HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Server-Blade - Manual (Page 47)

Hardware options installation 47
Memory option
To expand server memory, install DDR3 RDIMMs. The server blade supports dual-rank and quad-rank
DIMMs. Server blades using Intel® Xeon® E7 family processors support up to 2 TB of memory using 64
32-GB DIMMs (16 DIMMs per processor). Server blades using Intel® Xeon® 7500 series processors support
up to 1 TB of memory using 64 16-GB DIMMs (16 DIMMs per processor).
The server blade supports the following DIMM speeds:
• Dual-rank PC3-10600 (DDR-1333) DIMMs operating up to 1066 MHz
• Quad-rank PC3-8500 (DDR-1067) DIMMs operating up to 1066 MHz
Depending on the processor model, the memory clock speed can be reduced to 978 or 800 MHz. For more
information, see "Memory subsystem architecture (on page
50 )."
NOTE: The Advanced Memory Protection option in RBSU provides additional memory
protection beyond Advanced ECC. By default, the server is set to Advanced ECC Support. For
more information, refer to "HP ROM-Based Setup Utility (on page 82 )."
For DIMM slot locations, see the following:
• "DIMM slot locations (A-side) (on page 13 )"
• "DIMM slot locations (B-side) (on page 14 )"
Memory overview
The HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Server Blade is offered in two models, one that uses the Intel® Xeon® E7 family
processors, and the other that uses the Intel® Xeon® 7500 series processor. The architecture of these
processors departs radically from previous Intel® Xeon® front-side-bus-based architectures.
In front-side bus architectures, the memory controller was incorporated in the northbridge, which produced
a common sharepoint for memory accesses for all processors. Similar to the dual-socket Intel® Xeon® 5500
processors, the Intel® Xeon® E7 family and 7500 series processors employ a NUMA architecture. This
architecture incorporates QPI links for point-to-point connectivity between processors and provides dedicated
local memory for each processor.
To enable greater memory expansion capability, the DIMMs are not directly connected to the processor
through the memory controller. In the Intel® Xeon® E7 family and 7500 memory subsystems, each memory
controller uses a dedicated Intel® SMI to connect to an Intel® SMB. The SMB is connected to two DDR3
memory channels that support four DIMM sockets.
To provide greater memory bandwidth over previous Intel® Xeon® multiprocessor architectures, each Intel®
Xeon® E7 family and 7500 processor includes two integrated memory controllers. Each memory controller
contains two SMIs. Therefore, four SMIs per processor connect to four memory buffers. Because each buffer
supports 4 DIMM sockets, a single processor provides a total of 16 DIMMs. On server blades using Intel®
Xeon® E7 family processors, each DIMM can be up to 32 GB for 512 GB per processor (16 DIMMs x 32
GB). On server blades using Intel® Xeon® 7500 series processors, each DIMM can be up to 16 GB for 256
GB per processor (16 DIMMs x 16 GB).
Low Voltage DIMMs
In addition to standard 1.5V DDR3 DIMMs, the HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Server Blade that uses the Intel®
Xeon® E7 family processors also supports 1.35V LV DIMMs in 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB options. The LV