IBM BladeCenter

The IBM BladeCenter was IBM's blade server architecture, until it was replaced by Flex System in 2012. The x86 division was later sold to Lenovo in 2014.

History
Introduced in 2002, based on engineering work started in 1999, the IBM eServer BladeCenter was relatively late to the blade server market. It differed from prior offerings in that it offered a range of x86 Intel server processors and input/output (I/O) options. 

The naming was changed to IBM BladeCenter in 2005. In February 2006, IBM introduced the BladeCenter H with switch capabilities for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and InfiniBand 4X.

A web site called Blade.org was available for the blade computing community through about 2009.

In 2012, the replacement Flex System was introduced.

Enclosures

IBM BladeCenter (E)
The original IBM BladeCenter was later marketed as BladeCenter E. Power supplies have been upgraded through the life of the chassis from the original 1200 to 1400, 1800, 2000 and 2320 watt.

The BladeCenter (E) was co-developed by IBM and Intel and included:
 14 blade slots in 7U
 Shared Media tray with Optical drive, floppy drive and USB 1.1 port
 1 (upgradable to 2) Management modules
 Two slots for Gigabit Ethernet switches (can also have optical or copper pass-through)
 Two slots for optional switch or pass-through modules, can have additional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or Myrinet 2000 functions
Power: Two (upgradable to four) power supplies, C19/C20 connectors
 Two redundant high-speed blowers

IBM BladeCenter T
BladeCenter T is the telecommunications company version of the original BladeCenter, available with either AC or DC (48 V) power. Has 8 blade slots in 8U, but uses the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter E. To keep NEBS Level 3 / ETSI compliant special Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS) compliant blades are available.

IBM BladeCenter H

Upgraded BladeCenter design with high-speed fabric options, announced in 2006. Backwards compatible with older BladeCenter switches and blades. Features:
 14 blade slots in 9U
 Shared Media tray with Optical drive and USB 2.0 port
 1 (upgradable to 2) Advanced Management modules
 Two slots for Gigabit Ethernet switches (can also have optical or copper pass-through)
 Two slots for optional switch or pass-through modules, can have additional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or Myrinet 2000 functions
 Four slots for optional high-speed switches or pass-through modules, can have 10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X.
 Optional Hard-wired serial port capability
Power: Two (upgradable to four) power supplies, with Souriau UTG input connectors
 Two redundant high-speed blowers

IBM BladeCenter HT

BladeCenter HT is the telecommunications company version of the BladeCenter H, available with either AC or DC (48 V) power. Has 12 blade slots in 12U, but uses the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter H. But to keep NEBS Level 3 / ETSI compliant special NEBS compliant blades are available.

IBM BladeCenter S
Targets mid-sized customers by offering storage inside the BladeCenter chassis, so no separate external storage needs to be purchased. It can also use 120V power in the North American market, so it can be used outside the datacenter.  When running at 120V , the total chassis capacity is reduced. Features:
 6 blade slots in 7U
 Shared Media tray with optical drive and 2× USB 2.0 ports
 1 Advanced Management module as standard (no option for secondary module)
 Storage: Up to 12 hot-swap 3.5" (or 24 2.5") SAS or SATA drives with RAID 0, 1, and 1E capability (RAID 5 and SAN capabilities optional with two SAS RAID controllers)
 Two optional Disk Storage Modules for HDDs, six 3.5" SAS/SATA drives each
 4 hot-swap I/O switch module bays
 Power: Two 950/1450-watt, hot-swap modules and ability to have two optional 950/1450-watt modules, offering redundancy and power for robust configurations; C19/C20 connectors
 Four hot-swap redundant blowers (plus one fan in each power supply)

Blade nodes list

Intel based
Modules based on x86 processors from Intel.

HS12
(2008)  Features:
 Processor:  Celeron single-core 445 to quad-core Intel Xeon up to 2.83GHz
 Memory: 6 DIMM slots (up to 24GB)
 Hot-swap drives

HS20
(2002–2006) Features:

 Processors: One or two Intel Xeon DP (single or dual-core)
 Memory: 4 DIMM slots
 Option for one or two 2.5" drives (ATA100, SCSI U320 or Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) depending on generation)
 Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)

HS21
(2007–2008) This model can use the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards-compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features:
 Processors: One or two Intel Xeon DP (dual or quad-core)
 Memory: 4 DIMM slots
 Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives
 Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

HS21 XM
(2007–2008) This model can use the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features:
 Processors: One or two Intel Xeon DP (dual or quad-core)
 Memory: 8 DIMM slots
 Option for one SAS 2.5" drive or one or two SAS-based Solid State drives
 Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X as well as additional Fibre-Channel or Ethernet ports)

