IBM HC10 User Guide - Page 19

What your blade workstation offers The design of the blade workstation takes advantage of advancements in memory management and data storage. The blade workstation uses the following features and technologies: v Impressive performance using the latest microprocessor technology The blade workstation supports one dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo microprocessor. Because the microprocessor is dual-core, it provides enhanced performance and symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) capability . You might have to upgrade the operating system to support SMP. To use SMP, you must configure it to enable the dual-core function. v Large system-memory capacity The memory bus in the blade workstation supports up to 8 GB of system memory. The memory controller provides support for up to four industry-standard 240-pin double-data-rate (DDR2), PC2-5300, synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) DIMMs. For the most current list of supported DIMMs, see http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/. v Included thin client support The remote user communicates with the blade workstation operating system and all application programs through a thin client, which consists of a supported communication module, USB keyboard, monitor, mouse, and other USB devices such as a printer. The Graphics and I/O Transmission Adapter in the blade workstation provides a high-speed user interface to the user location through a dedicated connection over an Ethernet network to the communication module of the thin client. The user interface has the same function and appearance as a workstation at the user location would provide. v High-speed high-resolution 2D or 3D graphics capability Depending on the graphics controller that is installed, the blade workstation supports either 2D or 3D high-resolution graphics when it communicates with the thin client. The Graphics and I/O Transmission Adapter that is also in the blade workstation compresses the video stream and rapidly transmits the video, audio, and USB signals over the Ethernet network to the thin client communication module. The thin client decompresses the video and presents it to the remote user. For simplicity, the Graphics and I/O Transmission Adapter is referred to in the HC10 blade workstation documentation as a compression card. v Ethernet TCP/IP offload engine (TOE) support The Ethernet controller in the blade workstation supports TOE, which is a technology that offloads the TCP/IP flow from the microprocessor and I/O subsystem to increase the speed of the TCP/IP flow. When an operating system that supports TOE is running on the blade workstation and TOE is enabled, the blade workstation supports TOE operation. See the operating-system documentation for information about enabling TOE. v Storage drive support The blade workstation supports one small-form-factor SATA storage drive, such as a hard disk drive. v PCI Express PCI Express is a fully serial interface that is used for high-speed connections to the NVIDIA graphics controller, the compression card, and the integrated Ethernet controller. Chapter 1. Introduction 7