Chapter 4. Performance and Bandwidth Characteristics

This section provides channel bandwidth tables for each of the bricks to help you create a configuration that meets customer requirements for performance, capacity and connectivity. When you configure a system for performance, evaluate the sustained bandwidths of the compute nodes (C-bricks) and the I/O nodes (I-, P-, X-bricks) to determine the sustainable channel bandwidth.

C-brick (Compute Node)

Each C-brick consists of two or four MIPS R12000A processors running at 400 MHz, each with an 8-MB secondary cache. Each processor is capable of executing two floating-point instructions per cycle, which supports a peak speed of 800 MFLOPS. The peak and sustained bandwidths for each of the C-brick's channels are listed in Table 4-1. The memory is a distributed shared memory (DSM) scheme, in which the memory is physically partitioned among the nodes but is accessible by all nodes. Cache coherence is maintained through a directory-based scheme. Refer to “Compute Node (C-brick) ” in Chapter 3 for detailed information on the C-brick.

Table 4-1. Bandwidth Characteristics of the C-brick

Description

PEAK Bandwidth

Sustainable Bandwidth

Link Channel Bandwidth

3.2 GB/s full-duplex
1.6 MB/s each direction

~ 1420 MB/s each direction

Xtown2 Channel Bandwidth

2.4 GB/s full-duplex
1.2 GB/s each direction

~ 1066 MB/s half duplex
~ 1744 MB/s full-duplex
~ 872 MB/s each direction

Main Memory Bandwidth

3200 MB/s

3200 MB/s

SYSAD Bandwidth (each SYSAD)

1600 MB/s

~ 1400 MB/s


D-brick (Fibre Channel Disk)

The D-brick supports a maximum of twelve 3.5-inch Fibre Channel (FC) disk drives. The twelve dual-ported disk drives connect to two Fibre Channel loops. The aggregate channel bandwidth of a Fibre Channel depends on the bandwidth capability of the FC controller and the number and type of FC disk drives on the channel. Refer to Table 4-7 for controller bandwidth values and to Table 4-2 for bandwidth values of individual drives.

Table 4-2. Bandwidth Characteristics of the D-brick

Description

PEAK Bandwidth

 18.2-GB FC Disk Drive (10K RPM)

(TBD)

 36.4-GB FC Disk Drive (10K RPM)

~ 30 MB/s


I-brick (System Boot with PCI Bus)

The I-brick is a Crosstalk-to-PCI based I/O subsystem. It has two 1200-MB/s Xtown2 ports that connect to C bricks. There are five PCI slots that are configured on two buses and two drive bays that support Fibre Channel disk drives. For more information about the I-brick refer to the “System Boot (I-brick) ” in Chapter 3. Refer to Table 4-3 for the peak and sustained bandwidth values.

Table 4-3. Bandwidth Characteristics of the I-brick

Description

Peak Bandwidth

Xtown2 Ports A and B

2 modes, software selectable
800 MB/s or 1200 MB/s

PCI Bus 1 Slots 1 through 3 at 33 MHz

128 MB/s in 32-bit mode
256 MB/s in 64-bit mode

PCI Bus 2 slots 1 and 2 at 66 MHz

256 MB/s in 32-bit mode
512 MB/s in 64-bit mode


P-brick (PCI Expansion)

The P-brick has two 1200-MB/s Xtown2 ports that connect to C-bricks. There are 12 PCI slots that are configured on six buses. For more information about the P-brick, refer to the “PCI Expansion (P-brick)” in Chapter 3. Refer to Table 4-4 for the peak and sustained bandwidth values.

Table 4-4. Bandwidth Characteristics of the P-brick

Description

Peak Bandwidth

Xtown2 Ports A and B

2 modes software selectable
800 MB/s or 1200 MB/s

PCI Bus 1-6 at 66MHz (two slots per bus)

256 MB/s in 32-bit mode
512 MB/s in 64-bit mode


X-brick (XIO Expansion)

The X-brick provides four expansion slots for XIO interface cards, such as HIPPI, DVC, and GSN. For more information about the X-brick, refer to the “XIO Expansion (X-brick) ” in Chapter 3. Refer to Table 4-5 for the bandwidth values.

Table 4-5. Bandwidth Characteristics of the X-brick

Description

Peak Bandwidth

Xtown2 Ports A and B

2 modes, software selectable
800 MB/s or 1200 MB/s

XIO Ports

800 MB/s full-duplex


Supported XIO Cards

The X-brick supports the XIO cards that are listed in Table 4-6 for First Customer Ship (FCS). Additional XIO cards will be added to this table as they qualify.

