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 input/output (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 open blade architecture products in the information technology (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 blade.org.
The open architecture is available to enable companies to develop and build compatible blades, networking and storage switches, and blade adapter cards (daughter cards). Hardware developers can now more easily develop and build compatible blade products in these categories and participate in the rapidly growing blades market served by the IBM BladeCenter by utilizing the Blade Open Specification ([http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/resources/signin.html BOS]).
The BladeCenter (E) was originally co-developed by IBM and Intel.
Versions
IBM BladeCenter (E)
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, 2000 and the current 2320 watt.
Originally the Shared Media tray had a Floppy drive and USB 1.1. With the 2009 refresh the Floppy drive was removed and USB was upgraded to version 2.0
Features
14 blade slots in 7U
(old) Shared Media tray with Optical Drive, Floppy Drive and USB 1.1 port
(new) Shared Media tray with Optical Drive and USB 2.0 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 (48 V) power. Has 8 blade slots in 8U, but supports the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter E. To keep NEBS Level 3 / ETSI compliant special Network Equipment-Building System (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 10 Gbit 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 (48 V) 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 / ETSI 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
Modules based on x86 processors from Intel.
HS12
Features $999 starting price
Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors up to 2.83 GHz
Six DIMM slots (up to 24 GB)
Hot-swap drives
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 Serial Attached SCSI (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 (10 Gbit 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 (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X as well as additional Fibre-Channel or Ethernet ports)
HS22
Features One or two Intel Xeon 5500 series processors (up to 2.93 GHz)
Twelve DDR3 VLP DIMM slots (up to 96 GB of total memory capacity)
Option for two hot swap SAS 2.5" drives or Solid State drives (RAID 0 and 1 is supported)
Two Gigabit Ethernet ports (Broadcom 5709S)
1 CIOv slot (standard PCI-Express daughter card) and 1 CFFh slot (high-speed PCI-Express daughter card) for a total of 8 ports of I/O to each blade, including 4 ports of high-speed I/O
HS40
Features Double-wide (needs 2 slots)
One to four Intel Xeon MP processors
Eight 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 (8 GB Max)
NVidia video adapter
One SATA 60 GB HDD
Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
AMD based
Modules based on x86 processors from AMD.
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 for up to 32 GB of RAM
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 (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
LS22
Upgraded model of LS21.
Features: One or two AMD Opteron processors (quad or hex-core)
Eight DIMM slots for up to 64 GB of RAM
Option for two 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 (10 Gbit 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 for up to 64GB of RAM
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 (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
LS42
Upgraded model of LS41.
Features Double-wide (needs 2 slots)
One to four AMD Opteron processors (quad or hex-core)
Sixteen DIMM slots for up to 64 GB of RAM
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 (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
Power based
Modules based on Power Architecture processors from IBM.
JS20
Features Supports AIX or Linux
Two PowerPC 970 processors at 1.6 or 2.2 GHz
Four DIMM slots for PC2700 ECC memory (max 8 GB)
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 PowerPC 970FX single-core processors at 2.7 GHz or two PowerPC 970MP dual-core processors at 2.5 GHz
Four DIMM slots for PC2-3200 or PC2-4200 ECC memory (max 16 GB)
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 (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
JS22
Features Supports IBM i, AIX or Linux
Supports virtualization, offering Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) capabilities.
Two POWER6 dual-core processors at 4.0 GHz
Four DIMM slots ECC Chipkill DDR2 SDRAM memory (max 32 GB)
One 2.5" SAS drive up to 146 GB
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 (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
JS23
Features Supports IBM i, AIX or Linux
Supports virtualization, offering Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) capabilities.
Two POWER6 dual-core processors at 4.2 GHz
64 MB L3 cache (32 per processor)
Four DIMM slots ECC Chipkill DDR2 SDRAM memory (max 64 GB)
One 2.5" SAS up to 300 GB or one 69 GB SSD drive
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 (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
One PCIe expansion slot
JS43 Express
Features Supports IBM i, AIX or Linux
Supports virtualization, offering Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) capabilities.
