Gigabit Ethernet is technology that allows computer systems to communicate at speeds up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps).
This board is supported in the following systems:
SGI Altix XE210
SGI Altix XE240
SGI Altix XE250
SGI Altix XE310
SGI Altix XE320
SGI Altix ICE 8200
SGI Altix 450
SGI Altix 4700
Note: Not every Altix system can immediately accept a PCIe card without optional hardware to support it. For example, an Altix XE210 system needs a specific PCIe riser to use a PCI Express card. In the case of an SGI Altix 450 and 4700 system, you must have an optional PCIe blade installed to use a PCI Express card in the system. Consult your SGI system hardware manual for exact requirements.
This chapter includes the following sections:
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Note: On SGI Altix 450 or 4700 systems, if both ports are run concurrently, one of the ports will have performance degraded by approximately 40 percent. The Broadcom 5715 GbE controller implementation of a PCIe to PCI bridge is only capable of 40-bit wide addressing. Ports run individually achieve expected throughput of approximately 940 Mb/s.
The Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express board is available in two formats: the dual-port Fiber-Optic Gigabit Ethernet board and the dual-port Copper Gigabit Ethernet board.
These boards are described in the following sections:
Fiber-Optic Gigabit Ethernet is defined in the IEEE standard P802.3z. The Fiber-Optic Gigabit Ethernet board is compatible with this approved standard. Copper Gigabit Ethernet is defined in the IEEE standard P802.3ab. The Copper Gigabit Ethernet board is compatible with this approved standard.
The technical specifications for the Fiber-Optic Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express board are from a technical specification page available at:
http://www.silicom-usa.com/pgx.php?p2=175
The Fiber-Optic Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express board includes these features:
Host Interface standard support PCI Express 1.0a.
High performance, reliability, and low power use in Broadcom 5714 / 5715 / 5704 dual integrated MAC + PHY / SERDES chip controller.
Ultra deep packet buffer per channel lowers CPU utilization.
Dual high speed RISC processor per channel for advanced packet classification.
Hardware acceleration that can offload tasks from the host processor. The controllers can offload TCP/UDP/IP checksum calculations and TCP segmentation.
Server class reliability, availability and performance features:
Link Aggregation and Load Balancing:
Switch dependent: 802.3ad (LACP), Generic Trunking ( GEC / FEC)
Switch and NIC Independent.
Failover
Priority queuing - 802.1p layer 2 priority encoding.
Virtual LANs - 802.1q VLAN tagging.
Jumbo Frame (9KB).
802.x flow control.
Boot ROM embedded or optional can be used for Boot ROM applications.
PCI Power Management Interface. (v1.1)
Statistics for SNMP MIB II, Ethernet like MIB, and Ethernet MIB (802.3z, Clause 30)
LEDs indicators for link/Activity/Speed status.
For full technical specifications of the board, see Appendix A, “Specifications”.
| Note: The hardware MAC addresses for the two ports are lowest at the top of the card and highest at the bottom of the card. |
Figure 1-1 shows the dual-port fiber-optic Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express board.
The technical specifications for the copper Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express board are from a technical specification page available at:
http://www.silicom-usa.com/pgx.php?p2=147
The copper Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express board includes these features:
Independently Fiber Gigabit Ethernet channel/s support Gigabit Ethernet 1000Base-SX.
Small Form Factor (SFF) LC Connectors.
Independently copper Gigabit Ethernet channels support six, four, two and one Gigabit Ethernet (1000Base-T), Fast Ethernet (100Base-Tx) and Ethernet (10Base-T).
Triple speed 1000Mbps (1000Base-T), 100 Mbps (100Base-Tx) and 10 Mbps (100Base-T) operation.
Nway auto negotiation automatic sensing and switching between 1Gbps full duplex and 100 / 10 Mbps operations Simplex or Full Duplex.
RJ-45 female connectors.
Host Interface standard support PCI Express 1.0a.
High performance, reliability, and low power use in Broadcom 5714 / 5715 / 5704 dual integrated MAC + PHY / SERDES chip controller.
Ultra deep packet buffer per channel lowers CPU utilization.
Dual high speed RISC processor per channel for advanced packet classification.
