Audio, Network cards, Hyper-threading – HP xw4400 Workstation User Manual
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Audio
All HP workstations come with built-in audio hardware. The audio hardware is supported by Advanced
Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) sound drivers included with all modern Linux distributions.
The audio hardware provides basic playback and recording features. The ability to simultaneously play
audio from multiple sources, such as applications and CDROM, is provided by software mixing
functionality in the ALSA driver. The performance of software audio mixing and playback functionality
is greatly improved in ALSA version 1.0.13 and later drivers.
Network cards
All HP workstations include one or two integrated network interface controllers. Specific network
interface controller cards are also supported as optional devices. Please refer to the Hardware Support
Matrix for HP Linux Workstations at
for details on
which cards are supported.
Hyper-threading
The Z200, Z200 SFF, Z210 CMT, Z210 SFF, Z400, Z600, and Z800 Workstations support Intel
Hyper-Threading Technology. This technology can provide performance benefits in certain situations.
Hyper-Threading is enabled in the system BIOS. As the system is booting, press
F10
to enter the BIOS
Setup Utility. Select Advanced > Processors. Use the arrow keys to set Hyper-Threading to Enable,
and then press
F10
to exit the menu. Select the File > Save Changes and Exit. Hyper-Threading is
enabled when the system is restarted.
On most recent Linux distributions (including RHEL 5.3, SLED/SLES 10 SP2, SLED/SLES 11, updates to
those streams), the kernel automatically detects that Hyper-Threading is enabled and works correctly.
Certain older Linux distributions such as RHEL 4.7 require the use of the largesmp kernel for Hyper-
Threading support on dual-socket quad core Z600 and Z800 configurations.
NUMA
Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) is available on the Z600, Z800, and xw9400 workstations.
NUMA can improve memory bandwidth and latency for multi-process or multi-threaded applications or
workloads. Observed performance improvements depend on the operating system, customer workload,
system configuration, and the degree to which the applications used are designed to be NUMA-
aware/efficient.
NUMA requires that both processor sockets be populated, and installed memory should be balanced
between both processors for maximum performance.
NUMA is enabled if Memory Node Interleave is disabled in the system BIOS. As the system is booting,
press
F10
to enter the BIOS Setup Utility. Select Advanced > Chipset/Memory. Use the arrow
keys to set Memory Node Interleave to Disable. Press
F10
to exit the menu. Select File > Save
Changes and Exit. NUMA is enabled when the system is restarted.
The Z600 and Z800 BIOS also provide a NUMA Split Mode option, which must be set to Disable
when running Linux.
Audio
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