IBM System Blue Gene Solution: Blue Gene/Q Hardware Overview and Installation Planning

Book description


This document is one of a series of IBM® Redbooks® written specifically for the IBM System Blue Gene® supercomputer, IBM Blue Gene/Q®. Blue Gene/Q is the third generation of massively parallel supercomputers from IBM in the Blue Gene series. This document provides an overview of components that comprise a Blue Gene/Q system. It helps System Planners and Customer Engineers plan for the installation of the Blue Gene/Q system. Information is provided about the physical requirements for the machine room where the Blue Gene/Q system is to be located. Examples of these requirements include floor (weight and cutouts), cooling, and electrical specifications.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. Preface
    1. The team who wrote this book
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  4. Chapter 1. Overview of Blue Gene/Q components
    1. 1.1 Blue Gene/Q system overview
    2. 1.2 Blue Gene/Q hardware overview
    3. 1.3 Compute card
    4. 1.4 Node board
      1. 1.4.1 Node board torus
    5. 1.5 Midplane
      1. 1.5.1 Midplane torus
    6. 1.6 Service card
    7. 1.7 I/O drawer
      1. 1.7.1 I/O links
      2. 1.7.2 PCIe adapter
    8. 1.8 Clock fanout card
    9. 1.9 Compute rack
    10. 1.10 I/O rack
    11. 1.11 Cables
  5. Chapter 2. Blue Gene/Q interconnect buses
    1. 2.1 Interconnection from compute card to compute card
    2. 2.2 Interconnection from compute card to I/O compute card
    3. 2.3 Interconnection from I/O drawer to federated switch
    4. 2.4 Interconnection from service node to compute card and I/O compute card
    5. 2.5 Interconnection from I/O node used as front end node to federated switch
    6. 2.6 Blue Gene/Q local memory bus
      1. 2.6.1 Memory size
  6. Chapter 3. Installation planning
    1. 3.1 Blue Gene/Q basic installation requirements
    2. 3.2 Rack dimensions
      1. 3.2.1 Compute rack layout configurations
      2. 3.2.2 I/O drawer and rack layout configurations
      3. 3.2.3 Service clearance
      4. 3.2.4 Acoustics
    3. 3.3 Power and electrical requirements
      1. 3.3.1 Power cords and circuit breaker
      2. 3.3.2 Power consumption
    4. 3.4 Uninterruptible power supply
    5. 3.5 Thermal requirements
      1. 3.5.1 Rack heat load and cooling requirements
      2. 3.5.2 Air environmental requirements
    6. 3.6 Rack-level and facility-level water leak detection
    7. 3.7 Water and water infrastructure requirements for systems using CDUs
    8. 3.8 Water and water infrastructure requirements for systems using facility water loops
      1. 3.8.1 Piping
      2. 3.8.2 Valves
      3. 3.8.3 Filtration
      4. 3.8.4 Pressure regulation and balancing
      5. 3.8.5 Water chemical treatment
    9. 3.9 Customer responsibilities for water
      1. 3.9.1 Overview
      2. 3.9.2 Unique Blue Gene/Q Requirements
    10. 3.10 Hose placement and installation
  7. Chapter 4. Site layout requirements
    1. 4.1 Raised floor preparations and requirements
    2. 4.2 Grounding
      1. 4.2.1 Verifying the grounding impedance and the power source
    3. 4.3 Cable trays and cabling
      1. 4.3.1 Below-floor cabling
      2. 4.3.2 Above-floor cabling
      3. 4.3.3 Cable tray size calculation
    4. 4.4 Particulate contamination and air quality
    5. 4.5 Homologation statement
  8. Chapter 5. Water treatment specification
    1. 5.1 Water-related problems
      1. 5.1.1 Corrosion
      2. 5.1.2 Scaling
      3. 5.1.3 Fouling
      4. 5.1.4 Microbiological growth
    2. 5.2 Avoiding water-related problems
    3. 5.3 Water quality chemical requirements
    4. 5.4 Plumbing material requirements
    5. 5.5 Water quality requirements
    6. 5.6 Water dosing and testing equipment
    7. 5.7 Predelivery water treatment protocol
    8. 5.8 Materials required for site system startup
    9. 5.9 Initial site water system startup
      1. 5.9.1 Initial treatment procedure for systems of 20 gallons or less
      2. 5.9.2 Initial treatment procedure for systems of greater than 20 gallons
    10. 5.10 Water system monitoring and maintenance
    11. 5.11 Adding additional racks to an existing system
    12. 5.12 Refreshing the system-side water
    13. 5.13 Readying the system for movement or storage
    14. 5.14 Disposing of de-ionizing cartridges
    15. 5.15 Disposing of water
    16. 5.16 Troubleshooting
    17. 5.17 Nalco contact information
  9. Appendix A. Installation tools
    1. A.1 Alum-a-lift tool
  10. Glossary
  11. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Other publications
    3. Online resources
    4. How to get Redbooks
    5. Help from IBM
  12. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: IBM System Blue Gene Solution: Blue Gene/Q Hardware Overview and Installation Planning
  • Author(s): James Milano, Pamela Lembke
  • Release date: May 2013
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: None