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 AM9000 Server System
The AM-9000 is at the top of the
AMOS product family. Compared to other family members, the AM-9000
system family’s most distinctive feature is performance. A CPU SI:CX
(System Index:Compute Index) rating of 1782 alone positions the
AM-9000 ahead of the AM-8000 Series III by 52%, 122% ahead of the
AM-8000 Series I, and 9.2 times faster than the AM-7000. Note that
overall throughput is application dependent.
Architecture
The AM-9000 is a leap forward in the
high end server product family. The hardware is built around the
fastest Xeon 64-bit processor currently available, extending the
performance of the existing high end of our product line. The system
is housed in a versatile pedestal style chassis which can easily be
configured into a 5U rack mountable unit, the same size chassis our
latest AM-8000 Series III systems are housed in.
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The system configuration is expanded via
industry standard technologies. Three PCIe slots and two PCI Express
slots are included to accommodate special function boards, such as high
speed serial I/O controllers and parallel SCSI controllers to allow
maximum flexibility in system configuration and expansion.
The standard system configuration also
includes a Blu-ray drive, 17" flat screen monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
The system chassis has plenty of room
for future expansion. The AM-9000 houses the standard Blu-ray and
initial hard disk drives, and up to 8 additional 5.25 / 3.5 peripherals.
A total of ten peripheral bays (five 5.25 exposed and five 3.5 hidden),
are included in the system, mounted with slide-in rails and secured
behind a lockable front door.
Advanced Technology
The AM-9000 leverages leading-edge
technology in several areas:
Microprocessor technology
— The AM-9000 incorporates an Intel Xeon
X5677 quad-core with multi threading microprocessor chip as the top
performing processor.
DIMM main memory
— The AM-9000 CPU Board has three
on-board DIMM (dual inline memory module) expansion slots for each
microprocessor, which support DDR3 Registered ECC RAM modules. Memory
capacity of 4GB for each processor is supported.
SSD SATA 6 Gbit/sec System Disk
—The C300 256GB SSD is used as the
system Boot Disk device on one version of AM-9000.
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
— Eight SAS 2.0 ports are provided in the
AM-9000. These ports are used primarily to interface to high capacity
SAS 1.0, 2.0, and SATA 3.0 disk drives, one of which is included on each
model of the AM-9000.
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA)
— Six SATA 2.0 ports are provided in the AM-9000. These ports
are used as the interface to the Blu-ray drive and other high capacity
SATA disk drives.
Ultra320 SCSI (Optional)
— A PCIe Ultra320 SCSI controller board
is available if high speed Parallel SCSI is desired. This optional high
speed SCSI bus can be configured to communicate exclusively with high
speed wide SCSI disk drives and/or backup devices and other SCSI
peripherals (both internal and external).
Gigabit Ethernet
— Two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces are
provided to maximize both performance and flexibility. These interfaces
supports 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 1000 Mbps transfer rates, allowing you
to configure your network architecture to meet the needs of your
application.
AM-9000 Product Description
Chassis
The AM-9000 is furnished in a versatile
deskside and rack mountable chassis, similar to the current AM-8000
Series III, with the following features:
Sleek styling, with modern black color
in standard pedestal configuration.
Easily reconfigured to 5U rack
mountable configuration with low cost optional rack mount kit.
Ten peripheral bays (five 5.25‖ exposed
and five 3.5‖ hidden), mounted with slide-in rails and secured behind a
lockable front door.
Black peripherals (monitor, keyboard,
mouse, Blu-ray drive, streamer) will be provided to maintain consistent
system appearance.
Dimensions—16.8" high x 8.7" wide x
23.6‖ deep (42.7 cm x 22 cm x 60 cm)
Power requirement—5 amp @ 115VAC; 2.5
amp @ 230VAC
Main Memory
Main memory for the AM-9000 is
implemented in high-speed Registered ECC DDR3 RAM, packaged in DIMM
modules on the AM-9000 main CPU board. 4GB is included as standard with
every AM-9000.
The AM-9000 main CPU board is equipped
with three DIMM sockets for each Xeon processor. Always install memory
in order, starting with DIMM socket 0 (closest to the corresponding
processor on the board).