HS22
(2009–2011) Features:
 Processors: One or two Intel Xeon 5500 or 5600 series (up to 3.6GHz 4-core or 3.46GHz 6-core)
 Memory: up to 192GB DDR3 (12 VLP DIMM slots)
 Option for two hot swap SAS 2.5" drives or SSD (RAID 0 and 1 are possible)
 Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports (Broadcom 5709S)
 1 CIOv slot (standard PCI-Express daughter card) and 1 CFFh slot (high-speed PCI-Express daughter card) for a total of 8 ports of I/O to each blade, including 4 ports of high-speed I/O
 Requires Advanced Management Module

HS22v
(2010–2011) Features are very similar to HS22 but:
 Memory: up to 288GB DDR3 (18 VLP DIMM slots) 
 Up to two 1.8" disks (SSD, not hot swapable)
 Requires Advanced Management Module

HS23
(2012) Features:
 Single-wide
 Processors: One or two Intel Xeon E5-2600
 Memory: 16 DIMM slots, up to 1600MHz
 2 hot-swappable HDDs (SATA/SAS) or SSDs
 Dual 10G/1G Ethernet onboard expandable to 
 Virtual Fabric / vNic's onboard
 Requires Advanced Management Module

HS23E
(2012) Features:
 Single-wide
 Processors: One or two Intel Xeon E5-2400
 Memory: 12 DIMM slots, up to 1600MHz
 2 hot-swappable HDDs (SATA/SAS) or SSDs
 Dual Gigabit Ethernet onboard ports with TOE
 Requires Advanced Management Module

HS40
(2004) Features:
 Double-wide (needs 2 slots)
 Processors: One to four Intel Xeon MP
 Memory: (8 DIMM slots)
 Option for one or two ATA100 2.5" drives
 Four 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
 Two expansion slots for up to four additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)

HC10
(2008) This blade model is targeted to the workstation market, Features:
 Processor: Single Intel Core 2 Duo
 Memory: 8GB max (4 DIMM slots)
 NVidia video adapter
 One SATA 60GB HDD
 Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports

HX5
(2010–2011) This blade model is targeted at the server virtualization market. Features:
 Processors: 2 to 4 Intel E7, 6500 or 7500 series Xeon (410 cores per CPU, up to 2.67GHz)
 Memory: 256GB Max (16 DIMM slots); Expandable to 40 slots with a 24 DIMM MAX 5 memory blade (640GB total).
 Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports per blade

AMD based
Modules based on x86 processors from AMD.

LS20
(2005-2006) Features:

 Processors: One or two AMD Opteron (single or dual-core)
 Memory: DDR (4 VLP DIMM slots)
 Option for one or two SCSI U320 2.5" drives
 Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)

LS21

(2006) This model can use the high-speed I/O of the BladeCenter H, but is also backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features:

 Processors: One or two AMD Opteron (dual-core), support 65nm Quad core after BIOS update (tested)
 Memory: up to 32GB of RAM (8 DIMM slots)
 Option for one SAS or SATA 2.5" drive
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

LS22
(2008) Upgraded model of LS21. Features:

 Processors: One or two 45nm AMD Opteron (quad or 6-core)
 Memory: up to 64GB of RAM (8 DIMM slots)
 Option for two SAS or SATA 2.5" drive
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

LS41
(2006–2007) This model can use the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features:

 Double-wide (needs 2 slots)
 Processors: One to four AMD Opteron (dual-core)
 Memory: up to 64GB of RAM (16 DIMM slots)
 Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives
 Four Gigabit Ethernet ports
 Two expansion slots for up to four additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
 Data Storage Capacity ?

LS42
(2008–2009) Upgraded model of LS41. Features:

 Double-wide (needs 2 slots)
 Processors: One to 4 AMD Opteron (quad or 6-core)
 Memory: up to 128GB of RAM (16 DIMM slots)
 Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives
 Four Gigabit Ethernet ports
 Two expansion slots for up to four additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

Power based
Modules based on PowerPC- or Power ISA-based processors from IBM.

