Sun Blade X6240 and X6440 Server Modules with Six-Core AMD Opteron Processors

The Sun Blade X6240 and X6440 server modules now support the six-core AMD Opteron processors. Specifically,

Sun Blade X6240 Server Module

Six-Core AMD Opteron Model 2427, (2.2 GHz, 6M L3, 75W processor)
Six-Core AMD Opteron Model 2431, (2.4 GHz, 6M L3, 75W processor)
Six-Core AMD Opteron Model 2435, (2.6 GHz, 6M L3, 75W processor)

Additionally, Sun announced that the Sun Blade X6240 server module now supports 8GB DIMMs. With up to 128 GB of memory with 8GB DIMMs, this server can provide up to 2x more memory capacity than competing blade servers, the company reports. It offers up to 142 Gb/s of I/O bandwidth.

The Sun Blade X6240 server module can be powered by up to two six-core AMD Opteron processors. It is fully supported in both the Sun Blade 6000 and Sun Blade 6048 modular systems, and it runs the Solaris 10 OS, Linux, Windows, or VMware.

Sun Blade X6440 Server Module

Six-Core AMD Opteron Model 8431,(2.4 GHz, 6M L3, 75W processor)
Six-Core AMD Opteron Model 8435,(2.6 GHz, 6M L3, 75W processor)

The Sun Blade X6440 can be powered by up to four six-core AMD Opteron processors. It offers up to 256GB of memory with 8GB DIMMs and up to 142 Gb/s of I/O bandwidth.

Assemble-to-Order (ATO) Blade Assemblies

New ATO blade assemblies have been released for both Sun Blade X6240 and X6440 server modules, and need to be used with the six-core AMD Opteron processors, the company announced. The new base assemblies are also compatible with the Quad-Core and enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors.

Six-Core AMD Opteron Processor

This processor occupies the same footprint as the enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, and is based on the Direct Connect Architecture, which improves the overall system performance and efficiency by connecting memory controllers and I/O directly to each processor.

Some of the key features that help boost performance are:

Six Cores: Provides better performance and power efficiency when running multi-threaded applications

HyperTransport Technology Assist (HT Assist): Improves the performance of the cache sensitive applications such as virtualization, database and HPC by reducing cache probe traffic between processors

HyperTransport 3.0 Technology (HT3): Helps improve the overall system balance and provides better scalability by increasing the interconnect rate from 2 GT/s to a maximum of 4.8 GT/s. Note: The Sun Blade X6240 and X6440 Server Modules do not implement the full HT3. Instead, they implement coherent HT3 (cHT3), where a rate of up to 4.8 GT/s is achieved only between the links that connect the processors.

The following AMD-P features enable better power efficiency and management:

AMD CoolCore technology: Helps reduce energy consumption by enabling users to turn off the unused parts of the processor

AMD Smart Fetch Technology: Helps reduce power consumption by allowing cores not being used to enter the "halt" state so that it can draw less power

Dual Dynamic Power Management Technology: Enables better management of power by enabling each core and memory controller to be powered by a different power source so that they can be operated at different voltage levels

Enhanced Power Now! Technology: Uses Independent Dynamic Core Technology to help reduce power consumption by enabling each core to vary its clock frequency so that they can operate at the clock frequency required by their applications

Integrated DDR2 DRAM Memory Controller: Enables the use of low-power, energy efficient DDR2 memory. Also incorporates memory RAS to reduce system downtime and to increase system reliability.

The following AMD-V features enable better virtualization:

Rapid Virtualization Indexing and Tagged-TLB: Helps decrease latency, improve performance and run more virtual machines on the system by allowing the translation of virtual to physical memory addresses in hardware instead of software.

Extended Migration: Allows higher availability by enabling the movement of a virtual machine between two servers running AMD Opteron processors on many virtualization software solutions.

End of Life

Sun also announced the end of life (EOL) for enhanced Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors for the Sun Blade X6240 and X6440 server modules, along with the current shipping blade assemblies. These include the following:

For the Sun Blade X6240 server modules: