Model 8204-E8A server

Some adapters must be placed in specific Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Peripheral Component Interconnect-X (PCI-X), or PCI Express (PCIe) slots to function correctly or to perform optimally. Use this information to determine where to install PCI adapters.

PCI slot descriptions

Figure 1 shows the back view of the system unit with the location codes for the PCI and GX+ slots. Table 1 describes the slots. Each PCI-X DDR or PCIe slot is a separate PCI host bridge (PHB).

Figure 1. Back view of enclosure with location codes

Back view of system unit with location codes

Table 1. PCI slot locations and descriptions
Slot number	Location code	Description	PHB	Adapter size
Slot 1	P1-C1	PCIe 8x	PCIe PHB0	short
Slot 1	P1-C7	GX+ or GX++
Slot 2	P1-C2	PCIe 8x	PCIe PHB1	short
Slot 2	P1-C8	GX+
Slot 3	P1-C3	PCIe 8x	PCIe PHB3	long
Slot 4	P1-C4	PCI-X DDR, 64-bit, 266 MHz	PCI-X PHB0	long
Slot 5	P1-C5	PCI-X DDR, 64-bit, 266 MHz	PCI-X PHB1	long
Slot 1 can be used for either a PCIe 8x adapter in connector P1-C1, or a GX+ or GX++ adapter in connector P1-C7. P1-C7 is not active on 2-core systems. P1-C7 provides higher bandwidth for a GX adapter than P1-C8. Use P1-C7 for the higher performance GX adapter or where the highest aggregate bandwidth is needed. Slot 2 can be used for either a PCIe 8x adapter in connector P1-C2, or a GX+ adapter in connector P1-C8. All slots support Enhanced Error Handling (EEH).

PCI and PCI-X expansion units

I/O expansion units are used to increase the maximum number of adapters that the 8204-E8A can support. Expansion units 5796, 7311-D20 and 7314-G30 are supported on systems running AIX® or Linux® operating systems. The system can be configured to support up to twelve I/O expansion units. Feature 5796 is the current feature code for the expansion unit that in the past was identified as a 7314-G30. For the remainder of this section, only the 5796 feature code is used when referring to that expansion unit.

Note: For optimum performance, you might want to limit the total number of expansion units containing high bandwidth and extra-high bandwidth adapters. See Performance notes.

A 2-core system supports either one 12x Channel Adapter or one RIO-2 adapter. A 4-core to 8-core system supports two 12x Channel Adapters, or two RIO-2 Adapters, or one 12x Channel Adapter and one RIO-2 adapter.

5796 expansion units attach to a 12x Channel Adapter installed in one or both of the two GX slots available in the system unit. A 2-core system supports one 12x Channel Adapter with up to 4 drawers attached. A 4-core to 8-core system supports two 12x Channel Adapters, with up to 4 drawers attached to each adapter.

7311-D20 expansion units attach to a RIO-2 Adapter installed in one or both of the two GX slots available in the system unit. A 2-core system supports one RIO-2 Adapter with up to six drawers attached. A 4-core to 8-core system supports two RIO-2 Adapters, with up to six drawers attached to each adapter.

7311-D20 I/O drawers with RIO Ports to I/O Planar Riser Card (#6413) must be upgraded to RIO-2 Ports to I/O Planar Riser Card (#6417) before they can be attached to a System p® server with POWER6™ processors.

Some I/O adapters supported in the 7311-D20 I/O drawers when attached to a System p5® server will not be supported when attached to an System p server with POWER6 processors. See Adapters supported on AIX, IBM i, and Linux for more information on supported adapters.

Expansion unit models 0588, 0595, 5094, 5096, 5294, 5296, 5790, and 5796 are supported on systems running the IBM® i operating system.

PCIe expansion units

PCIe expansion units 5802 and 5877 are supported on the system running AIX, IBM i, or Linux operating systems. The system can be configured to support up to four I/O expansion units.

Restriction: A 12X Channel Adapter that has one or two 5802 expansion units connected cannot have anything else connected to that adapter.

Note: For optimum performance, you might want to limit the total number of expansion units containing high bandwidth and extra-high bandwidth adapters. See Performance notes.

The expansion units attach to a 12X Channel Adapter installed in one or both of the two GX slots available in the system unit.

A 2-core system supports one 12x Channel Adapter with up to two drawers attached.
A 4-core to 8-core system supports two 12x Channel Adapters, with up to two drawers attached to each adapter for a total of four drawers.