JS20
(2006) Features:
 Can run AIX or Linux
 Processors: Two PowerPC 970 at 1.6 or 2.2 GHz
 Memory: 4 DIMM slots for PC2700 ECC (max 8 GB)
 Option for one or two ATA100 2.5" drives
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)

JS21
(2006) This model can have the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features:

 Can run AIX or Linux
 Can do virtualization, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) capabilities
 Processors: Two PowerPC 970FX single-core at 2.7 GHz or two PowerPC 970MP dual-core at 2.5 GHz
 Memory: 4 DIMM slots for PC2-3200 or PC2-4200 ECC (max 16 GB)
 Option for one or two SAS 2.5" drives
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

JS22
(2009) Features:
 Can run IBM i, AIX or Linux
 Supports virtualization, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) and IBM Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM)
 Processors: Two POWER6 dual-core at 4.0 GHz
 Memory: 4 DIMM slots ECC Chipkill DDR2 SDRAM (max 32 GB)
 One 2.5" SAS drive up to 146 GB
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports card
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

JS23
(2009) Features:
 Can run IBM i, AIX or Linux
 Supports virtualization, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) and IBM Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM)
 Processors: Two POWER6 dual-core at 4.2 GHz
 64 MB L3 cache (32 per processor)
 Memory: 4 DIMM slots ECC Chipkill DDR2 SDRAM (max 64 GB)
 One 2.5" SAS up to 300 GB or one SSD drive
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports card
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
 One CIOv PCIe expansion slot

JS43 Express
Features:
 Double-wide
Can run IBM i, AIX or Linux
 Supports virtualization, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) and IBM Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM)
 Processors: 4 POWER6 dual-core at 4.2 GHz
 128 MB L3 cache (32 per processor)
 Memory: 8 DIMM slots ECC Chipkill DDR2 SDRAM (max 128 GB)
 Up to two 2.5" SAS (up to 300 GB) or up to two SSD drives
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports card
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
 Two PCIe CIOv expansion slots

JS12 Express
Features:
 Can run IBM i, AIX or Linux
 Supports virtualization, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) and IBM Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM)
 Processor: One POWER6 dual-core at 3.8 GHz
 Memory: 8 DIMM slots ECC Chipkill DDR2 SDRAM (max 64 GB)
 Zero to two 2.5" SAS drive up to 146 GB
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports, with optionan dual Gbit card
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (4 Gbit/s Fibre Channel, iSCSI, or InfiniBand 4X)

PS700
Branded as part of IBM Power Systems. Features:
 Can run IBM i, AIX or Linux on Power
 Can do virtualization, with Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) capabilities.
 Processor: One POWER7 quad-core at 3 GHz
 Memory: max 64 GB
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports, with optionan dual Gbit card

PS701
Features are very similar to PS700, but
 Processor: 8-core
 Memory: max 128 GB

PS702
Think two PS701 tied together back-to-back, forming a double-wide blade

PS703
Features are very similar to PS701, but
 Processors: Two 8-core at 2.4 GHz

PS704
Think two PS703 tied together back-to-back, forming a double-wide blade.

Cell based
Modules based on Cell processors from IBM.

QS20
Features:
 Double-wide (needs 2 slots)
 Can run Linux
 Processors: Two Cell processors at 3.2 GHz
 Memory: 1 GB XDRAM (512 MB per processor)
 40 GB IDE100 2.5" drive
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
 Optional InfiniBand 4X connectivity

QS21
Features:
 Single-wide
 Can run Linux
 Processors: Two Cell processors at 3.2 GHz
 Memory: 2 GB (1 GB per processor)
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
 One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre-Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
 One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)

QS22
Features:
 Single-wide
 Can run Linux
 Processors: Two PowerXCell 8i at 3.2 GHz
 Memory: Up to 32 GB of DDR2 SDRAM
 Two Gigabit Ethernet ports
 Expansion slots for SAS daughter card, InfiniBand 4X DDR daughter card and 8 GB uFDM Flash Drive

UltraSPARC based: 2BC
Themis computer announced a blade around 2008.
It ran the Sun Solaris operating system from Sun Microsystems.
Each module had one UltraSPARC T2 with 64 threads at 1.2  GHz and up to 32 GB of DDR2 SDRAM processor memory.

Advanced network: PN41
Developed in conjunction with CloudShield, features: 
 Single-wide
 Processor: Intel IXP2805 network processor
 Full payload screening with deep packet inspection (DPI)
 Full Layer 7 processing and control
 User programmability using Eclipse-based IDE and RAVE open development language
 Quad 1 Gbit + quad 10 Gbit Ethernet controllers
 Up to 20 Gbit/s DPI throughput per blade
 Selective traffic capture, rewrite and redirect
 Has LAN and WAN Interfaces

Modules

Switch modules
The BladeCenter can have a total of four switch modules, but two of the switch module bays can take only an Ethernet switch or Ethernet pass-though.  To use the other switch module bays, a daughtercard needs to be installed on each blade that needs it, to provide the required SAN, Ethernet, InfiniBand or Myrinet function. Mixing of different type daughtercards in the same BladeCenter chassis is not allowed.

