104 IBM eX5 Implementation Guide
Slots 5 - 7, the onboard Broadcom-based Ethernet dual-port chip and the custom slot for
the RAID controller are on the first PCIe bridge and require that either CPU 1 or 2 is
installed and operational.
Slots 1 - 4 are on the second PCIe bridge and require that either CPU 3 or 4 is installed
and operational.
Table 3-31 shows the order in which to add cards to balance bandwidth between the two PCIe
controllers. However, this installation order assumes that the cards are installed in matched
pairs, or that they have similar throughput capabilities.
Table 3-31 Order for adding cards
Two additional power connectors, one 2x4 and one 2x3, are provided on the planar for
high-power adapters, such as graphics cards. If there is a requirement to use an x16 PCIe
card that is not shown as supported in ServerProven, initiate the SPORE process.
To determine whether a vendor has qualified any x16 cards with the x3850 X5, see IBM
ServerProven at the following website:
http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/serverproven
If the preferred vendor’s logo is displayed, click it to assess options that the vendor has
qualified on the x3850 X5. You can obtain the support caveats for third-party options in
3.12.2, “Optional adapters” on page 107.
In a 2-node configuration, all PCIe slots are available to the operating system that is running
on the complex. They appear as devices on separate PCIe buses.
3.12 I/O cards
This section describes the I/O cards that are suitable for the x3850 X5.
3.12.1 Standard Emulex 10Gb Ethernet Adapter
As described in 3.3, “Models” on page 64, most models include the Emulex 10Gb Ethernet
Adapter as standard. The card is installed in PCIe slot 7. Slot 7 is a nonstandard x8 slot,
which is slightly longer than normal, and it is shown in Figure 3-26 on page 105.
Installation order PCIe slot Slot width Slot bandwidth
a
a. This column correctly shows bandwidth expressed as GB for gigabyte or Gb for gigabit. 10
bits of traffic correspond to 1 byte of data due to the 8:10 encoding scheme. A single PCIe
2.0 lane provides a unidirectional bandwidth of 500 MBps or 5 Gbps.
1 1 x16 PCIe slot 8 GBps (80 Gbps)
2 5 x8 PCIe slot 4 GBps (40 Gbps)
3 3 x8 PCIe slot 4 GBps (40 Gbps)
4 6 x8 PCIe slot 4 GBps (40 Gbps)
5 4 x8 PCIe slot 4 GBps (40 Gbps)
6 7 x8 PCIe slot 4 GBps (40 Gbps)
7 2 x4 PCIe slot 2 GBps (20 Gbps)
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