Implementing InfiniBand on IBM System p

40 Implementing InfiniBand on IBM System p

3.5 Supported System p servers

Using InfiniBand technology on System p requires selected machines. Only GX

adapters are supported. Refer to Table 3-5 for a overview of machines supported

with InfiniBand adapters.

Table 3-5 supported System p and IB adapter feature codes (FC)

The GX adapters offer higher bandwidth than PCI adapters. They plug directly

into the GX bus, which is only available on selected System p5 models. The GX

bus is directly connected to the system backplane (together with the processors

and the memory. This bus is also used for RIO-2 connectivity to connect

expansion I/O drawers (that also contains PCI slots). The GX slots are used for

the 4x and 12x InfiniBand adapters.

In order to get the GX bus activated on System p systems 9113-550 and

9117-570, a second processor card must be installed. It is not mandatory to have

all processors activated (processors installed as CUoD is OK); the only

requirement is to have them physically installed into the CEC.

Currently, only the 9119-590/595 offers support for the IBM GX Dual-port 12x IB

HCA adapter, which uses different cables than the 4x adapters used to connect

to the InfiniBand switch.

For the latest information, check the manual System p and eServer pSeries:

Clustering systems using InfiniBand hardware, which can be retrieved online at:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/eserver/v1r3s/topic/iphau/infi

nbdpdf.pdf

Machine type Speed Adapter feature

code (FC)

Maximum number of

adapters per system

9131-52A 4x 1812 1

9113-550

4x 1809

1

9133-55A 1

9116-561

4x 1810

1

9117-570 1

9118-575 4x 1811 1

9119-590

12x 7820

4

9119-595 4