IBM BladeCenter HX5 Implementation Guide

Chapter 3. IBM System x3850 X5 and x3950 X5 69
page 64, Also, you can order the MAX5 separately, as listed in Table 3-6. When ordering a
MAX5, remember to order the cable kit as well. For power supply fault redundancy, order the
optional power supply.
Table 3-6 Ordering information for the IBM MAX5 for System x
The eX5 chip set in the MAX5 is an IBM unique design that attaches to the QPI links as a
node controller, giving it direct access to all CPU bus transactions. It increases the number of
DIMMs supported in a system by a total of 32, and it also adds another 16 channels of
memory bandwidth, boosting overall throughput. Therefore, the MAX5 adds additional
memory and performance.
The eX5 chip connects directly through QPI links to all of the CPUs in the x3850 X5, and it
maintains a directory of each
CPU’s last-level cache. Therefore, when a CPU requests
content stored in the cache of another CPU, the MAX5 not only has that same data stored in
its own cache, it is able to return the acknowledgement of the snoop
and the data to the
requesting CPU in the same transaction. For more information about QPI links and snooping,
see 2.2.4, “QuickPath Interconnect (QPI)” on page 18.
The MAX5 also has EXA scalability ports used in an EXA-scaled configuration (that is, a
2-node and MAX5 configuration). These ports are reserved for future use.
In summary, the MAX5 offers the following major features:
򐂰 Adds 32 DIMM slots to either the x3850 X5 or the x3690 X5
򐂰 Adds 16 channels of memory bandwidth
򐂰 Improves snoop latencies
Figure 3-11 shows a diagram of the MAX5.
Figure 3-11 MAX5 block diagram
Part number Feature code Description
59Y6265 4199 IBM MAX5 for System x
60Y0332 4782 IBM 675W HE Redundant Power Supply
59Y6267 4192 IBM MAX5 to x3850 X5 Cable Kit
SMI
links
DDR3 DIMMs
(Two DIMMs per channel)
Memory
buffer
Memory
buffer
Memory
buffer
Memory
buffer
SMI
links
Memory
buffer
Memory
buffer
Memory
buffer
Memory
buffer
DDR3 DIMMs
(Two DIMMs per channel)
External connectors
QPI QPIQPI QPI EXA EXA EXA
IBM EXA
chip
QPI QPI

IBM BladeCenter HX5 Specifications

General

Brand	IBM
Model	BladeCenter HX5
Category	Server
Language	English