Maximum number of adapters supported

The 8204-E8A supports up to four POWER6 processor cards with 2-core, 4-core, 6-core, and 8-core configurations. Unless otherwise noted in the tables that follow this list, the maximum number of adapters allowed are shown in this list:

2-core system:
- No I/O expansion unit: 3 PCIe and 2 PCI-X DDR
- System with six D20 I/O expansion units: 2 PCIe, 2 PCI-X DDR, and 42 PCI-X
- System with four 5796 I/O expansion units: 2 PCIe and 26 PCI-X DDR
- System with two 5802 or 5877 expansion units: 22 PCIe and 2 PCI-X DDR
4-core to 8-core system:
- No I/O expansion unit: 3 PCIe and 2 PCI-X DDR
- System with twelve D20 I/O expansion units: 1 PCIe, 2 PCI-X DDR, and 84 PCI-X
- System with eight 5796 I/O expansion units: 1 PCIe and 50 PCI-X DDR
- System with six D20 and four 5796 I/O expansion units: 1 PCIe, 26 PCI-X DDR, and 42 PCI-X
- System with four 5802 or 5877 expansion units: 42 PCIe and 2 PCI-X DDR

Note: For optimum performance, you might want to limit the total number of expansion units containing high bandwidth and extra-high bandwidth adapters. See Performance notes.

PCI and PCI-X adapters

Use this information to identify slot placement priorities. Unless otherwise noted in the table, the maximum number of adapters supported is listed in Maximum number of adapters supported. In the following table, adapters are sorted in descending order by priority. The highest priority adapters are first in the table.

Table 2. Adapter slot priorities and maximums for PCI and PCI-X adapters
Feature	Description	System unit slot priority	Maximum number of adapters supported
6312¹	Quad Digital Trunk Telephony PCI Adapter	4, 5	2 per system
5721^**	10 Gb-SR Ethernet PCI-X 2.0 DDR Adapter	4, 5	32 per system
5722^**	10 Gb-LR Ethernet PCI-X 2.0 DDR Adapter	4, 5	32 per system
5719^**	10 Gigabit-LR Ethernet PCI-X Adapter	4, 5	32 per system
5718^**	10 Gigabit-SR Ethernet PCI-X Adapter	4, 5	32 per system
5776^**	PCI-X Disk Controller - 90 MB	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
5777^**	PCI-X Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI RAID Adapter	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
5778^ 5782^	PCI-X Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI RAID Adapter with Auxiliary Write Cache (double-wide)	4, 5	i only To determine the maximum numbers, see the description of this adapter in Table 1 and the guidelines provided in Determining the best place to install your adapter.
5760^**	PCI-X Fibre Channel Disk Controller	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
5761^**	PCI-X Fibre Channel Disk Controller	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
5749^**	4 Gigabit Dual-Port Fibre Channel PCI-X 2.0 DDR Adapter	4, 5	i only To determine the maximum numbers, see the description of this adapter in Table 1 and the guidelines provided in Determining the best place to install your adapter.
5904^**	PCI-X DDR 1.5 GB cache SAS RAID Adapter	4, 5	49 per system
5908^**	PCI-X DDR 1.5 GB cache SAS RAID Adapter		24 per system
5900^**	PCI-X DDR Ext Dual-x4 3Gb SAS Adapter	4, 5	58 per system
5902^**	PCI-X DDR Ext Dual-x4 3Gb SAS RAID Adapter	4, 5	60 per system
5912^**	PCI-X DDR Dual-x4 3Gb SAS Adapter	4, 5	60 per system
5759^**	4 Gb Dual-Port Fibre Channel PCI-X 2.0 DDR Adapter	4, 5	50 per system
5740^**	4-Port 10/100/1000 Base-TX PCI-X Adapter	4, 5	32 per system
5712^*	PCI-X Dual Channel Ultra 320 SCSI Adapter	4, 5	2 per system unit (internal) 36 per system When the adapter is used with i, see the i configuration notes in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter.
5707^*	2-Port Gigabit Ethernet-SX PCI-X Adapter	4, 5	64 per system
5706^*	2-Port 10/100/1000 Base-TX Ethernet PCI-X Adapter	4, 5	64 per system
5704^*	PCI-X Fibre Channel Tape Controller	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
5702^*	PCI-X Ultra Tape Controller	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
5701^*	10/100/1000 Base-TX Ethernet PCI-X Adapter	4, 5	64 per system When the adapter is used with i, see the i configuration notes in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter.
5700^*	Gigabit Ethernet-SX PCI-X Adapter	4, 5	64 per system When the adapter is used with i, see the i configuration notes in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter.
5758^*	4 Gb Single-Port Fibre Channel PCI-X 2.0 DDR Adapter	4, 5	50 per system
5713^*	1 Gigabit-TX iSCSI TOE PCI-X Adapter	4, 5	42 per system
5714^*	1 Gigabit-SX iSCSI TOE PCI-X Adapter	4, 5	42 per system
5716^*	2 Gigabit Fibre Channel PCI-X Adapter	4, 5	58 per system
5736^*	PCI-X DDR 2.0 Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI Adapter	4, 5	58 per system
5806^*	PCI-X DDR 2.0 Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI Adapter	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
2780^*	PCI-X Ultra4 RAID Disk Controller	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
2757^*	PCI Ultra RAID Disk Controller	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
2787^*	PCI-X Fibre Channel Disk Unit Controller	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
5580^*	2780 Controller with 5708 Auxiliary Write Cache	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
5581^*	2757 Controller with 5708 Auxiliary Write Cache	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
5583^*	5738 Controller with 574F Auxiliary Write Cache IOA	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
5590^*	2780 Controller with 574F Auxiliary Write Cache IOA	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
5591^*	2757 Controller with 574F Auxiliary Write Cache IOA	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
4812 4813	Base PCI Integrated xSeries® Server	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
4805	PCI Cryptographic Accelerator	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
4801	PCI Cryptographic Coprocessor	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
4764	PCI-X Cryptographic Coprocessor	4, 5	32 per system
4746	PCI Twinaxial Workstation Controller IOA	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
2738	2-Port USB PCI Adapter	4, 5	8 per system
2749	POWER® GXT135P Graphics Accelerator with Digital Support	None	i operating system only To determine maximum numbers, see the notes for this adapter in the Description column of Table 1 and the guidelines in Determining the best place to install your adapter. This adapter is supported in expansion units attached to the system unit, but not the system unit (internal).
2849	POWER GXT135P Graphics Accelerator with Digital Support	4, 5	8 per system
2943	8-Port Asynchronous Adapter EIA-232/RS-422, PCI bus	4, 5	18 per system
2947	ARTIC960Hx 4-Port Multiprotocol PCI Adapter	4, 5	8 per system
6805	PCI Two-Line WAN IOA	4, 5	i operating system only 2 per system unit (internal) 81 per system
6808	PCI Quad Modem IOA	4, 5	i operating system only 2 per system unit (internal) 41 per system
6809	PCI Quad Modem IOA	4, 5	i operating system only 2 per system unit (internal) 41 per system
6833	PCI 2-Line WAN with Modem	4, 5	i operating system only 2 per system unit (internal) 81 per system
6834	PCI 2-Line WAN with Modem	4, 5	i operating system only 2 per system unit (internal) 81 per system
5723	2-Port EIA-232 Asynchronous PCI Adapter	4, 5	18 per system
^High bandwidth adapter. See the Performance notes before installing this adapter. ^*Extra-high bandwidth adapter. See the Performance notes before installing this adapter. ¹Digital Trunk adapters have an internal cable and must be in contiguous slots.

PCIe adapters

Table 3. Adapter slot priorities and maximums for PCIe adapters
Feature	Description	System unit slot priority	Maximum number of adapters supported
5732^**	10 Gigabit Ethernet-CX4 PCI Express™ Adapter	1, 2, 3	32
5769^**	10 Gigabit Ethernet-SR PCI Express Adapter	1, 2, 3	32
5772^**	10 Gigabit Ethernet-LR PCI Express Adapter	1, 2, 3	32
5708^**	10 Gb FCoE PCIe Dual Port Adapter	1, 2, 3	32 If only one port is planned to be active in normal operation, the adapter is counted as an extra-high bandwidth adapter. If both ports are planned to be active, the adapter needs to be treated as two extra-high bandwidth adapters.
5735^**	8 Gigabit PCI Express Dual Port Fibre Channel Adapter	1, 2, 3	41 If only one port is planned to be active in normal operation, the adapter is counted as an extra-high bandwidth adapter. If both ports are planned to be active, the adapter needs to be treated as two extra-high bandwidth adapters.
5903^**	PCIe 380MB Cache Dual - x4 3Gb SAS RAID Adapter	1, 2, 3	41
5901^**	PCIe Dual - x4 SAS Adapter	1, 2, 3	41
5767^*	2-Port 10/100/1000 Base-TX Ethernet PCI Express Adapter	1, 2, 3	41
5768^*	2-Port Gigabit Ethernet-SX PCI Express Adapter	1, 2, 3	41
5717^*	4-Port 10/100/1000 Base-TX PCI Express Adapter	1, 2, 3	32
5773^*	4 Gigabit PCI Express Single Port Fibre Channel Adapter	1, 2, 3	41
5774^**	4 Gigabit PCI Express Dual Port Fibre Channel Adapter	1, 2, 3	41
5748	POWER GXT145 PCI Express Graphics Accelerator	1, 2, 3	8
5785	4 Port Async EIA-232 PCIe Adapter	1, 2, 3	18
2893 9693	PCI Express 2-Line WAN with Modem	1, 2, 3	41
2894 9694	PCI Express 2-Line WAN with Modem	1, 2, 3	41
2728	4-Port USB PCIe Adapter	1, 2, 3	8
^High bandwidth adapter. See the Performance notes before installing this adapter. ^*Extra-high bandwidth adapter. See the Performance notes before installing this adapter.

Performance notes

Use the information in this section to help determine the maximum number of adapter that can be placed in a system while still maintaining optimum performance.

The section Maximum number of adapters supported shows maximum number adapters allowed for connectivity. However, for optimum performance, you might want to further limit the total number of high bandwidth and extra-high bandwidth adapters.

To achieve the best performance of extra-high bandwidth storage and Ethernet adapters, limit the number of expansion units to one per 12x Channel or RIO-2 adapter. Having more than one drawer on a 12x loop does not increase the I/O bandwidth but only increases the number of slots available.

For best 12x I/O performance, use the 5608 or 5609 12x Channel Adapter in slot P1-C7.

The following four tables provide guidelines on the maximum number of high bandwidth and extra-high bandwidth adapters you can use and still maintain optimum performance.

Note: Because of the many types of application workloads, these guidelines cannot cover all cases. The numbers in the following tables are suggestions for single types of adapters that are running exclusively. For systems with mixed adapter types or that have high aggregate bandwidth requirements, consult an IBM representative for additional guidelines.

Extra-high bandwidth storage adapters

Table 4. Maximum number of extra-high bandwidth storage adapters for best performance
System configuration	Adapters in system unit including both PCI-X DDR and PCIe slots	Adapters in a PCI-X I/O expansion unit connected to a GX adapter in slot P1-C8	Adapters in a 5796 I/O expansion unit connected to a 5608 or 5609 GX adapter in slot P1-C7	Adapters in a 5802 or 5877 I/O expansion unit connected to a 5608 or 5609 GX adapter in slot P1-C7^*	System maximum^*
2-core	5	3			6
4-core	5	3	6	9	10 for 5796 12 for 5802 or 5877
6-core	5	3	6	9	10 for 5796 12 for 5802 or 5877
8-core	5	3	6	9	10 for 5796 12 for 5802 or 5877
^*If 5708 or 5735 adapters are used in an application with both ports active, each adapter counts as two extra-high bandwidth adapters.

High bandwidth storage adapters

Table 5. Maximum number of high bandwidth storage adapters for best performance
System configuration	Adapters in system unit including both PCI-X DDR and PCIe slots	Adapters in a PCI-X I/O expansion unit connected to a GX adapter in slot P1-C8	Adapters in a 5796 I/O expansion unit connected to a 5608 or 5609 GX adapter in slot P1-C7	Adapters in a 5802 or 5877 I/O expansion unit connected to a 5608 or 5609 GX adapter in slot P1-C7	System maximum
2-core	5	8			12
4-core	5	8	12	18	20 for 5796 24 for 5802 or 5877
6-core	5	8	12	18	20 for 5796 24 for 5802 or 5877
8-core	5	8	12	18	20 for 5796 24 for 5802 or 5877

Extra-high bandwidth Ethernet adapters

Table 6. Maximum number of extra-high bandwidth Ethernet adapters for best performance
System configuration	Adapters in system unit including both PCI-X DDR and PCIe slots	Adapters in a PCI-X I/O expansion unit connected to a GX adapter in slot P1-C8	System maximum
2-core	1	1	1
4-core	2	2	2
6-core	3	3	3
8-core	4	4	4
For optimum performance, no more than one 10 Gb Ethernet port per two processors should be used in a system. If one 10 Gb Ethernet port is present per two processors, no other 10 Gb or 1 Gb ports should be used. If a 5708 adapter is used in an application with both ports active, the adapter counts as two extra-high bandwidth adapters.

High bandwidth Ethernet adapters

Table 7. Maximum number of high bandwidth Ethernet adapters for best performance
System configuration	Adapters in system unit including both PCI-X DDR and PCIe slots	Adapters in a PCI-X I/O expansion unit connected to a GX adapter in slot P1-C8	System maximum
2-core	4	4	4
4-core	5	8	8
6-core	5	12	12
8-core	5	16	16
For optimum performance, no more than two 1 Gb Ethernet ports per processor should be used in a system. If two 1 Gb Ethernet ports are present per processor, no other 1 Gb or 10 Gb ports should be used.