Contents
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Special Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
How This Document is Organized .......................... xvii
Related Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
International Technical Support Organization Publications ........... xviii
How Customers Can Get Redbooks and Other ITSO Deliverables ....... xix
How IBM Employees Can Get Redbooks and ITSO Deliverables ........ xx
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Chapter 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Rationale for the PowerPC Reference Platform Specification ......... 2
1.2 Introducing the PowerPC Reference Platform Specification .......... 4
1.3 The PowerPC Microprocessor Common Hardware Reference Platform
(CHRP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3.1 PowerPC Platform - Introduction and History ............... 6
1.3.2 The PowerPC Platform Document ..................... 6
1.3.3 PowerPC Platform Goals ........................... 7
1.3.4 CHRP Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Chapter 2. PCI-Based RS/6000 Server Hardware ............... 11
2.1 The Hardware Design .............................. 11
2.1.1 The PCI Bus Architecture ......................... 12
2.1.2 The ISA BUS Architecture ......................... 14
2.2 The Hardware Main Components ........................ 15
2.2.1 The Processor Subsystem ......................... 15
2.2.2 The L2 Cache ................................ 16
2.2.3 The Memory Controller and PCI Bridge ................. 17
2.2.4 The System Memory ............................ 17
2.2.5 The Primary PCI Bus ............................ 17
2.2.6 The Secondary PCI Bus .......................... 18
2.2.7 The EISA Bus ................................ 18
2.2.8 The X-Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 Electronics Partitioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 RS/6000 Model E20 Product Description ................... 20
2.4.1 Standard Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4.2 Supported Optional Features ........................ 23
2.4.3 RS/6000 Model E20 Limitations ...................... 31
2.5 RS/6000 Model F30 Product Description ................... 31
2.5.1 Standard Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.5.2 Supported Optional Features ........................ 34
2.5.3 RS/6000 Model F30 Limitations ...................... 38
2.6 Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.7 Performance Positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.7.1 SPEC95 Software Benchmark ....................... 40
Chapter 3. Hot-Swap Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.1 Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Copyright IBM Corp. 1996 v
