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blade: Definition and Recommended Links

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Blade servers are self-contained computer servers, designed for high density. Whereas a standard rack-mount server can exist with (at least) a power cord and network cable, blade servers have many components removed for space, power and other considerations while still having all the functional components to be considered a computer. A blade enclosure, which can hold multiple blade servers, provides services such as power, cooling, networking, various interconnects and management—though different blade providers have differing principles around what should and should not be included in the blade itself (and sometimes in the enclosure altogether). Together these form the blade system.

In a standard server-rack configuration, 1U (one rack unit, 19' wide and 1.75' tall) is the minimum possible size of any equipment. The principal benefit of, and the reason behind the push towards, blade computing is that components are no longer restricted to these minimum size requirements. The most common computer rack form-factor being 42U high, this limits the number of discrete computer devices directly mounted in a rack to 42 components. Blades do not have this limitation; densities of up to 84 discrete servers per rack are achievable with the current generation of blade systems

Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_server)

other great electronics sites:ee toolbox site

• • blade
    • Blade servers are self-contained computer servers, designed for high density. Whereas a standard rack-mount server can exist with (at least) a power cord and network cable, blade servers have many components removed for space, power and other considerations while still having all the functional components to be considered a computer. A blade enclosure, which can hold multiple blade servers, provides services such as power, cooling, networking, various interconnects and management—though different blade providers have differing principles around what should and should not be included in the blade itself (and sometimes in the enclosure altogether). Together these form the blade system.

      In a standard server-rack configuration, 1U (one rack unit, 19' wide and 1.75' tall) is the minimum possible size of any equipment. The principal benefit of, and the reason behind the push towards, blade computing is that components are no longer restricted to these minimum size requirements. The most common computer rack form-factor being 42U high, this limits the number of discrete computer devices directly mounted in a rack to 42 components. Blades do not have this limitation; densities of up to 84 discrete servers per rack are achievable with the current generation of blade systems

      Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_server)

      (Note: The Electronic Engineers Toolbox provides an alternative set of featured links for this word at http://www.cera2.com/blade.htm)

      Featured Links:

      Realizing the Full Potential of Server, Switch & I/O Blades with InfiniBand Architecture

      This paper will explore the differences between LAN based server blades vs. InfiniBand based blades. It will be shown that, fundamentally, bus and LAN based implementations fall seriously short of meeting the stated requirements. The InfiniBand Architecture delivers the critical capa-bilities to realize all of these attributes while significantly improving overall system performance.
      http://www.mellanox.com/pdf/whitepapers/Blade_WP_120.pdf

      Elma's Single 6U NAS Blade Provides Up to 1.2 TB SATA Storage for Enhanced Data …

      Elma Electronic Systems division, a leading supplier of embedded products and systems solutions built on open standards-based platforms like CompactPCI, ATCA, VME and VPX, now offers the 6211 cPCI RAIDStor with up to 1.2 TB in a single cPCI slot or 2.4 TB with two slots. The new 6U CompactPCI blade network attached storage (NAS) board provides automatic and transparent cross-network or intra-blade data replication and re-sync for enhanced...
      http://www.elma.com/Americas/English/About/USPR041210.aspx

      Blade Systems Alliance

      The Blade Systems Alliance's (BladeS) mission is to advance the adoption of modular and blade-based computing systems. In cooperation with the worldwide community of data center professionals and other advanced systems users, BladeS: Promotes multi-vendor standards for modular systems management and racking. Works with the user community to address real-world data center and advanced computing issues. Delivers information, programs...
      http://www.bladesystems.org/

      Blade server

      Blade servers are self-contained computer servers, designed for high density. Whereas a standard rack-mount server can exist with (at least) a power cord and network cable, blade servers have many components removed for space, power and other considerations while still having all the functional components to be considered a computer. A blade enclosure provides services such as power, cooling, networking, various interconnects and management...
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_server

      A Blade Server Primer

      As demands placed on data centers grow, blade servers provide a convenient means of massively extending the device density. As with any technology, you gain in one way and lose in another; the increased density places a greater burden on the human operator. It's entirely possible that the problems of blade management may usher in the "next big thing" in the form of autonomic computing.
      http://www.phptr.com

      Bladeuser.org

      BladeUser.org is a service of the Customer Advisory Committee of Blade.org. Our goal is to provide a source for blade server users to share information about using blade server products and services. The BladeUser.org Mission To support the Blade.org mission, Bladeuser.org is an open customer portal that provides an online forum for blade computing users to voice observations, ask questions and make comments about blade configurations,...
      http://www.bladeuser.org/

      Blade.org

      An open community that will develop and advance next-generation technologies for blades. The Blade.org community will initially focus on solution design guidance, compliance and interoperability testing, industry events and marketplace education.
      http://www.blade.org/

      Themis' new T2BC

      Themis' new T2BC is for use in the entire family IBM® BladeCenter® chassis. The T2BC is a cost-efficient uniprocessor blade that offers the same reliability, availability and serviceability that IT organizations have come to expect from two-socket servers while running the Sun® Solaris™ 10 operating system. The T2BC Blade Server enables Solaris applications to run natively, on an UltraSPARC® T2® Chip Multi-Threading (CMT) processor, within an IBM BladeCenter.
      http://www.themis.com/prod/t2bc.htm

      A Competitive Analysis of IBM BladeCenter

      This white paper competitive analysis commissioned by IBM and Intel is the property of Crystal Cube Consulting, IBM and Intel Corporation (referred to as the Companies), and is made available to a restricted number of clients only upon these terms and conditions. The contents of this white paper competitive analysis represent the interpretation and analysis of statistics and information that is either generally available to the public or...
      http://www.crystalcubeconsulting.com

      Design Considerations for High-Speed Internetworking Among Compute Blades within a Blade...

      The next generation of compute servers will be based on clusters of compute blades integrated within a common chassis. This paper examines the internetworking requirements for incorporating several very high-speed and redundant communication links on a common midplane for the interconnection of compute blades within the chassis and to the external network infrastructure.
      http://csdl2.computer.org/comp/proceedings/lcn/2003/2037/00/20370642.pdf

      Explanation: these links are provided as part of our EE glossary project, which seeks to identify the most prominent keywords in embedded systems, embedded software, realtime and rtos, dsp (digital signal processing), system-on-a-chip, microprocessors and microcontrollers, and other constituent elements for embedded systems. While we seek to keep most of the links up-to-date, the user is refered to other primary electronic-based search sites such as: cera2.com, embedded.com, or EDN Magazine. If you have any suggestions of links or definitions, please email!

Mark Twain quote for the day:

I was educated, I was trained, I was a Presbyterian and I knew how these things are done. I knew that in Biblical times if a man committed a sin the extermination of the whole surrounding nation -- cattle and all --was likely to happen. I knew that Providence was not particular about the rest, so that He got somebody connected with the one He was after.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain