Functional Architecture Intel
®
Server Board S5500BC TPS
Intel order number: E42249-009 Revision 1.8
Two x16 PCI Express* Gen2 ports are also configurable as x8 and x4 links compliant to
the PCI Express* Base Specification, Revision 2.0. Each port supports up to 8
GB/s/direction peak bandwidth.
One x4 Enterprise South Bridge Interface (ESI) link interface.
Support Controller Link interface between the IOH and ICH portions of the
Manageability Engine subsystem.
Manageability Integrated support: Manageability Engine (ME) and external memory
controller for manageability firmware; ME network access; and System Defense Feature
support enabled by firmware.
Reduced Media Independent Interface (RMII) support.
Supports a SMBus Specification Revision 2.0 slave interface for server management
with Packet Error Checking.
Power Management Support
Intel
®
Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel
®
VT-d), Second Revision for
server security.
Integrated IOxAPIC
3.3.1 PCI Express* Gen 2
PCI Express* generation 1 and 2 are dual simplex, point-to-point serial differential low voltage
interconnect. The signaling bit rate is 2.5 Gbit/sec/lane/direction for Generation 1 and 5.0
Gbit/sec/lane/direction for Generation 2.
The Intel
®
S5500 chipset on the Intel
®
Server Board S5500BC provides PCI Express* Gen2
interface. The key features are the following:
Connected to three PCI Express* Gen2 x8 connectors (one with x4 link).
Connected to 82574L GbE with a PCI Express Gen2 x1 link.
Compliant with the PCI Express* 2.0 specification.
3.3.2 Enterprise South Bridge Interface (ESI) Features
The interface between the Intel
®
IOH 5500 chipset and Intel
®
ICH10R is called the Enterprise
South Bridge Interface (ESI). ESI is electrically equivalent to the PCI Express* Generation 1
interface and the routing guidelines are similar.
3.3.3 Controller Link (M-Link)
The Controller Link is the interconnect that connects the north bridge (IOH) to the LAN
Controller in the ICH. The Management Engine (ME) resides in the IOH and communicates with
the ICH LAN Controller through this interface.
3.3.4 Management Engine (ME)
The Management Engine (ME) is an embedded ARC controller within the IOH. The IOH ME
performs manageability functions called Intel
®
Server Platform Services (SPS) for the discrete
Baseboard Management Controller (BMC).