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Combining high-performance architecture with high-performance Xeon processors
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2
business needs and growth. In addition, the x3850 M2 and x3950 M2 use industry-standard
DDR II memory with Chipkill
™
ECC (Error Checking and Correcting) protection—for high
performance and reliability and lower energy consumption than fully buffered memory. For even
higher levels of availability, the eX4 servers also offer Memory ProteXion
™
, memory
scrubbing, and selectable memory mirroring. A dual-port integrated high-speed Gigabit
Ethernet controller with TOE (TCP Offload Engine) is standard, as are seven high-performance
PCIe x8 adapter slots (two of them hot-plug).
The x3850 M2 and x3950 M2 offer industry-leading scalability, including quad-processor
support (upgradeable to 16 processors/96 cores), up to 256GB of memory per chassis
(upgradeable to 1TB overall), 256MB of L4 cache per chassis (upgradeable to 1GB), and up to
four 2.5-inch internal high-performance Serial-Attach SCSI (SAS) hot-swap hard disk drives
with an internal storage capacity of 587.2GB per chassis (up to 16 drives and 2.3TB overall).
Hardware-based RAID-0/1 support is standard. An optional IBM ServeRAID-MR10k SAS RAID
controller adds 256MB of battery-backed cache to the onboard controller to provide five
additional RAID levels, including RAID-10/5/50/6/60. The 4U size of the chassis helps you
maximize your rack investments. Up to 10 of these chassis can be installed in a single 42U rack,
for a total of up to 40 processors, 70 PCIe slots (20 of them hot-plug), and 40 HDDs, offering an
ideal balance of performance, storage and I/O slots per rack. Optional Advanced Connectivity
Technology (ACT) interconnect cabling helps reduce cable clutter and cost and minimizes
installation time when interconnecting many rack-mounted servers.
Standard in both the x3850 M2 and the x3950 M2 is the Remote Supervisor Adapter II that
communicates with the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) to enable the user to
manage and control the server easily—both locally and remotely. This high level of
manageability is designed to help keep management costs down and the system up. The drop-
down light path diagnostics panel enables quick servicing of the system if a problem develops.
These advanced features help maximize network availability by increasing uptime, as do hot-
swap/redundant HDDs, power and fans; Active Memory
™
; temperature-controlled fans with
Calibrated Vectored Cooling
™
; IPMI 2.0 support, including highly secure remote power
control and Serial over LAN; as well as text- and graphics-console redirect over LAN.
With the inclusion of unique IBM service and support features such as IBM Systems Director,
IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager™ for x86 (formerly known as
PowerExecutive), and IBM ServerGuide
™
, the x3850/x950 M2 is designed for maximum
uptime.
If you need a balance of high-performance four-socket processing, scalability beyond eight
sockets, and large I/O capacity in a rack-dense environment, these are the ideal systems.
Key Highlights
eX4 Design Features
eX4 design offers numerous features per chassis to boost performance and reduce product and
operating costs:
• Support for up to four Intel Xeon processors with four 1066MHz front side buses and 4MB-
to-16MB of integrated Level 2 cache (model dependant), 8MB, 12MB, or 16MB of external
L3 cache (model dependant), Intel VT technology, and Intel EM64T technology
• Supports Xeon six-core, quad-core or dual-core processors (scalable to 16 processors
and 32-to-96 cores, using the ScaleXpander Option Kit)
• A built-in ‘snoop’ filter to lower the amount of inter-processor communication needed in an
SMP system
• Fast PC2-5300 DDR II ECC memory with Chipkill error correction, Memory ProteXion
™
(redundant bit steering), memory scrubbing, selectable memory mirroring, and hot-
add/hot-swap memory protection provides speed and high availability
• Seven 64-bit high-speed (4Gbps) PCIe x8 adapter slots offer investment protection by
supporting high-performance adapters, such as 10Gb Ethernet, Fibre Channel and
InfiniBand cards; the two Active
™
PCIe hot-plug slots help increase system availability
• Up to 587.2GB of internal SAS storage using four 2.5-inch HDDs per chassis (scalable to
2.3TB using the ScaleXpander Option Kit)
• Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) and Remote Supervisor Adapter II standard
• Support for an optional ServeRAID-MR10k RAID controller that supports RAID-
0/1/10/5/50/6, and 60
IBM System x3850 M2-specific
• A 4U rack-optimized model (expandable to 16U using a ScaleXpander Option Kit and
three additional chassis)
• Installing the ScaleXpander Option Kit turns the x3850 M2 into an x3950 M2 (including a
new bezel, cable management arm, and scalability “key”)
• 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Key with VMware ESXi preinstalled (in selected models)