System Disk Drive
The AM-9000 includes either a 256GB Solid
State Disk drive or 145GB high speed SAS hard disk drive, depending on
the model purchased.
Blu-ray Drive
The new Blu-ray drive is now standard in
every AM-9000 for backup. It is backward-compatible with DVD-RAM and CD
formats, for compatibility with your existing backups. Disc media is
available in 25 GB and 50 GB capacities. See our previous Marketing
Bulletin AMB2007-08 for complete details on this new kind of drive.
Alpha Micro’s new MAKBD backup software is included with the AM-9000,
assuring the maximum possible utilization of the Blu-ray media’s
capacity.
Removable SATA Hard Drive Tray
One removable SATA hard disk drive is
included as standard. Used in conjunction with provided Hot Swap
software, this drive may be removed and inserted while the system is up,
providing a high-speed, random access form of backup.
Serial I/O
The AM-9000 has six serial I/O ports as
standard. The ports appear as four RJ-45 jacks and two PC style DB-9M
connectors on the rear of the system. Additional serial ports are
optional and can be implemented in a variety of ways.
The preferred method is to install 8 port
PCIe serial I/O controllers. The second method is to install COM ports
with 16 port USB serial I/O controllers external to the chassis. Also,
you can connect a terminal server via an Ethernet connection to the
AM-9000.
The last method is to externally install
AM-359 cards in a Serial I/O chassis like the existing AM-905-31 or
AM-3501 chassis, and cable the AM-9000 system to the external I/O
chassis.
This requires a special build of AM9000.EXE and use of the AM-113-50 SSD
Co-processor board to be installed instead of the AM-113-24 board. Up to
15 AM-359 cards (8 serial I/O ports each) can be externally connected to
the I/O processor board within the AM-9000 for a total of 120 additional
serial I/O ports.
PC and AM-82 Thin Client Workstations on
the AM-9000
PC workstations can connect to the
AM-9000 serially or, more often, via Ethernet. Connection is supported
by popular terminal software such as AlphaLAN++,
STEP++,
and ZTERM.
The AM-82 Thin Client is a small
footprint, diskless PC that boots up directly into AlphaLAN. It supports
Ethernet as well as serial connections. It offers the benefits of a full
PC with lower cost of ownership, because it needs virtually no
administration once set up.
In addition to the convenience of remote
access, these workstations can enhance system performance. That’s
because, generally speaking, an Alpha Micro computer is more efficient
in processing data for Telnet sessions than for serial connections.
We’ve run benchmark tests to prove it. Our tests show the following:
1. For a given level of throughput, an
Alpha Micro computer will support more users on a network than it will
using serial terminals.
2. When you add users, an Alpha Micro
computer will handle the increased load much more efficiently if the
users are on Telnet connections. Throughput per user on Telnet sessions
remains relatively constant as the load increases. On serial
connections, throughput per user declines rapidly.
SAS and SCSI Support
The AM-9000 incorporate eight Serial
Attached SCSI (SAS) ports for attaching high speed SAS hard disk drives.
In addition, PCIe Parallel SCSI
controllers are optionally available for attaching traditional narrow
and wide SCSI peripherals such as tape drives and disk drives.
SAS and SCSI Devices for the AM-9000
A wide choice of disks, tapes, and other
SAS and SCSI devices helps tailor the AM-9000 to specific site
requirements. An AM-9000 supports up to eight SAS or SCSI devices
mounted inside the chassis (internal devices). To maximize the overall
performance of the AM-9000, the highest speed SAS or Wide SCSI disk
drives and/or RAID subsystems should be included in your system
configuration.
SAS and SCSI Disk Drives
The AM-9000 can use a high speed SAS disk
drive as the standard system disk. It attaches to one of the eight SAS
ports contained in the system.
The AM-9000 can also support all
Fast-Wide SCSI-2 and Ultra SCSI drives used in previous AM-8000 systems
using an optional PCIe Parallel SCSI controller.
SCSI Tape Drives
The AM-9000 supports all current SCSI
tape drives attached to an optional PCIe Parallel SCSI controller.
RAID Subsystems
For AM-9000
installations that require large, highly reliable mass storage, you can
choose either our AM-453 internal SAS or Solid State Disk RAID
subsystem, or the self contained AM-452 SATA RAID subsystem.
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