Dell
PowerEdge M1000e Technical Guide 36
7 Midplane
Though hidden from view in an actively running system, the midplane is the focal point for all
connectivity within the M1000e Modular System. The midplane is a large printed circuit board
providing power distribution, fabric connectivity, and system management infrastructure.
Additionally it allows airflow paths for the front-to-back cooling system through ventilation holes.
Figure 29. Midplane
As is requisite for fault-tolerant systems, the M1000e midplane is completely passive, with no hidden
stacking midplanes or interposers with active components. I/O fabrics and system management are
fully redundant from each hot pluggable item. The system management Ethernet fabric is fully
redundant when two CMCs are installed, with two point-to-point connections from each server
module.
The midplane serves as transport for a patent-pending, time-division–multiplexed serial bus for
general purpose I/O reduction. This serial bus contributes greatly to the midplane’s I/O lane count
reduction, which is typically burdened with a significant I/O pin and routing channel count of largely
static or low-speed functions. For instance, all Fibre Channel I/O Passthrough module LED and SFP
status information is carried over this bus, which alone eliminates over one hundred point-to-point
connections that would otherwise be required. The time division multiplexed serial bus is fully
redundant, with health monitoring, separate links per CMC and error checking across all data.
To Next Page
Loading...
