Dell PowerEdge 2970 AMD Processor Update - Page 1

AMD™ Processor Update HT Assist AMD Opteron™ 24XX and 84XX processors enabled with HT Assist feature allow faster HyperTransport™ (HT) transfers. However, when enabled, HT Assist reduces the L3 cache size from 6 MB to 5 MB. System reboot after enabling HT Assist reports the reduced L3 cache size and continues to do so until disabled. The HT Assist feature can be enabled or disabled using your system's BIOS settings. For information on accessing BIOS settings, see your system's Hardware Owner's Manual on the Dell Support website at www.support.dell.com/manuals. HyperTransport Technology Depending on your system capability, you can set your system's HyperTransport mode to HT3. Your system and/or processors may or may not be HT3 capable, depending on when it was shipped. HT3 technology was added to selected Dell systems in early 2009 and HT3 processors became available in May 2009. During system startup, the system BIOS checks the system board revision number and the HT capability of all installed processors. If the system is capable of running at HT3 frequency, the HyperTransport Technology field in the BIOS settings is set to HT3 by default. You can then set the field to either HT1 or HT3, depending on which setting gives you the best performance for your particular application. If your system is not HT3 capable, this field is set to HT1 and read only. July 2009