Emerson Network Power ATCA-7370 server blade

A server blade introduced by Emerson Network Power extends the processing, memory and I/O capabilities available to designers of AdvancedTCA (ATCA)-based telecom servers, supporting demanding control plane applications.

The ATCA-7370 uses the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 family in a blade design that optimises the flow of data between processors, memory devices, the backplane and rear transition modules.

The processor, which features up to eight cores per socket and four channels of high-speed DDR3-1600 memory interfacing directly to an integrated memory controller, offers reduced latency and increased performance.

Dual eight-core processor devices running at 1.8 GHz, linked via a dual QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) interface, are matched with eight DIMM sockets offering up to 128 GB of main memory.

The blade design makes use of the processor’s PCIe terminations to speed internal data flows. Dual 10G ethernet ATCA fabric interfaces using the Intel 82599 (formerly Niantic) network interface controller provide in-shelf data fabric connectivity, while an additional 36 lanes of PCIe Gen 3 can carry a huge traffic flow of up to 288 Gbps onto and off the board.

The blade is backwards compatible with all the current generation of the company’s rear transition modules and will also support a new family of extended capacity options including a 6 x 10 Gbps ethernet termination module.

The blade implements the Intel C604 chipset, a peripheral controller hub optimised for the Xeon processor E5-2600 family that includes support for enterprise-grade storage capability for telecom server applications.

This can be mated with a new RTM carrying dual hot-swappable SAS hard drives of up to 900 GB each. A low-profile, solid-state disk of up to 128 GB capacity can also be fitted directly to the front board.