what is a core I/O card in npar ?

[Pulse001]

Hello all,

what is a core I/O card in npar ? I am a bit confused about this.

[Michael Steele_2 · Accepted solution]

Core I/O The core I/O in Superdome provides the base set of I/O functions required by every Superdome partition. Each partition must have at least one core I/O card in order to boot. Multiple core I/O cards may be present within a partition (one core I/O card is supported per I/O backplane); however, only one may be active at a time. Core I/O will utilize the standard long card PCI X form factor but will add a second card cage connection to the I/O backplane for additional non PCI X signals (USB and utilities). This secondary connector will not impede the ability to support standard PCI X cards in the core slot when a core I/O card is not installed.

Any I/O chassis can support a Core I/O card that is required for each independent partition. A system configured with 16 cells, each with its own I/O chassis and core I/O card could support up to 16 independent partitions. Note that cells can be configured without I/O chassis attached, but I/O chassis cannot be configured in the system unless attached to a cell.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/archives_Division/11717_div_v1/11717_div.HTML

[Michael Steele_2]

HP-UX Core I/O (A6865A)

The core I/O card's primary functions are:

* Partitions (console support) including USB and RS 232 connections
* 10/100Base T LAN (general purpose)


Other common functions, such as Ultra/Ultra2 SCSI, Fibre Channel, and Gigabit Ethernet, are not included on the core I/O card. These functions are, of course, supported as normal PCI X add in cards.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/archives_Division/11717_div_v1/11717_div.HTML

[Ismail Azad]

Hi pulse,

Core I/O card is a "multi function" card which is present on a single circuit board and the functions being what michael has mentioned. For every npar you require a "core I/O aware" card which is the minimum requirement of an npar especially for console access.

To support core I/O , you can have interface cards as well.

Regards
Ismail Azad

[Pulse001]

Thanks a lot everybody for your response. But i understand that now core I/O is provided on each cell (sx2000) and earlier it was not so. Am i right ?

[Torsten.]

The sx2000 based superdome has no dedicated core I/O card, but older models (sx1000 and the legacy systems) have.

Don't worry about the core I/O requirements related to nPars/vPars on this system.

[Vivek_Pendse]

Hi,

Every system has different core-io.
Like in sx2000, you get core io built in cell board it self or in sx1000, it's in io chassis.
It's all depend upon, which server model you are using. But without npar won't boot.

Thanks,
Vivek