There are three areas in which an SGI Origin 3000 series system can be expanded: processor capacity, memory capacity, and peripheral capacity. Note that expansion in one area often affects another area.
Each system size has a maximum number of C-bricks that the system supports.
SGI Origin 3200 systems can have C-bricks that contains two or four-processors. C-bricks that contain two processors can be upgraded by adding an additional PIMM (a PIMM contains two processors) to each two-processor C-brick. A system with a single four-processor C-brick can be upgraded by adding an additional four-processor C-brick.
SGI Origin 3400 systems are configured with four-processor C-bricks. SGI Origin 3400 systems can be expanded to a maximum of 8 four-processor C-bricks.
SGI Origin 3800 systems are configured with four-processor C-bricks. SGI Origin 3800 systems can be expanded to a maximum of 128 four-processor C-bricks. Each compute rack can hold a maximum of eight C-bricks; therefore, additional racks must be configured when the number of C-bricks exceed the capacity of existing racks.
Memory can be expanded in single-bank increments. There are three bank sizes to choose from: 512 Mbytes, 1 Gbytes, and 2 Gbytes. Each C-brick has four memory banks that can contain any combination of DIMM pairs; however, each DIMM in a DIMM pair must be the same memory size. Table 8-1 lists the marketing codes for the three memory bank sizes.
Table 8-1. Memory Marketing Codes
Memory Size | Marketing Code |
|---|---|
512 MBytes | MEM-512 |
1 Gbyte | MEM-1G |
1 Gbyte | MEM-1G-D |
2 Gbytes | MEM-2G-D |
If a customer requires more memory, but the memory in the existing C-bricks are filled; additional memory can be added by increasing the number of C-bricks, up to the system maximum (refer to “Processor Capacity ”).
When expanding peripheral capacity, the number of I/O bricks in the system cannot exceed the number of C-bricks in the system. If the number of I/O bricks in the system equals the number of C-bricks, the number of I/O bricks can be increased by adding an additional C-brick for each new I/O brick.
 | Note: Each system type has a maximum number of C-bricks that it can support. |