IBM BladeCenter

The IBM BladeCenter is IBM's blade server architecture.

History

Originally introduced in 2002, based on engineering work started in 1999, the IBM BladeCenter was a relative late comer to the blade market. But, it differed from prior offerings in that it supported the full range of high powered x86 Intel server processors and a variety of high performance I/O options. In February 2006, IBM introduced the BladeCenter H with High-speed switch capabilities for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and InfiniBand 4X.It is one of the leading blade architecture solutions in the IT market, with a focus on processor, memory, and I/O configurability delivered with multi-generational forward- and backward-compatibility through collaboration with major IT players including [http://www.blade.org blade.org] .

The BladeCenter is OEMed by Intel as the company's Enterprise Blade Server line.

IBM BladeCenter Versions

IBM BladeCenter

This is the original IBM BladeCenter, now marketed as BladeCenter E with 14 blade slots in 7U. Power supplies have been upgraded through the life of the chassis from the original 1200 to 1400, 1800 and the current 2000Watt.
* Features
** 14 blade slots in 7U
** Shared Media tray with Optical Drive, Floppy Drive and USB 1.1 port
** One (upgradable to two) Management Modules
** Two (upgradable to four) Power supplies
** Two redundant High-speed blowers
** Two slots for Gigabit ethernet switches (can also support optical or copper pass-through)
** Two slots for optional switch or pass-through modules, can support additional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or Myrinet 2000 functions.

IBM BladeCenter T

This is the Telco version of the original IBM BladeCenter, available with either AC or DC (48v) power. Has 8 blade slots in 8U, but supports the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter. But to keep NEBS Level 3 compliant special NEBS compliant blades are available.

IBM BladeCenter H

Upgraded BladeCenter design with High-speed fabric options. Fits 14 blades in 9U. Backwards compatible with older BladeCenter switches and blades.
* Features
** 14 blade slots in 9U
** Shared Media tray with Optical Drive and USB 2.0 port
** One (upgradable to two) Advanced Management Modules
** Two (upgradable to four) Power supplies
** Two redundant High-speed blowers
** Two slots for Gigabit ethernet switches (can also support optical or copper pass-through)
** Two slots for optional switch or pass-through modules, can support additional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or Myrinet 2000 functions.
** Four slots for optional high-speed switches or pass-through modules, can support 10Gig Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X.
** Optional Hard-wired serial port capability

IBM BladeCenter HT

This is the Telco version of the IBM BladeCenter H, available with either AC or DC (48v) power. Has 12 blade slots in 12U, but supports the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter H. But to keep NEBS Level 3 compliant special NEBS compliant blades are available.

IBM BladeCenter S

Targets mid-sized customers by offering storage inside the BladeCenter chassis, so no separate external storage needs to be purchased. It can also use 110V power in the North American market, so it can be used outside the datacenter.
* Features
** 6 blade slots in 7U
** Shared Media tray with Optical Drive and USB 2.0 ports
** Up to 12 hot-swap 3.5" SAS or SATA drives with RAID 0, 1 and 1E support

Intel based Blades

HS20

Features
* One or two Intel Xeon DP processors (single or dual-core)
* Four DIMM slots
* Option for one or two 2.5" drives (ATA100, SCSI U320 or SAS depending on generation)
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
* One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)

HS21

This blade model supports the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter

Features
* One or two Intel Xeon DP processors (dual or quad-core)
* Four DIMM slots
* Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
* One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
* One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gig Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

HS21 XM

This blade model supports the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter

Features
* One or two Intel Xeon DP processors (dual or quad-core)
* Eight DIMM slots
* Option for one SAS 2.5" drive or one or two SAS-based Solid State drives
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
* One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
* One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gig Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X as well as additional Fibre-Channel or Ethernet ports)

HS40

Features
* Double-wide (needs 2 slots)
* One to four Intel Xeon MP processors
* Four DIMM slots
* Option for one or two ATA100 2.5" drives
* Four Gigabit Ethernet ports
* Two expansion slots for up to four additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)

HC10

This blade model is targeted to the workstation market

Features
* Single Intel Core 2 Duo processor
* Four DIMM slots (8GB Max)
* NVidia video adapter
* One SATA 60GB HDD
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports

AMD based Blades

LS20

Features
* One or two AMD Opteron processors (single or dual-core)
* Four DIMM slots
* Option for one or two SCSI U320 2.5" drives
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
* One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)

LS21

This blade model supports the high-speed I/O of the BladeCenter H, but is also backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter.

Features:
* One or two AMD Opteron processors (dual-core)
* Eight DIMM slots
* Option for one SAS 2.5" drive
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
* One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
* One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gig Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

LS41

This blade model supports the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter

Features
* Double-wide (needs 2 slots)
* One to four AMD Opteron processors (dual-core)
* Sixteen DIMM slots
* Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives
* Four Gigabit Ethernet ports
* Two expansion slots for up to four additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
* One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gig Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

Power based Blades

JS20

Features
* Supports AIX or Linux
* Two IBM PowerPC 970 processor at 1.6 or 2.2 GHz
* Four DIMM slots for PC2700 ECC memory (max 8GB)
* Option for one or two ATA100 2.5" drives
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
* One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)

JS21

This blade model supports the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter

Features
* Supports AIX or Linux
* Supports virtualization, offering Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) capabilities.
* Two IBM PowerPC 970FX single-core processors at 2.7 GHz or Two IBM PowerPC 970MP dual-core processors at 2.5 GHz
* Four DIMM slots for PC2-3200 or PC2-4200 ECC memory (max 16GB)
* Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
* One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
* One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gig Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

