IBM X3620 M3 specifications DDR3 Memory with Chipkill ECC Protection

A cost-optimized storage-rich alternative to traditional enterprise 2U dual-socket servers

concurrently.

Intelligent Power Capability powers individual processor elements on and off as needed, to reduce power draw.

Execute Disable Bit functionality can help prevent certain classes of malicious buffer overflow attacks when combined with a supporting operating system.

Intel’s Virtualization Technology (VT) integrates hardware-level virtualization hooks that allow operating system vendors to better utilize the hardware for virtualization workloads.

DDR3 Memory with Chipkill ECC Protection

The x3620 M3 ships with registered double data rate III (DDR3) memory and provides Active Memory features, including advanced Chipkill memory protection (using x4 DIMMs), for up to 16X better error correction than standard ECC memory. In addition to offering better performance than DDR2 or fully-buffered memory, DDR3 memory also uses less energy. DDR2 memory already offered up to 37% lower energy use than fully buffered memory. Now, a generation later, DDR3 memory is even more efficient, using up to 15% less energy than DDR2 memory.

The x3620 M3 currently supports up to 96GB of 1.5V RDIMM (registered DIMM) memory in 12 DIMM slots. The x3620 M3 also supports either standard 1.5V DIMMs, or 1.35V DIMMs that consume 20% less energy. Redesign in the architecture of the Xeon 5500 and 5600 Series processors bring radical changes in the way memory works in these servers. For example, the Xeon 5500 and 5600 Series processors integrate the memory controller inside the processor, resulting in two memory controllers in a 2-socket system. Each memory controller has three memory channels. Depending on the type of memory, population of memory, and processor model, the memory may be clocked at 1333MHz, 1066MHz or 800MHz.

Xeon 5600 / 5500

Processor 1

Memory Controller

Ch0	Ch1	Ch2
2	5	7
3	6	8

		Xeon 5600 / 5500
				Processor 2
QPI
			Memory Controller
	Ch0				Ch1	Ch2
	10				13	15
	11				14	16

Notes: Adding a second processor not only doubles the amount of memory available for use, but also doubles the number of memory controllers, thus doubling the system memory bandwidth. If you add a second processor, but no additional memory for the second processor, the second processor would have to access the memory from the first processor “remotely,” resulting in longer latencies and lower performance. The latency to access remote memory is almost 75% higher than local memory access. So, the goal should be to always populate both processors with memory.

The L5640 and X56xx processor models support up to 1333MHz memory clock speed. With new single-rank and dual-rank RDIMMs, L5640 and Xi56xx processors support 2 DIMMs per channel (2DPC) at 1333MHz using 1.5V DIMMs. The E562x-and-up and L56xx models support a maximum of 1066MHz clock speed (and thus memory access rate), and the E550x models support 800MHz clock speed.

Running memory at 1333MHz (where supported) versus 1066MHz offers up to 9% better performance, while memory running at 1066MHz produces up to 28% better performance than memory running at 800MHz. Xeon 5500/5600 Series processors access memory with almost 50% lower latency than the earlier 5400 Series processors. That can result in faster processing of latency-sensitive workloads.

Regardless of memory speed, the Xeon 5500/5600 platform represents a significant improvement in memory bandwidth over the previous Xeon 5400 platform. At 1333MHz, the improvement is almost 500% over the previous generation. This huge improvement is mainly due to the dual integrated memory controllers and faster DDR3 1333MHz memory. Throughput at 800MHz is 25 gigabytes per second (GBps); at 1066MHz it’s 32GBps; and at 1333MHz it’s 35GBps. This improvement translates into improved application performance and scalability.

Memory interleaving refers to how physical memory is interleaved across the physical DIMMs. A balanced system provides the best interleaving. A Xeon 5500/5600 Series processor-based system is balanced when all memory channels on a socket have the same amount of memory.

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