IBM 88554RU Installation Guide - Page 36

1.7 Multinode scalable partitions The x455 can be configured as part of a multinode partition. The partition can comprise either two nodes or four nodes. The partition is a hardware partition, which is invisible to the operating system. From an operating system point of view it sees all the hardware as a single machine. All nodes in a scalable partition must have the following: Same base model Processors that have the same core speed and cache Memory mirroring that is configured the same on all nodes, that is, either all enabled or all disabled When you have a multi-node configuration, all nodes must be fully populated with processors. In other words, only eight-way and 16-way CPU configurations are supported. Conceptually two-node and four-node partitions are depicted in Figure 1-11 and Figure 1-12 on page 23. These also show the cable requirements. x455 Node A 1 32 32 x455 1 Node B Figure 1-11 Two-node partition 1 SMP 2 Scalability 3 ports 22 IBM xSeries 455 Planning and Installation Guide Eserver