JS22

Features
* Supports AIX or Linux
* Supports virtualization, offering Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) capabilities.
* Two IBM POWER6 dual-core processors at 4.0 GHz
* Four DIMM slots ECC Chipkill DDR2 SDRAM memory (max 32GB)
* One 2.5" SAS drive up to 146GB
* Integrated Virtualization Manager(IVM)
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports card
* One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
* One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gig Ethernet or 4X InfiniBand)

JS12 Express

Features
* Supports IBM i, AIX or Linux
* Supports virtualization, offering Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) capabilities.
* One IBM POWER6 dual-core processors at 3.8 GHz
* Eight DIMM slots ECC Chipkill DDR2 SDRAM memory (max 64GB)
* Zero to two 2.5" SAS drive up to 146GB
* Integrated Virtualization Manager(IVM)
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports, with optionan dual Gbit card
* One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
* One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (4Gbit/s Fibre Channel, iSCSI, or 4X InfiniBand)

Cell based Blades

QS20

Features
* Double-wide (needs 2 slots)
* Supports Linux
* Two IBM Cell processors at 3.2 GHz
* 1GB XDRAM Memory (512MB per processor)
* 40GB IDE100 2.5" drive
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
* Optional InfiniBand 4X connectivity

QS21

Features
* Single-wide
* Supports Linux
* Two IBM Cell processors at 3.2 GHz
* 2GB Memory (1GB per processor)
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
* One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
* One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gig Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

QS22

Features
* Single-wide
* Supports Linux
* Two IBM PowerXCell 8i processors at 3.2 GHz
* Up to 32 GB of DDR2 processor memory
* Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
* Expansion slots for SAS daughter card, InfiniBand 4x DDR daughter card and 8 GB uFDM Flash Drive

UltraSPARC based Blades

T2BC

Features [ cite web|url=http://www.themis.com/prod/t2bc.htm|title=T2BC Blade Servers|date=2008-06-02|publisher=Themis Computer]
* Supports Solaris
* One UltraSPARC T2 with 64 threads at 1.2 GHz
* Up to 32 GB of DDR2 processor memory

witch modules

The BladeCenter supports a total of four switch modules, but two can only be used with Ethernet switches or Ethernet pass-though.

To be able to use the other switch module bays, a daughtercard needs to be installed on each blade that needs it, to provide the required SAN, Ethernet, InfiniBand or Myrinet function. Mixing of different type daughtercards in the same BladeCenter chassis is not supported.

Gigabit Ethernet

A variety of Ethernet switch modules have been produced by IBM, Nortel and Cisco. In all cases speed internal to the BladeCenter, between the blades is non-blocking. External Gigabit ports vary from four to six and can be either copper or fibre. A Nortel switch is also available with external 10Gbit connectivity.

AN

A variety of SAN switch modules have been produced by QLogic,Cisco, McData and Brocade ranging in speeds of 1Gbit, 2Gbit and 4Gbit fibre channel. Speed from the SAN switch to the blade is determined by the lowest-common-denominator between the blade HBA daughtercard and the SAN switch. External port counts vary from two to six, depending on the switch module.

InfiniBand

A InfiniBand switch module has been produced by Cisco. Speed from the blade InfiniBand daughtercard to the switch is limited to IB 1X (2.5Gbit). Externally the switch has one IB 4X and one IB 12X port. The IB 12X port can be split to three IB 4X ports, giving a total of four IB 4X ports and a total theoretical external bandwidth of 40Gbit.

Pass-through

Two different pass-through modules are available, copper pass-through and fibre pass-through. The copper pass-through can only be used with Ethernet, while the Fibre pass-through can be used for Ethernet, SAN or Myrinet.

Bridge

Bridge modules are only compatible with BladeCenter H and BladeCenter HT. They function like Ethernet or SAN switches and bridge the traffic to InfiniBand. The advantage is that from the Operating System on the blade everything seems normal (regular Ethernet or SAN connectivity), but inside the BladeCenter everything gets routed over the InfiniBand.

High-speed switch modules

High-speed switch modules are only compatible with the BladeCenter H and BladeCenter HT. They require that a blade that needs the function has a high-speed daughtercard installed. Mixing of different high-speed daughtercards in the same BladeCenter chassis is not supported.

10 Gigabit Ethernet

A high-speed 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch module is available from Nortel. This allows 10Gbit connectivity to each blade, and external to the BladeCenter.

InfiniBand 4X

A high-speed InfiniBand 4X switch module is available from Cisco. This allows IB 4X connectivity to each blade. Externally the switch has two IB 4X ports and two IB 12X ports. The 12X ports can be split to three 4X ports, providing a total of eight IB 4X ports or a theoretical bandwidth of 80Gbit. Internally between the blades, the switch is non-blocking.

Alternatively a High-speed InfiniBand pass-through module is available to directly connect the blades to an external InfiniBand switch. This pass-though module is compatible with both SDR and DDR InfiniBand speeds.

ee also

* The MareNostrum supercomputer employs the IBM BladeCenter
* Ljubljana Supercomputing Center employs the IBM BladeCenter
* Roadrunner employs the IBM BladeCenter and is the world's first sustained 1.0 petaflops system
* Weta Digital uses IBM BladeCenter to render The Lord of the Rings and other movies

References

External links

* [http://www.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/ IBM BladeCenter homepage]
* [http://www.blade.org/ Blade.org - A Collaborative Community]
* [http://www.intel.com/products/server/blades/ Intel Enterprise Blade Servers homepage]
* [http://www.x4live.com/ x4live.com - Latest News and Links on Modular System x, Modular BladeCenter and Systems Management]