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blade server

Blade servers are modular servers that are optimized in terms of size and energy consumption. The name blade server is derived from a blade, meaning a computer board. Such a blade server consists of several server blades, which are single board computers( SBC) that share the same power supply or other functional units.

Server blades are independent computer systems with microprocessors, RAM, network ports or LAN switches that are configured modularly in a rack or subrack to form a blade server. Serverblades can be used to create more than 300 servers running Linux or Windows in a single rack.

Structure and interfaces of server blades

Blade server with integrated LAN switches

Blade server with integrated LAN switches

Serverblades share the same resources, are centrally managed, and share power and cooling. For example, a 19" rack can hold up to 24 server blades and contain over 300 processors. The advantage of blade servers is their compact design, enormous power density, high computing power, scalability and flexibility, and simpler cabling. Specifically for these applications, the IEEE802.3apworking group has specified several interfaces with data rates of 1 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s for backplane Ethernet. These are the 1000Base-KX, 10GBase-KX4 and 10GBase-KR interfaces for point-to-point connections over short distances of 1 m via STP cable.

Blade servers from IBM

Blade servers from IBM

Other advantages of blade servers include quick and easy maintenance and remote operation. In addition, only a single keyboard/ graphics/mouse controller is needed for a blade server.

A concept comparable to blade servers is that of brick servers, which do not use blades but modules, so-called bricks. The skinless server can be seen as a further development of the blade server.

Informations:
Englisch: blade server
Updated at: 18.03.2015
#Words: 261
Links: name, blade, server, computer, board
Translations: DE
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