RP7420 PCI slot capability

[Vishwanath Ravikumar]

Hi,

I am in the process of upgrading to rp7420. I want to know how many PCI slots will be available with 2 cell boards (that is 8 cpu's populated).
Also I would like to place the pci adapters in different planar. Can I do that wih the same config or do I need to add more cell boards in addition to 2 ?

I would also like to know the tpmC figures for rp7420 and rp8420 and how to calculate the tmpC for HP servers and arrive at the correct figures.

I need the informatiuon urgently.

[Luk Vandenbussche]

Hi,

You can install 14 IO cards in a rp7420-16
You can install the PCI cards on both the planars.


With a 8 CPU rp7420, 1 cells you have 171.200 tpmC


Max tpmc with rp7420-16 and rp8420-32
rp7420-16,16p, 2cells : 238.900 tpmC
rp8420-32,32p, 4cells : 539.200 tpmC

[Vishwanath Ravikumar]

Hi,

If I take only 8 cpus then also shall I be able to use both the planars and get 14 PCI slots ?

The website mentions about 15 slots, but you are mentioning about 14 slots. Why is the difference?

How many cell boards do I need if I take 8 cpus ?

[Luk Vandenbussche]

Hi,

You have 14 PCI slots if you have 2 cell boards. Each cell board has one core IO.

You can perfectly install 8 CPU's on one cell board if you work with dual core CPU.

Al depends on your exact needs.

[Vishwanath Ravikumar]

Thanks for your reply.

To summarize if i take dual core cpu's with 2 cell boards installed then I will have 14 PCI slots.

However if I take only one cell board then I can have only 7 PCI slots though I can use 8 cpu's with dual core cpu's.


I get 14 PCI slots only if I take 2 cell boards.

Please confirm.

[Tiziano Contorno _]

From:
http://docs.hp.com/en/A7025-96008/A7025-96008.pdf
PAGE 13 of 78

The PCI-X backplane is the primary I/O interface for HP 9000 rp7420 Server systems. It provides sixteen
64-bit, hot-plug PCI/PCI-X slots. Fourteen of the slots have dual ropes connected to the LBA chips. The
remaining two slots have a single rope connected to each LBA chip. Each of the sixteen slots are capable of 66
MHz/33 MHz PCI or 133 MHz/66 MHz PCI-X. All sixteen PCI slots are keyed for 3.3-volt connectors
(accepting both Universal and 3.3-V cards). The PCI-X backplane does not provide any 5-volt slots for the I/O
cards. See Table 1-1 for more details.
The PCI-X backplane is physically one board but behaves like two independent partitions. SBA 0 and its
associated LBAs and eight PCI-X slots form one I/0 partition. SBA 1 and its associated LBAs and eight PCI-X
slots form the other I/0 partition. One I/O partition can be powered down separate from the other I/O
partition.

Regards.

[Vishwanath Ravikumar]

Hi Vanadio,

I am not getting the answer which I want,
So I may start looking for other options also.
Still if someone wants to give me a correct reply then please do so immediately as I need to finalize.
All I want to know is that with 1 cell board enabled and with 8 cpu's available shall I be able to access all the 14 I/O slots or I need to have 2 cell boards installed to access all the 14 I/O slots.
Seems that no one in HP wants to clarify this.

[Sameer_Nirmal]

Hi Kaushik,

Yes, you need to have 2 cell boards to access all PCI-X IO slots.

From the server rear view, the left half of the IO cage is controlled by Cell 0 and right half is controlled by Cell 1.

FYI - The new-generation cell boards which are based on sx2000 chipset has Core IO inbuilt on them. Thus in the case, you get total 16 PCI-X IO slots for use.