IBM System x3250 M4 Product Manual

Also see for System x3250 M4: Installation & user guide At-a-glance guide At-a-glance guide Product guide

Contents

A highly-affordable, ultradense, uniprocessor server for edge-of-network and Web-basedcomputing in space-constrained environmentsPlease see the Legal Information section for important notices and information. 4• 65W dual-core Intel Core i3 models 2130 or 2120 running at 3.4 or 3.3GHz, respectively,with low power draw and good performance/watt (only 32.5W per core), 3MB of L3processor cache, and 1333MHz memory access• 65W dual-core Intel Pentium models G860 or G840 running at 3.0 or 2.8GHz, respectively,with low power draw and good performance/watt (only 32.5W per core), 3MB of L3processor cache, and 1333MHz memory access• 65W dual-core Intel Pentium models G630 or G620 running at 2.7 or 2.6GHz, respectively,with low power draw and good performance/watt (only 32.5W per core), 3MB of L3processor cache, and 1066MHz memory accessThe two-core processors contain two complete processor cores; four-core processors,similarly, contain four cores. The processors also contain one shared cache. The sharedcache is dynamically allocated among cores as needed. The cores appear to software asphysical processors. The two-core processors offer considerably higher performance than asame-speed Xeon processor with a single core. Likewise, four-core processors offerconsiderably higher performance than a same-speed Xeon processor with two cores.1333MHz memory access offers up to 9% higher throughput at the same processor clockspeed than 1066MHz memory access.Note: Because of the integrated memory controllers the former front-side bus (FSB) no longerexists.Turbo Boost Technology increases performance by translating the temperature, power andcurrent head room into higher frequency. It will dynamically increase by 133MHz for short andregular intervals until the upper limit is met or the maximum possible upside for the number ofactive cores is reached. The maximum frequency is dependent on the number of active cores.The amount of time the processor spends in the Turbo Boost Technology state depends on theworkload and operating environment, providing the performance you need, when and whereyou need it.In processors implementing Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, each core has two threadscapable of running an independent process. Thus, a 6-core processor can run 12 threadsconcurrently.Intelligent Power Capability powers individual processor elements on and off as needed, toreduce power draw.Execute Disable Bit functionality can help prevent certain classes of malicious buffer overflowattacks when combined with a supporting operating system.High- Performance, Low-Latency DDR3 ECC MemoryThe x3250 M4 ships with one DIMM installed and supports up to 32GB of Unbuffered DIMM(UDIMM) memory in 4 DIMM sockets. It uses PC3-10600 double data rate III (DDR3) memoryoperating at 1333MHz for fast access, and provides ECC memory protection.The x3250 M4 supports either 1, 2, or 4 UDIMMs. When 2 or 4 DIMMs are installed, memoryoperates in two-way interleaved mode for increased performance. UDIMMs are available inkits consisting of one 1GB DIMM or two 1GB, 2GB, 4GB or 8GB DIMMs (available in 2Q2011). The x3250 M4 supports both single- and dual-rank UDIMMs. RDIMMs and non-ECCmemory are not supported.Disk ControllersThe integrated SATA controller provides data transfer speeds of up to 3Gb per second4 acrossthe SATA bus for up to two 3.5-inch internal Serial ATA II (SATA II) or four 2.5-inch (viaCTO) SAS drives. In addition, the standard ServeRAID C100 for IBM system x providesintegrated RAID-0/1 on the planar at no additional cost, although without the performanceboost of hardware RAID.Optional RAID controllers include:The 6Gbps (x8 PCIe) ServeRAID-M1015 SAS/SATA controller supports RAID-0/1/10 (nocache) for up to 4 drives (system limit). The ServeRAID M1000 Series Advance Feature Keyadds RAID-5 support.The 6Gbps (x8 PCIe) ServeRAID-M5014 SAS/SATA controller offers enhanced performancewith 256MB of cache memory, and supports RAID-0/1/10/5/6 for up to 4 drives (system limit).(Note RAID-5 requires at least three drives, and RAID-10 and 6 require at least 4 drives;therefore these RAID levels are not supported in the models containing two 3.5-inch SATAdrive bays, only in models containing four 2.5-inch SAS drive bays. RAID-50/60 require moredrives than the server supports, and therefore are not supported in the x3250 M4)4 Data transfer rates depend on many factors and are often less than the maximum possible.