Design Points Of The System - IBM NeXtScale System Planning And Implementation Manual

1.3 Design points of the system

This section introduces some of the following design points that went into IBM
NeXtScale System:
The system is designed for flexibility.
The power supplies and fans, in the back of the chassis, are modular and hot
swappable. The servers slide in and out of the front and have their cable
connections at the front.
The chassis is engineered to support devices that span multiple bays.
Compute node designs are not limited to a single 1U-high half-wide server. As
with iDataPlex, servers can be augmented with trays that enable more
features, such as, adapters or drives. Further systems that extend the design
are in development.
Fits in a standard rack
It is possible to install the IBM NeXtScale n1200 Enclosure into many
standard 19-inch racks (which might require more cable routing brackets) and
the rack can have a mixture of NeXtScale and other components. It is
possible to start with a few servers and grow incrementally. Alternatively, you
can have IBM install them into racks with switches and power distribution
units and connect all the cables.
IBM factory integration
Further configuration and testing are done when the systems are factory
integrated. For more information about IBM factory integration, see Chapter 6,
"Factory integration and testing" on page 153.
The IBM NeXtScale System is focused on computational density.
Compared to an iDataPlex system with 84 servers in each iDataplex rack,
with six NextScale chassis in each 42U standard rack (which leaves 6U per
rack for more components), in the same floor tile configuration we can fit 28%
more servers. With standard racks, clients should be able to design compact
data center floor layouts for all their equipment.
The system is also designed for simplicity.
Cable access to the server is from the front. The servers are directly
accessed for their local console, management, and data networks, which
eliminates contention.
Another design objective was to use standard components.
The servers support standard PCI Express (Generation 3) adapters, and
have RJ-45 copper Ethernet interfaces on board. The chipsets that are used
in the server were selected with broad industry acceptance in mind.
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IBM NeXtScale System Planning and Implementation Guide