Sun Fire E25K
Encyclopedia
The Sun Fire E25K is an enterprise-class server computer from Sun Microsystems
. Announced in February 2004, the machine could be described as an upgraded Sun Fire 15K
as the base cabinets are identical with the only difference between them being the processor boards installed. It reached end-of-life in January, 2009, and was superseded by the Sun SPARC Enterprise
M9000 server.
The E25K supports up to 72 dual-core UltraSPARC IV+ processors (up to 1.95 GHz) installed across 18 system boards. Whereas in the 15K there is the possibility to use slots of an additional crossbar switch
to plug in extra 2-CPU boards to extend the computational power at the cost of I/O capacity, this possibility is not offered for the E25K system. Overall system bandwidth is claimed as up to 172.8 GB/s aggregate, up to 115.2 GB/s peak, and up to 43.2 GB/s sustained. For overall I/O bandwidth, up to 35.8-GB/s sustained. Up to 64 GB of RAM per board is possible with a maximum of 1.15 TB of RAM for a single domain. Up to 72 hot swappable PCI-X
I/O slots; 54 slots are 90 MHz, 18 slots are 33 MHz. It also supports 10/100 BaseT Ethernet
, Gigabit Ethernet
, UltraSCSI
(LVD and HVD), ATM, FC-AL, HSI and SCI.
The system can be divided into a maximum of 18 secure independent domains (one domain per system board), each of which is a separate machine with its own filesystems, root password and can run different versions of Solaris. Administrators can dynamically change the assignment of RAM and processors to the different domains to meet changes in business needs. In addition, the E25K contains two system controllers (duplicated for redundancy), which are Solaris systems used to manage the 25K and perform tasks such as booting and shutting down domains and assigning CPUs and RAM to domains. The E25K contains minimal storage in itself (only system controller boot disks); it is connected to a separate enterprise storage system.
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
. Announced in February 2004, the machine could be described as an upgraded Sun Fire 15K
Sun Fire 15K
The Sun Fire 15K was an enterprise-class server computer from Sun Microsystems. It was announced on September 25, 2001 in New York City. General availability was in January 2002; the last to be shipped was in May 2005...
as the base cabinets are identical with the only difference between them being the processor boards installed. It reached end-of-life in January, 2009, and was superseded by the Sun SPARC Enterprise
SPARC Enterprise
The SPARC Enterprise series is a range of UNIX server computers co-developed by Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu introduced in 2007. They are marketed and sold by Sun Microsystems , Fujitsu, and Fujitsu Siemens Computers under the common brand of SPARC Enterprise, superseding Sun's Sun Fire and...
M9000 server.
The E25K supports up to 72 dual-core UltraSPARC IV+ processors (up to 1.95 GHz) installed across 18 system boards. Whereas in the 15K there is the possibility to use slots of an additional crossbar switch
Crossbar switch
In electronics, a crossbar switch is a switch connecting multiple inputs to multiple outputs in a matrix manner....
to plug in extra 2-CPU boards to extend the computational power at the cost of I/O capacity, this possibility is not offered for the E25K system. Overall system bandwidth is claimed as up to 172.8 GB/s aggregate, up to 115.2 GB/s peak, and up to 43.2 GB/s sustained. For overall I/O bandwidth, up to 35.8-GB/s sustained. Up to 64 GB of RAM per board is possible with a maximum of 1.15 TB of RAM for a single domain. Up to 72 hot swappable PCI-X
PCI-X
PCI-X, short for PCI-eXtended, is a computer bus and expansion card standard that enhances the 32-bit PCI Local Bus for higher bandwidth demanded by servers. It is a double-wide version of PCI, running at up to four times the clock speed, but is otherwise similar in electrical implementation and...
I/O slots; 54 slots are 90 MHz, 18 slots are 33 MHz. It also supports 10/100 BaseT Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
, Gigabit Ethernet
Gigabit Ethernet
Gigabit Ethernet is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second , as defined by the IEEE 802.3-2008 standard. It came into use beginning in 1999, gradually supplanting Fast Ethernet in wired local networks where it performed...
, UltraSCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
(LVD and HVD), ATM, FC-AL, HSI and SCI.
The system can be divided into a maximum of 18 secure independent domains (one domain per system board), each of which is a separate machine with its own filesystems, root password and can run different versions of Solaris. Administrators can dynamically change the assignment of RAM and processors to the different domains to meet changes in business needs. In addition, the E25K contains two system controllers (duplicated for redundancy), which are Solaris systems used to manage the 25K and perform tasks such as booting and shutting down domains and assigning CPUs and RAM to domains. The E25K contains minimal storage in itself (only system controller boot disks); it is connected to a separate enterprise storage system.