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Originally published at Internet.comThe Sun Blade 8000 system is a 19U rackmount chassis that accepts up to 10 64-bit AMD-based server blades, 20 independent I/O modules, 4 network I/O modules (NEMs), 6 hot-swappable power supplies (in a 3x3 redundant grid), and 12 hot-swappable fan modules (9 rear, 3 front). The blades run Solaris (10), Linux (Red Hat EL AS 4 32/64; SLES 9/10), Windows (Server 2003 32/64), and VMware (ESX Server 3.0.1) operating systems. Each chassis additionally contains a single Chassis Monitoring Module (a redundant module is available) and is bundled with the vendor's N1 System Manager software for centralized discovery, provisioning, and management of multiple systems.
At the core of the 8000 system are the server blades themselves, which are now offered in two flavors: The X8420 and X8440.
The X8420 houses up to 4 dual-core AMD series 800 processors (870, 875, or 885) thus allowing for up to 80 cores per 8000 chassis. Each blade accommodates up to 16 GB of RAM per socket (64 GB total per blade), with 6 I/O ports per blade allowing it to connect to 2 independent PCIe-based I/O modules (modules that support I/O for this module only, up to 20 such modules can be loaded into the chassis); and 4 PCIe-based network I/O modules. Each X8420 can also include a pair of internal 2.5" SAS or SATA drives, with support for RAID 0 or 1 configurations.
The new X8440 houses the 8000-series line of AMD-processors. Currently available blades include the dual-core 8222 processors (3.0 GHz), with the vendor noting that support for quad-core 8300 series processors will be available by the end of the year. Up to 128 GB of RAM can be loaded per server blade, and each blade supports 6 PCIe-based I/O module connections (2 independent and 4 network, as in the X8240). Dual internal hard drive interfaces (SAS/SATA) leverage an LSI SAS1064E controller to each of two SFF drive bays (again, RAID 0/1 are supported). An additional feature noted by the vendor specifically for the X8440 is support for AMDs Dual Dynamic Power Management, which allows the cores and memory controllers to operate on different voltages, determined by usage.
Available direct I/O modules for the chassis include dual-port GigE (copper/fiber), dual-port 4 Gb/sec FC (Emulex or QLogic), dual-port 4x InfiniBand, and dual-port 10 Gig fiber. For the network I/O modules (NEMs), 20-port GigE or 4 Gb/sec FC modules are available, as is a 10-port 4x InfiniBand module. The network modules appear to the server blades as a standard PCIe adapter. A separate and specialized chassis configuration-the Sun Blade 8000 P-reduces the available I/O options to 2 per server blade (to the NEMs only) towards the goal of supporting more chassis (up to 3) per rack (the standard 8000 chassis configuration supports only two chassis per rack).
The Sun Blade 8000 chassis is available now; with the X8420 and X8440 loaded with dual-core AMD processors. Quad-core X8440 server modules are expected by the end of the year. Entry level pricing for the X8440 server modules is $12,785 per server module.
Visit the Sun Microsystems Web site for further information.Author: EITPlanet Staff
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