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Chapter 3
3. System Overview
This chapter provides an overview of the physical and architectural aspects of your SGI Altix 450
system. The major components of the Altix 450 series systems are described and illustrated.
The Altix 450 series is a family of multiprocessor distributed shared memory (DSM) computer
systems that initially scale from 2 to 76 Intel 64-bit processor cores as a cache-coherent single
system image (SSI). Contact your SGI sales or service representative for the most current
information on this topic.
In a DSM system, each processor board contains memory that it shares with the other processors
in the system. Because the DSM system is modular, it combines the advantages of low entry-level
cost with global scalability in processors, memory, and I/O. You can install and operate the Altix
450 series system in your lab or server room. Each 20U SGI rack holds from one to four 5U high
enclosures that support up to five compute/memory and I/O sub modules known as “blades.”
These blades are single printed circuit boards (PCBs) with ASICS, processors, memory
components and I/O chipsets mounted on a mechanical carrier. The blades slide directly into and
out of the Altix 450 IRU enclosures.
This chapter consists of the following sections:
• “System Models” on page 68
• “System Architecture” on page 70
• “System Features” on page 72
• “System Components” on page 76
Figure 3-1 shows the front view of a 20U rack used to house the Altix 450 system.