Four POWER6 dual-core processors at 4.2 GHz
128 MB L3 cache (32 per processor)
Eight DIMM slots ECC Chipkill DDR2 SDRAM memory (max 128 GB)
Zero to two 2.5" SAS up to 300 GB or zero to two 69 GB SSD drives
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 (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
Two PCIe expansion slots
Double-wide form factor
JS12 Express
Features Supports IBM i, AIX or Linux
Supports virtualization, offering Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) capabilities.
One POWER6 dual-core processor at 3.8 GHz
Eight DIMM slots ECC Chipkill DDR2 SDRAM memory (max 64 GB)
Zero to two 2.5" SAS drive up to 146 GB
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 (4 Gbit/s Fibre Channel, iSCSI, or InfiniBand 4X)
Cell based
Modules based on Cell processors from IBM.
QS20
Features Double-wide (needs 2 slots)
Supports Linux
Two Cell processors at 3.2 GHz
1 GB XDRAM Memory (512 MB per processor)
40 GB IDE100 2.5" drive
Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
Optional InfiniBand 4X connectivity
QS21
Features Single-wide
Supports Linux
Two Cell processors at 3.2 GHz
2 GB Memory (1 GB 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 (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
QS22
Features Single-wide
Supports Linux
Two PowerXCell 8i processors at 3.2 GHz
Up to 32 GB of DDR2 SDRAM RAM memory
Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
Expansion slots for SAS daughter card, InfiniBand 4X DDR daughter card and 8 GB uFDM Flash Drive
Advanced Network
PN41
Developed in conjunction with CloudShield, features Single-wide
Full payload screening with Deep packet inspection (DPI)
Full Layer 7 processing and control
User programmability using Eclipse-based IDE and RAVE open development language
Carrier-class scalability with quad 1 Gbit + quad 10 Gbit Ethernet controllers
In-line reliability
Up to 20 Gbps DPI throughput per blade
Selective traffic capture, rewrite and redirect
LAN and WAN Interfaces supported
UltraSPARC based
T2BC
Features Supports Sun Solaris
One UltraSPARC T2 with 64 threads at 1.2 GHz
Up to 32 GB of DDR2 SDRAM processor memory
Roadrunner TriBlade
Features Two QS22 Cell blades with 8 GB RAM each
One LS21 Opteron blade with 16 GB RAM
One Expansion blade
Four slots wide
Custom made module for the Roadrunner supercomputer design. An expansion blade connects two QS22 modules via four PCIe x8 links to a LS21 module, two links for each QS22. It also provides outside connectivity via an Infiniband 4x DDR adapter. This makes a total width of four slots for a single TriBlade. Three TriBlades fit into one BladeCenter H chassis.
Switch 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, BNT (a spin out from 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 BNT switch is also available with external 10 Gbit connectivity.
Storage Area Network
A variety of SAN switch modules have been produced by QLogic, Cisco, McData (acquired by Brocade) and Brocade ranging in speeds of 1, 2, 4 and 8 Gbit 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 (2.5 Gbit). 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 40 Gbit.
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 BNT. This allows 10 Gbit connectivity to each blade, and external to the BladeCenter.
InfiniBand 4X
Several InfiniBand options exist A high-speed InfiniBand 4X SDR switch module 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 80 Gbit. Internally between the blades, the switch is non-blocking.
A High-speed InfiniBand pass-through module to directly connect the blades to an external InfiniBand switch. This pass-though module is compatible with both SDR and DDR InfiniBand speeds.
A high-speed InfiniBand 4X QDR switch module from Voltaire. This allows full IB 4X QDR connectivity to each blade. Externally the switch has 16 QSFP ports, all 4X QDR capable.
Translation of "IBM BladeCenter"
Japanese: BladeCenter.
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