Hardware acceleration that can offload tasks from the host processor. The controllers can offload TCP/UDP/IP checksum calculations and TCP segmentation.
Server class reliability, availability and performance features:
Link Aggregation and Load Balancing:
Switch dependent: 802.3ad (LACP), Generic Trunking ( GEC / FEC)
Switch and NIC Independent.
Failover
Priority queuing - 802.1p layer 2 priority encoding.
Virtual LANs - 802.1q VLAN tagging.
Jumbo Frame (9KB).
802.x flow control.
Boot ROM embedded or optional can be used for Boot ROM applications.
PCI Power Management Interface. (v1.1)
Statistics for SNMP MIB II, Ethernet like MIB, and Ethernet MIB (802.3z, Clause 30)
LEDs indicators for link/Activity/Speed status.
Note: The hardware MAC addresses for the two ports are lowest at the top of the card and highest at the bottom of the card.
For full technical specifications of the board, see Appendix A, “Specifications”.
Figure 1-2 shows the quad-port Copper G igabit Ethe rnet board.
The cabling for the Gigabit Ethernet board is described in the following sections:
The fiber-optic Gigabit Ethernet board is connected to the network using fiber-optic cable. The cable, which is not included in the shipment, must be a 50-micron or 62.5-micron multimode duplex cable with an LC connector.
Table 1-1 lists SGI fiber-optic cables.
Table 1-1. SGI 62.5-Micron Cable Options for Fiber-Optic Gigabit Ethernet
Length | Marketing Code |
|---|---|
3 m (9.8 ft) | X-F-OPT-3M |
10 m (39.3 ft) | X-F-OPT-10M |
25 m (82 ft) | X-F-OPT-25M |
100 m (328 ft) | X-F-OPT-100M |
Table 1-2 lists operating ranges for 50-micron and 62.5-micron cables for a 1000-BASE-SX port. Fiber type is MM.
Table 1-2. Fiber-Optic Operating Range, 1000-BASE-SX Standard
Diameter (Microns) | Modal Bandwidth (MHz * km) | Range (Meters) |
|---|---|---|
62.5 | 160 | 2 to 220[a] |
62.5 | 200 | 2 to 275[b] |
50 | 400 | 2 to 500 |
5 | 500 | 2 to 550[c] |
[a] The TIA 568 building wiring standard specifies 160/500 MHz * km multimode fiber. [b] The international ISO/IEC 11801 building wiring standard specifies 200/500 MHz * km multimode fiber. [c] The ANSI Fibre Channel specification specifies 500/500 MHz * km 50 micron multimode fiber, and 500/500 MHz * km fiber has been proposed for addition to ISO/IEC 11801. | ||
This card only supports 1000-Base-SX.
The Copper Gigabit Ethernet board is implemented using twisted pair cable. The cable, which is not included in the shipment, must be Category-5 cable plant (4-pair) with an RJ45 UTP connector at each end. Table 1-3 lists the SGI twisted pair cables. The operating range for 1000-Base-T is up to 100 m (328 ft).
Table 1-3. SGI Twisted Pair Cable
Length | Marketing Code |
|---|---|
6 feet | CBL-GBE-RJ45-06FT-Z |
10 feet | CBL-GBE-RJ45-10FT-Z |
15 feet | CBL-GBE-RJ45-15FT-Z |
25 feet | CBL-GBE-RJ45-25FT-Z |
50 feet | CBL-GBE-RJ45-50FT-Z |
To achieve the longer distances available with 1000-Base-T, use a switch with 1000-Base-T ports.
Table 1-4 summarizes the configuration limits for the Fiber-Optic and Copper Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express boards
Table 1-4. Configuration Limits
System | Maximum Per Bus | Maximum Number of Boards |
|---|---|---|
Altix XE210 | 1 | 1 |
Altix XE240 | 1 | 2 with a PCI-x riser, 4 with a PCI-E riser |
Altix XE250 | 4 | 4 |
Altix XE310 | 1 | 1 |
Altix XE320 | 1 | 1 |
Altix 450 | 1 | 16 |
Altix ICE 8200 | 1 | 4 |
Altix 4700 | 1 | 16 |