Chipset Overview - Supermicro SuperO X8DTL-3 User Manual

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Chipset Overview

Built upon the functionality and the capability of the 5500 platform, the X8DTL-3/
X8DTL-i/X8DTL-3F/X8DTL-iF motherboard provides the performance and fea-
ture set required for dual-processor-based high-end systems with confi guration
optimized for HCP/Cluster systems and intensive applications. The 5500 platform
consists of the 5500 Series (LGA 1366) processor, the 5500 (North Bridge), and
the ICH10R (South Bridge). With the Intel QuickPath interconnect (QPI) controller
built in, the 5500 platform is the fi rst dual-processing platform that offers the next
generation point-to-point system interconnect interface, replacing the current Front
Side Bus Technology, substantially enhancing system performance with increased
bandwidth and scalability.
The 5500 North Bridge connects to each processor through an independent
QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) link. Each link consists of 20 pairs of unidirec-
tional differential lanes for transmission and receiving in addition to a differential
forwarded clock. A full-width QPI link pair provides 84 signals. Each processor
supports two QuickPath links, one going to the other processor and the other to
the 5500 (North Bridge).
The 5500 Platform supports up to 36 PCI Express Gen2 lanes, peer-to-peer read
and write transactions. The ICH10R provides up to 6 PCI-Express ports, six SATA
ports and 10 USB connections.
In addition, the 5500 platform also offers a wide range of RAS (Reliability, Avail-
ability and Serviceability) features. These features include memory interface ECC,
x4/x8 Single Device Data Correction (SDDC), Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC),
parity protection, out-of-band register access via SMBus, memory mirroring, and
Hot-plug support on the PCI-Express Interface.
Main Features of the 5500 Series Processor and the 5500
Chipset
•
Four processor cores in each processor with 8MB shared cache among cores
•
Two full-width Intel QuickPath interconnect links, up to 6.4 GT/s of data transfer
rate in each direction
•
Virtualization Technology, Integrated Management Engine supported
•
Point-to-point cache coherent interconnect, Fast/narrow unidirectional links, and
Concurrent bi-directional traffi c
•
Error detection via CRC and Error correction via Link level retry
Chapter 1: Introduction
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