topic Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade in BladeSystem - General

diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

Lucy2009_1 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:15:48 GMT

Hi,
We have installed 2 additional CPUs to the existing BL870 blade. At the boot screen, it complained CPU speed being diff. What will be the effect to this? There are 4 dual-core CPUs
in this box. Will the all 4 CPUs go with the slow speed like the disks do?

Thanks in advance.

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

R.K. # — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:27:31 GMT

Hi Lucy,

Please share the exact message that you are getting.

Also do you have icod or icap enabled in your system?

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

R.K. # — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:30:47 GMT

To find out processor speed,run :
# echo itick_per_usec/D | adb -k /stand/vmunix /dev/mem

This will be the speed in MHz.

# icod_stat

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

Lucy2009_1 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:38:29 GMT

At the boot screen:
This boot experienced the following problems:
Warning[42]: CPU's with different core freqs installed.
Address the warning issues as soon as poosible.
Redisplay list with 'info warning' at EFI shell.
Press [Space] to continue...

I hit the space and the system came up smoothly.
Here are the CPU speed:
cpu1: Dual-core Intel Itanium 2, 1600 MHz
cpu2: Dual-core Intel Itanium 2, 1600 MHz
cpu3: Dual-core Intel Itanium 2, 1666 MHz
cpu4: Dual-core Intel Itanuim 2, 1666 MHz

cpu1 & cpu2 are the original BL870 CPUs.
cpu3 & cpu4 are the new ones added in.

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

R.K. # — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:55:19 GMT

SHELL> info all

Look for cpu speeds and cache sizes under:

PROCESSOR MODULE INFORMATION

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

Torsten. — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:08:40 GMT

Maybe you have different types, please post

Shell> info all

and/or

Shell> info cpu

like this:

Shell> info cpu

PROCESSOR MODULE INFORMATION

# of L3 L4 Family/
CPU Logical Cache Cache Model Processor
Module CPUs Speed Size Size (hex.) Rev State
------ ------- -------- ------ ------ ------- --- ------------
0 4 1.6 GHz 9 MB None 20/00 C2 Active
1 4 1.6 GHz 9 MB None 20/00 C2 Active

Run the command from EFI shell!

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

Lucy2009_1 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:59:11 GMT

Hi, I have attached CPU info. Please take a look. Baiscally, they are form same family but with small speed difference 1600MHz vs 1666MHz see my previous post.

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

marcus1234 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:05:00 GMT

is the issue the same if you swap them around into each others slots , may be a stepping glitch..

see if there is an update from intel for that cpu

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

marcus1234 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:09:55 GMT

in bios can we see cpu frequencies multiplier or clock freq may be wrong.

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

Lucy2009_1 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:22:19 GMT

Hi,
The machine is up and running. I can not take it down now. The CPU speed command returns error on this HPUX 11.31. Any idea?

> echo itick_per_usec/D | adb -k \
/stand/vmunix /dev/mem

adb: info: Option -k is deprecated.
adb: warning: Trouble reading version string from memory file ...
adb: warning: Object file and memory file may not be matched.
adb: error: /dev/mem: Bad address.
adb: warning: Could not complete object file specific initializtions ...
adb: warning: Proceeding anyway; But some commands may fail.
itick_per_usec:
adb: warning: Unrecognized format character - 'D'.

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

Torsten. — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:14:28 GMT

Firmware up to date?

"...
Fixed an issue where wrong CPU frequency value of Dual core Intel(R) Itanium(R) 9100 series (Montvale) processors were being displayed
..."

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=3709945&prodSeriesId=3676868&swItem=ux-71201-1&prodNameId=3676869&swEnvOID=54&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=1

Current firmware revisions

MP FW : T.03.12
BMC FW : 05.36
EFI FW : ROM A 07.15, ROM B 07.15
System FW : ROM A 04.21, ROM B 04.21, Boot ROM A
PDH FW : 50.07
UCIO FW : 03.0b
PRS FW : 00.08 UpSeqRev: 03, DownSeqRev: 01
PIC FW : 00.05

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

lucy2009 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:52:04 GMT

Hi Torsten,
That System has new sys FW and BMC FW versions that mentioned in your link. Here attached sysinfo output.

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

marcus1234 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:40:51 GMT

hmmmm Lucy

sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Itanium_microprocessors

Madison (130 nm)

Itanium 2 1600 1600 MHz 256 KB 6 MB 400 MT/s +FSB

Itanium 2 1666 1666 MHz 256 KB 6 MB 667 MT/s+ FSB
==========================================================================

these 2 madison chips have differant front side busses but if they are differant pairs of cpu's we have an issue
==========================================================================
queston is will the stock HP bios let us make changes , via bios or Jumpers,to FSB

Many custom boards allow this feks Asus ,abit ,Msi, these I am quite familiar with

But HP generally use Foxconnn and neuter ?customise the bios so many features are tailored to suit them

or do we get the correct ones from stockist

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

Lucy2009_1 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:34:05 GMT

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the details of these CPU chips.
cpu0 and cpu1 are the original in BL870, cup2 and cpu3 are the new ones we added in.
The machine seems running fine since yesterday. I'll let it stay running for now.

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

Torsten. — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:58:30 GMT

If you boot next time, please run

Shell> info all

again and post.

Meanwhile send a

# machinfo

# machinfo -v

It could also help if you can read the part numbers from the label next time you shutdown the server.

Another thing you an do online:

from MP do

MP:CM> df -all -nc

(display FRU)

and post

Re: diff CPU speed in BL870 blade

rick jones — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:09:22 GMT

It sounds like you have installed "Montvale" dual-core processors into a system which already had "Montecito" processors. The maximum CPU frequency in the BL870C is actually 1.6 GHz, not 1.66, so while "new" BL870s come with Montvales, they still runn at 1.6 - however, I don't believe that running a mixed configuration of "Montetico" and "Montvale" processors is actually "supported." You should check with the source from which you received the processors, especially if it was from HP.