Table 4-6. Supported XIO Cards

Description

Bandwidth (Peak)

Max-per Brick

Max-per System

Digital video XIO card

TBD

TBD

TBD

Digital video I/O DVC Onyx2

TBD

TBD

TBD

XIO 1-port FDDI Dual Attach Station (DAS)

TBD

6

6

GSN adapter single port XIO card copper

800 MB/s

2

2

GSN adapter two port XIO card copper
(Note: This is a two-card set that uses two XIO slots in the X-brick)

1600 MB/s

2

2

XIO high definition video I/O

TBD

TBD

TBD

Single-port serial HIPPI XIO card

100 MB/s

4

4

XIO to VME adapter 6 U

TBD

4

4

XIO to VME adapter 9 U

TBD

4

4

Four-port ATM OC3

19 MB/s

4

16


Supported PCI Cards

The PCI cards listed in Table 4-7 are supported in the I, P, and X-bricks for initial shipments. Additional PCI cards will be added to this table as they qualify.

Table 4-7. Supported PCI Cards

Description

PCI Bus
Clock/Data

Bandwidth (Peak) (per port)

SCSI

 

 

Two-port Ultra SCSI high voltage differential

33-MHz / 64-bit

40 MB/s (wide)
20 MB/s (narrow)

Two-port Ultra2 SCSI low voltage differential

33-MHz / 64-bit

80 MB/s (wide)
40 MB/s (narrow)

Fibre Channel

 

 

Single-port 1-Gb Fiber Channel with fibre optic cable

66-MHz / 64-bit

100 MB/s

Single-port 1-Gb Fibre Channel with copper cable

66-MHz / 64-bit

100 MB/s

Networking

 

 

Single-port gigabit Ethernet Fiber optic

66-MHz / 64-bit

125 MB/s

Single-port gigabit Ethernet card
10/100/1000BaseT Unshielded Twisted Pair

66-MHz / 64-bit

125 MB/s

Single-port ATM OC3

33-MHz/ 64-bit

19.3 MB/s

Single-port ATM OC12

66-MHz / 64-bit

78 MB/s

Miscellaneous

 

 

8-channel digital audio

33-MHz / 32-bit

2.88 MB/s

Multi-port RS-232 Serial Port Card

33-MHz / 32-bit

.0143 MB/s


Table 4-8. PCI Controller brick and System Maximum Quantities

Description

PCI Bus

Maximum Cards per Brick

Maximum Cards per System

SCSI

 

 

 

Two-port Ultra SCSI high voltage differential

33-MHz / 64-bit

I-brick - 2 per bus (04 total)
P-brick - 2 per bus (12 total)

24

Two-port Ultra2 SCSI low voltage differential

33-MHz / 64-bit

I-brick - 2 per bus (04 total)
P-brick - 2 per bus (12 total)

12

Fibre Channel

 

 

 

Single-port 1-Gb Fiber Channel with fibre optic cable

66-MHz / 64-bit

I-brick - 2 per bus (04 total)
P-brick - 2 per bus (12 total)

24

Single-port 1-Gb Fibre Channel with copper cable

66-MHz / 64-bit

I-brick - 2 per bus (04 total)
P-brick - 2 per bus (12 total)

24

Networking

 

 

 

Single-port gigabit Ethernet Fiber optic

66-MHz / 64-bit

I-brick - 2 on bus 2 (02 total)
P-brick - 2 per bus (10 total)

20

Single-port gigabit Ethernet card 10/100/1000BaseT Unshielded Twisted Pair

66-MHz / 64-bit

I-brick - 2 on bus 2 (02 total)
P-brick - 2 per bus (10 total)

20

Single-port ATM OC3

33-MHz/ 32-bit

I-brick - 2 on bus 2 (02 total)
P-brick - 2 per bus (12 total)

8

Single-port ATM OC12

66-MHz / 64-bit

I-brick - 1 on bus 2 (01 total)
P-brick - 1 per bus (06 total)

8

Miscellaneous

 

 

 

8-channel digital audio

33-MHz / 32-bit

6

6

Multi-port Serial Port Card

TBD

TBD

TBD


Supported Tape Drives

The tape drives listed in Table 4-9 are available for SGI Origin 3000 series systems.

Table 4-9. Supported Tape Drive Subsystems

Peripheral Product Designator

Interface Type

Storage Capacity (Mbytes)

Transfer Rate (MBytes)

DLT 7000

SCSI only

35,000

5.0

FUJITSU M2483/M2485/M2488

SCSI only

24,000

3.0

IBM 3480/3490/3490E

SCSI only

800

4.5

IBM 3590 Magstar

SCSI only

20,000

9.0

STK 9840

SCSI and FC

20,000

9.0

STK 4480 (18 track)

SCSI only

200

3.0

STK 4490 Silverton (36 track)

SCSI only

800

3.0

STK 9490 Timberline (36 track)

SCSI only

800

6.0

SONY AIT-2

SCSI only

60,000

6.0