Gigabit Ethernet
Gigabit Ethernet switch modules were produced by IBM,  Nortel, and Cisco Systems.
BLADE Network Technologies produced some switches, and later was purchased by IBM.
In all cases speed internal to the BladeCenter, between the blades, is non-blocking. External Gigabit Ethernet ports vary from four to six and can be either copper or optical fiber.

Storage Area Network
A variety of SAN switch modules have been produced by QLogic, Cisco, McData (acquired by Brocade) and Brocade ranging in speeds of 1, 2, 4 and 8 Gbit Fibre Channel. Speed from the SAN switch to the blade is determined by the lowest-common-denominator between the blade HBA daughtercard and the SAN switch. External port counts vary from two to six, depending on the switch module.

InfiniBand
A InfiniBand switch module has been produced by Cisco. Speed from the blade InfiniBand daughtercard to the switch is limited to IB 1X (2.5 Gbit). Externally the switch has one IB 4X and one IB 12X port. The IB 12X port can be split to three IB 4X ports, giving a total of four IB 4X ports and a total theoretical external bandwidth of 40 Gbit.

Pass-through
Two kinds of pass-through module are available: copper pass-through and fibre pass-through. The copper pass-through can be used only with Ethernet, while the Fibre pass-through can be used for Ethernet, SAN or Myrinet.

Bridge
Bridge modules are only compatible with BladeCenter H and BladeCenter HT. They function like Ethernet or SAN switches and bridge the traffic to InfiniBand. The advantage is that from the Operating System on the blade everything seems normal (regular Ethernet or SAN connectivity), but inside the BladeCenter everything gets routed over the InfiniBand.

High-speed switch modules
High-speed switch modules are compatible only with the BladeCenter H and BladeCenter HT.  A blade that needs the function must have a high-speed daughtercard installed. Different high-speed daughtercards cannot be mixed in the same BladeCenter chassis.

10 Gigabit Ethernet
A 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch module was available from BLADE Network Technologies. This allowed 10 Gbit/s connection to each blade, and to outside the BladeCenter.

InfiniBand 4X
There are several InfiniBand options:
 A high-speed InfiniBand 4X SDR switch module from Cisco. This allows IB 4X connectivity to each blade. Externally the switch has two IB 4X ports and two IB 12X ports. The 12X ports can be split to three 4X ports, providing a total of eight IB 4X ports or a theoretical bandwidth of 80 Gbit. Internally between the blades, the switch is non-blocking.
 A High-speed InfiniBand pass-through module to directly connect the blades to an external InfiniBand switch. This pass-though module is compatible with both SDR and DDR InfiniBand speeds.
 A high-speed InfiniBand 4X QDR switch module from Voltaire (later acquired by Mellanox Technologies). This allows full IB 4X QDR connectivity to each blade. Externally the switch has 16 QSFP ports, all 4X QDR capable.

Roadrunner TriBlade (custom module)

The IBM Roadrunner supercomputer used a custom module called the TriBlade from 2008 through 2013. An expansion blade connects two QS22 modules with 8 GB RAM each via 4 PCIe x8 links to a LS21 module with 16 GB RAM, two links for each QS22. It also provides outside connectivity via an Infiniband 4x DDR adapter. This makes a total width of four slots for a single TriBlade. Three TriBlades fit into one BladeCenter H chassis.

See also
 BladeCenter Extension (zBX)
 Based on BladeCenter supercomputers:
 The IBM Roadrunner was implemented with BladeCenter components from 2008 through 2013
 All supercomputers of Spanish Supercomputing Network; This includes Magerit and Marenostrum (the two most powerful supercomputers of Spain) and 6 small supercomputers.
 Ljubljana Supercomputing Center employs the BladeCenter
 Weta Digital uses BladeCenter to render The Lord of the Rings and other films
 Aquasar — watercooled BladeCenter prototype

References

External links

IBM BladeCenter homepage
Lenovo Press - replaced IBM Redbooks for Bladecenter
IBM BladeCenter Products and Technology - IBM Redbooks
BladeCenter HS23 (E5-2600) Product Guide
Lenovo BladeCenter E Product Guide - Lenovo Press
Installing VMware vSphere 5.5 on IBM BladeCenter H22
IBM BladeCenter Product Publications Quick Reference - IBM Redbooks 
Intel Server Products
x4live.com - Latest News and Links on Modular System x, Modular BladeCenter and Systems Management
IBM's Online Server Configurator
coreipm.com - Board Management Controller (BMC) firmware & other information for building BladeCenter compatible blades

BladeCenter
BladeCenter
Cell BE architecture
Blade servers
Computer-related introductions in 2002