IBM BladeCenter HS23 Product Manual page 3

Intel Hyper-Threading Technology boosts performance for multi-threaded applications by enabling
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simultaneous multi-threading within each processor core, up to two threads per core.
Intel Virtualization Technology integrates hardware-level virtualization hooks that allow operating
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system vendors to better utilize the hardware for virtualization workloads.
Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (AVT) significantly improve floating point performance for
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compute-intensive technical and scientific applications compared with Intel Xeon 5600 series
processors.
Up to 16 DDR3 ECC memory RDIMMs provide speeds up to 1600 MHz and a memory capacity of up
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to 256 GB. (See Table 7 for details.)
The theoretical maximum memory bandwidth of the Intel Xeon processor E5 family is 51.6 GBps,
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which is 60% more than in the previous generation of Intel Xeon processors.
The use of solid-state drives (SSDs) instead of or along with traditional spinning drives (HDDs) can
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significantly improve I/O performance. An SSD can support up to 100 times more I/O operations per
second (IOPS) than a typical HDD.
The HS23 scales to 18 I/O ports on a single-wide blade with integrated Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gb
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Ethernet ports and optional expansion cards, offering the choice of Ethernet, Fibre Channel, SAS,
iSCSI, and FCoE connectivity.
The HS23 offers PCI Express 3.0 I/O expansion capabilities that improve the theoretical maximum
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bandwidth by 60% (8 GT/s per link), compared with the previous generation of PCI Express 2.0.
With Intel Integrated I/O Technology, the PCI Express 3.0 controller is integrated into the Intel Xeon
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processor E5 family. This helps to dramatically reduce I/O latency and increase overall system
performance.
Manageability and security
Powerful systems management features simplify local and remote management of the HS23:
The HS23 includes an Integrated Management Module II (IMM2) to monitor server availability and
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perform remote management.
Integrated industry-standard Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) enables improved setup,
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configuration, and updates, and simplifies error handling.
Integrated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 support enables advanced cryptographic functionality,
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such as digital signatures and remote attestation.
Industry-standard AES NI support for faster, stronger encryption.
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IBM Systems Director is included for proactive systems management. It offers comprehensive
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systems management tools that help to increase up-time, reduce costs, and improve productivity
through advanced server management capabilities.
Open Fabric Manager simplifies deployment of infrastructure connections by managing network and
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storage address assignments.
IBM FastSetup simplifies, automates, and speeds up the deployment process from server power-up
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to production, making BladeCenter easier to manage, deploy, and maintain.
Intel Execute Disable Bit functionality can help prevent certain classes of malicious buffer overflow
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attacks when combined with a supporting operating system.
Intel Trusted Execution Technology provides enhanced security through hardware-based resistance
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to malicious software attacks, allowing an application to run in its own isolated space protected from
all other software running on a system.
IBM BladeCenter HS23 3