typical Intel Xeon processor 6500/7500
series configuration, only the memory buffers associated with the two populated sockets would be
connected and therefore only 16 DIMMs would be accessible.
To overcome this limitation with two processors, the M910 uses the FlexMem Bridge that allows
CPU1 and CPU2 to connect to the memory of their respective adjacent sockets (CPU3 and CPU4).
The FlexMem Bridge provides the following:

Two pass-through links for SMI

One pass-through link for QPI
The pass-through SMI links connect the two installed processors to additional SMIs, therefore the
processors will have the following memory attached:

CPU1 has access to DIMMs [A1:A8] and DIMMs [C1:C8] (those normally associated
with CPU3)

CPU2 has access to DIMMs [B1:B8] and DIMMs [D1:D8] (those normally associated
with CPU4)
The pass-through QPI link on the FlexMem Bridge provides increased performance for a two-
processor configuration because it allows two full-bandwidth QPI links between CPU1 and CPU2 as
opposed to a single link. Figure 3 depicts the interconnection between the CPU sockets as well as
connections internal to the FlexMem Bridges. The FlexMem Bridges are only supported in sockets 3
and 4.
PowerEdge M910 Technical Guide
Supported Intel Xeon Processor 6500 and 7500 series
Speed TDP power
2.26GHz 130W
2.66GHz 130W
2.00GHz 130W
2.00GHz 105W
2.00GHz 105W
1.86GHz 105W
1.73GHz 105W
1.86GHz 95W
1.86GHz 95W
1.86GHz 95W
21
Cache Cores QPI speed
24M 8 6.4GT/s
18M 6 5.86GT/s
18M 8 6.4GT/s
18M 6 6.4GT/s
18M 6 6.4GT/s
12M 6 5.86GT/s
12M 4 4.8GT/s
24M 8 5.86GT/s
18M 6 5.86GT/s
18M 4 4.8GT/s