IBM BladeCenter


The IBM BladeCenter was IBM's blade server architecture, until it was replaced by Flex System in 2012. The x86 division was later sold to Lenovo in 2014.
Image:bladecenter-back.jpg|thumb|400px|BladeCenter E back side, showing on the left two FC switches and two Ethernet switches. On the right side a management module with VGA and PS/2 keyboard and mouse cables connected.
Image:UPM-CeSViMa-SupercomputadorMagerit.jpg|thumb|400px|Magerit supercomputer has 86 Blade Centers

History

Introduced in 2002, based on engineering work started in 1999, the IBM eServer BladeCenter was relatively late to the blade server market. It differed from prior offerings in that it offered a range of x86 Intel server processors and input/output options.
The naming was changed to IBM BladeCenter in 2005. In February 2006, IBM introduced the BladeCenter H with switch capabilities for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and InfiniBand 4X.
A web site called Blade.org was available for the blade computing community through about 2009.
In 2012, the replacement Flex System was introduced.

Enclosures

IBM BladeCenter (E)

The original IBM BladeCenter was later marketed as BladeCenter E. Power supplies have been upgraded through the life of the chassis from the original 1200 to 1400, 1800, 2000 and 2320 watt.
The BladeCenter was co-developed by IBM and Intel and included:
BladeCenter T is the telecommunications company version of the original BladeCenter, available with either AC or DC power. Has 8 blade slots in 8U, but uses the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter E. To keep NEBS Level 3 / ETSI compliant special Network Equipment-Building System compliant blades are available.

IBM BladeCenter H

Upgraded BladeCenter design with high-speed fabric options, announced in 2006. Backwards compatible with older BladeCenter switches and blades. Features:
  • 14 blade slots in 9U
  • Shared Media tray with Optical drive and USB 2.0 port
  • 1 Advanced Management modules
  • Two slots for Gigabit Ethernet switches
  • Two slots for optional switch or pass-through modules, can have additional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or Myrinet 2000 functions
  • Four slots for optional high-speed switches or pass-through modules, can have 10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X.
  • Optional Hard-wired serial port capability
  • Power: Two power supplies, with Souriau UTG input connectors
  • Two redundant high-speed blowers

    IBM BladeCenter HT

BladeCenter HT is the telecommunications company version of the BladeCenter H, available with either AC or DC power. Has 12 blade slots in 12U, but uses the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter H. But to keep NEBS Level 3 / ETSI compliant special NEBS compliant blades are available.

IBM BladeCenter S

Targets mid-sized customers by offering storage inside the BladeCenter chassis, so no separate external storage needs to be purchased. It can also use 120V power in the North American market, so it can be used outside the datacenter. When running at 120V, the total chassis capacity is reduced. Features:
  • 6 blade slots in 7U
  • Shared Media tray with optical drive and 2× USB 2.0 ports
  • 1 Advanced Management module as standard
  • Storage: Up to 12 hot-swap 3.5" SAS or SATA drives with RAID 0, 1, and 1E capability
  • * Two optional Disk Storage Modules for HDDs, six 3.5" SAS/SATA drives each
  • 4 hot-swap I/O switch module bays
  • Power: Two 950/1450-watt, hot-swap modules and ability to have two optional 950/1450-watt modules, offering redundancy and power for robust configurations; C19/C20 connectors
  • Four hot-swap redundant blowers

    Blade nodes list

Intel based

Modules based on x86 processors from Intel.

HS12

Features:
  • Processor: Celeron single-core 445 to quad-core Intel Xeon up to 2.83GHz
  • Memory: 6 DIMM slots
  • Hot-swap drives

    HS20

Features:
Image:IBM HS20 blade server.jpg|400px|thumb|Inside of IBM HS20 blade. Two 2.5 inch disk drive bays are unoccupied.
  • Processors: One or two Intel Xeon DP
  • Memory: 4 DIMM slots
  • Option for one or two 2.5" drives
  • Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
  • One expansion slot for up to two additional ports

    HS21

This model can use the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards-compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features:
  • Processors: One or two Intel Xeon DP
  • Memory: 4 DIMM slots
  • Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives
  • Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
  • One expansion slot for up to two additional ports
  • One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports

    HS21 XM

This model can use the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features:
  • Processors: One or two Intel Xeon DP
  • Memory: 8 DIMM slots
  • Option for one SAS 2.5" drive or one or two SAS-based Solid State drives
  • Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
  • One expansion slot for up to two additional ports
  • One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports

    HS22

Features:
  • Processors: One or two Intel Xeon 5500 or 5600 series
  • Memory: up to 192GB DDR3
  • Option for two hot swap SAS 2.5" drives or SSD
  • Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
  • 1 CIOv slot and 1 CFFh slot for a total of 8 ports of I/O to each blade, including 4 ports of high-speed I/O
  • Requires Advanced Management Module

    HS22v

Features are very similar to HS22 but:
  • Memory: up to 288GB DDR3
  • Up to two 1.8" disks
  • Requires Advanced Management Module

    HS23

Features:
  • Single-wide
  • Processors: One or two Intel Xeon E5-2600 or E5-2600 v2
  • Memory: 16 DIMM slots, up to 1866MHz
  • 2 hot-swappable HDDs or SSDs
  • Dual 10G/1G Ethernet onboard expandable to
  • Virtual Fabric / vNic's onboard
  • Requires Advanced Management Module

    HS23E

Features:
  • Single-wide
  • Processors: One or two Intel Xeon E5-2400
  • Memory: 12 DIMM slots, up to 1600MHz
  • 2 hot-swappable HDDs or SSDs
  • Dual Gigabit Ethernet onboard ports with TOE
  • Requires Advanced Management Module

    HS40

Features:
  • Double-wide
  • Processors: One to four Intel Xeon MP
  • Memory:
  • Option for one or two ATA100 2.5" drives
  • Four 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
  • Two expansion slots for up to four additional ports

    HC10

This blade model is targeted to the workstation market, Features:
  • Processor: Single Intel Core 2 Duo
  • Memory: 8GB max
  • NVidia video adapter
  • One SATA 60GB HDD
  • Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports

    HX5

This blade model is targeted at the server virtualization market. Features:
  • Processors: 2 to 4 Intel E7, 6500 or 7500 series Xeon
  • Memory: 256GB Max ; Expandable to 40 slots with a 24 DIMM MAX 5 memory blade.
  • Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports per blade

    AMD based

Modules based on x86 processors from AMD.

LS20

Features:
  • Processors: One or two AMD Opteron
  • Memory: DDR
  • Option for one or two SCSI U320 2.5" drives
  • Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
  • One expansion slot for up to two additional ports

    LS21

This model can use the high-speed I/O of the BladeCenter H, but is also backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features:
  • Processors: One or two AMD Opteron, support 65nm Quad core after BIOS update
  • Memory: up to 32GB of RAM
  • Option for one SAS or SATA 2.5" drive
  • Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
  • One expansion slot for up to two additional ports
  • One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports

    LS22

Upgraded model of LS21. Features:
  • Processors: One or two 45nm AMD Opteron
  • Memory: up to 64GB of RAM
  • Option for two SAS or SATA 2.5" drive
  • Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
  • One expansion slot for up to two additional ports
  • One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports

    LS41

This model can use the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features:
  • Double-wide
  • Processors: One to four AMD Opteron
  • Memory: up to 64GB of RAM
  • Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives
  • Four Gigabit Ethernet ports
  • Two expansion slots for up to four additional ports
  • One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports
  • Data Storage Capacity ?

    LS42

Upgraded model of LS41. Features:
  • Double-wide
  • Processors: One to 4 AMD Opteron
  • Memory: up to 128GB of RAM
  • Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives
  • Four Gigabit Ethernet ports
  • Two expansion slots for up to four additional ports
  • One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports

    Power based

Modules based on PowerPC- or Power ISA-based processors from IBM.

JS20

Features:
  • Can run AIX or Linux
  • Processors: Two PowerPC 970 at 1.6 or 2.2 GHz
  • Memory: 4 DIMM slots for PC2700 ECC
  • Option for one or two ATA100 2.5" drives
  • Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
  • One expansion slot for up to two additional ports

    JS21

This model can have the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features:
  • Can run AIX or Linux
  • * Can do virtualization, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning capabilities
  • Processors: Two PowerPC 970FX single-core at 2.7 GHz or two PowerPC 970MP dual-core at 2.5 GHz
  • Memory: 4 DIMM slots for PC2-3200 or PC2-4200 ECC
  • Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives
  • Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
  • One expansion slot for up to two additional ports
  • One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports