HP Integrity rx4640

Overview
Internals
External Connectors
References
Operating Systems
Benchmarks
Physical dimensions/Power

Overview

Time of introduction: December 2004

The Integrity rx4640 (rx4640-8) was a second-generation Itanium server offering from HP with up to four Itanium 2 processors in a 4U rack-mountable case. In contrast to its rx4610 predecessor (7U, first-generation Itanium) the rx4640 is a completely new design, based on the HP zx1 Itanium chipset with double the I/O bandwidth (4.0GB/s) and three times the processor (6.4GB/s) and memory (12.8GB/s) bandwidths. The rx4640 features a large amount of maximum memory (128GB) but fewer PCI slots (six) and only the same small number of two internal SCSI drives.

The rx4640 was later marketed as rx4640-8.

Prices at time of introduction started at $15,000.

Internals

CPU

The standard rx4640 supported out of the box up to four Itanium 2 processors:

No.	CPU Type	Clock	L1 (I/D)	L2 (I/D)	L3	Other
1-4	Itanium 2 Madison	1.3GHz	16/16KB	256KB	3.0MB
1-4	Itanium 2 Madison	1.5GHz	16/16KB	256KB	6.0MB

Later rx4640 models (probably with a firmware upgrade) supported various newer processors, including dual-core Montvale CPUs and the mx2 dual-CPU modules.

No.	CPU Type	Clock	L1 (I/D)	L2 (I/D)	L3	Other
1-4	Itanium 2 Madison	1.6GHz	16/16KB	256KB	6.0MB
1-4	Itanium 2 Madison	1.6GHz	16/16KB	256KB	9.0MB
1-4	Itanium 2 Montvale dual-core (9140N)	1.6GHz	16/16KB	1024/256KB	18MB
1-4	Itanium 2 Montvale dual-core (9150N)	1.6GHz	16/16KB	1024/256KB	24MB
1-4	Itanium 2 mx2 Hondo dual-CPU module	1.1GHz	16/16KB	256KB	4.0MB	32MB L4

Chipset

The systems are based on HP’s zx1 chipset, which consists of three main components — the MIO (memory and I/O controller), the IOAs (I/O adapters) and the SMEs (scalable memory expanders):

zx1 MIO (memory and I/O controller) is the main chipset controller and connects the three central system buses:
1. Processor bus (6.4GB/s at 200MHz DDR)
2. Two independent memory buses (each 6.4GB/s)
3. Eight I/O channels (aggregate 4.0GB/s, via the IOAs, see below)
The zx1 MIO also contains both memory and cache controllers.
Six zx1 SMEs (scalable memory expanders) attach to two independent zx1 memory buses (each 6.4GB/s with three SMEs)
Six zx1 IOAs (I/O adapters) connect the PCI-X slots and I/O devices to the zx1 MIO with an aggregate bandwidth of 4.0GB/s on eight 0.5GB/s channels
1. PCI-X 64/133 I/O slot on two channels — 1.0GB/s
2. PCI-X 64/133 I/O slot on two channels — 1.0GB/s
3. Two PCI-X 64/66 I/O slots on one channel — 0.5GB/s
4. Two PCI-X 64/66 I/O slots on one channel — 0.5GB/s
5. Core I/O: SCSI and Gigabit Ethernet on one channel — 0.5GB/s
6. Core I/O: Management LAN, IDE, USB, serial and VGA on one channel — 0.5GB/s

The I/O connectivity part of the chipset is made up of standard third-party I/O chips:

Gigabit Ethernet (Broadcom 5701)
Two-channel Ultra320 SCSI controller (LSI 53C1030)
Ultra ATA-100 IDE controller (PCI649)
EHCI USB controller
Serial controller, DUART (16550A-compatible)
Diva remote management processor — serial and LAN
Processor Dependent Hardware (PDH) Controller
FPGA controller for ACPI (2.0) and LPC
Baseboard Management Controller for IPMI management interface (the BMC is a ARM7 RISC processor)

Buses

Itanium 2/zx1 processor bus 6.4GB/s at 200MHz DDR
Two independent zx1 memory buses, 200MHz, each 6.4GB/s — aggregate 12.8GB/s memory bandwidth
Eight zx1 I/O channels/buses, aggregate 4.0GB/s
Two PCI-X 64/133 I/O buses
Two PCI-X 64/66 I/O buses
PCI-X 64/66 I/O bus (for SCSI/Gigabit Ethernet onboard)
PCI 32/33 I/O bus (for IDE/USB/management onboard devices)
Two SCSI-3 Ultra320 (LVD) storage I/O buses
UltraATA-100 IDE storage I/O bus

Memory

DDR200 CL2 registered ECC SDRAM DIMMs, 200MHz, 184-pin 2.5V
Takes up to 4GB modules
16-DIMM or 32-DIMM memory carrier board
DIMMs must be installed in quads
1GB minimum (4×256MB)
64GB maximum with 16-DIMM board (16×2GB), 128GB maximum with 32-DIMM board (32×4GB)
12.8GB/s memory bandwidth

Expansion

Four PCI-X 64-bit/66MHz slots, hot-plug. 3.3V
Two PCI-X 64-bit/133MHz slots, hot-plug. 3.3V

Drives

Two internal 3.5″ bays for Ultra160 SCSI SCA 80-pin hard drives, hot-plug; each drive can be configured on one separate channel — if they are on the same channel the second can be used for external SCSI devices
Slimline bay for optional IDE CD or DVD drive

External Connectors

Dual-port Gigabit Ethernet, TP/RJ45
10/100 Ethernet, TP/RJ45 management network (on management processor card)
VGA graphics
Two external Ultra320 SCSI 68-pin
25-pin serial for management processor card, needs break-out cable for three serial ports
Four USB 2.0 ports
Two (three?) DB9 male RS232C serial

References

Overview of the HP Integrity rx1620, rx2620, and rx4640 Servers (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Development Company (December 2006, rev. 4, 5982-9835EN)
Overview of the HP Integrity rx1600-2, rx2600-2, and rx4640-8 servers technical whitepaper (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Development Company (April 2004, 5982-5031EN)
Overview of the HP Integrity rx2600, rx4640, and rx5670 servers technical whitepaper (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Development Company (October 2003, first edition, 5982-1595EN)
User Service Guide HP Integrity rx4640 Server (PDF) Hewlett-Packard Development Company (August 2006, first edition, A6961-96013)

Operating Systems

HP-UX 11i v2 and v3
Linux for Itanium
Windows Server 2003 64-bit
OpenVMS

Benchmarks

Model	SPEC2000, int	SPEC2000, fp	SPEC2000 rate, int	SPEC2000 rate, fp
rx4640 1.3GHz 3.0MB	1132	1891	13.1 2-CPU: 25.8 4-CPU: 51.4	21.9 2-CPU: 37.9 4-CPU: 57.4
rx4640 1.5GHz 6.0MB	1404	2161	16.3 2-CPU: 32.5 4-CPU: 64.2	25.1 2-CPU: 43.2 4-CPU: 65.6
rx4640-8 1.5GHz 4.0?MB	1372	2502	15.9 2-CPU: 31.7 4-CPU: 62.2	29 2-CPU: 48.3 4-CPU: 70.5
rx4640-8 1.6GHz 9MB	1590	2712	4-CPU: 72.5	4-CPU: 77.9

Compare these with other results on the Benchmarks page.

Physical dimensions/Power

4U height, 482×690 mm width/depth
40kg net weight, 45kg fully loaded
650/1200W hot-swap power supplies (one standard, optional second)

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