Tag Archives: Network Partitioning

What is NPAR (Network Partitioning)?

Last week I mentioned NPAR as a feature in most Broadcom like the ones found in the PowerEdge MX740c blade server.  I realized although NPAR is nearly a decade old, it may not be well-known by readers, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to break it down for you. Continue reading

Dell Network Daughter Card (NDC) and Network Partitioning (NPAR) Explained

If you are a reader of BladesMadeSimple, you are no stranger to Dell’s Network Daughter Card (NDC), but if it is a new term for you, let me give you the basics. Up until now, blade servers came with network interface cards (NICs) pre-installed as part of the motherboard.  Most servers came standard with Dual-port 1Gb Ethernet NICs on the motherboard, so if you invested into a 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE) or other converged technologies, the onboard NICs were stuck at 1Gb Ethernet.  As technology advanced and 10Gb Ethernet became more prevalent in the data center, blade servers entered the market with 10GbE standard on the motherboard.  If, however, you weren’t implementing 10GbE then you found yourself paying for technology that you couldn’t use.  Basically, what ever came standard on the motherboard is what you were stuck with – until now.

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Dell Adds AMD-Based M915 to Blade Family

Dell announced today the addition a full-height 4 socket PowerEdge M915 blade server based on the AMD Opteron 6100 series CPU family.  Known best with the code name, “Magny-Cours”, this CPU family boasts up to 12 CPU cores with a 512k per core L2 cache and a 12MB of shared L3 cache.  The AMD Opeteron 6100 family also has AMD CoolCore™ technology, AMD PowerNow!™ technology, Enhanced C1 state, AMD CoolSpeed technology.

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Dell Announces Blade Refresh and NIC Partitioning (NPAR)

Dell announced today a refresh of the PowerEdge M910 blade server based on the Intel Xeon E7 processor.  The M910 is a full-height blade that can hold 512GB of RAM across 32 DIMMs.   The refreshed M910 blade server will also feature Dell’s FlexMem bridge that enables users to use all 32 DIMM slots with only 2 CPUs.  You can read more about the M910 blade server in an earlier blog post of mine here.

According to the Dell  press release issued today Continue reading