[wplug] wow

[Vanco, Donald]

Lance Tost <mailto:ltost at pobox.com> scribbled on Wednesday, September 24,
2003 11:42 AM:
> On Wed, 24 Sep 2003, Vanco, Donald wrote:
>> 
> http://www.ece.umd.edu/courses/enee759h.S2003/references/chipk
> ill_white_pape
>> r.pdf
>> http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MCGN-46AMQP.html
> 
> This is interesting... but I don't see it mention anything about
> removing/replacing/adding memory from/to a running server.
	ChipKill technology supports self healing, RAM RAID, and hot-swap,
if it's not specifically documented in these links there's info out here
somewhere.  While I've not see it in person on IBM gear, I've have seen it
demonstrated on HP (Compaq) Proliants.


>> ...no H-P links off the top of my head (I'm a bit swamped with my
>> stupid day job right now), but they've got it too.  PCI-X has been
>> around for a long time now.....
> 
> Hrmm, found a PCI-X FAQ but it makes no mention of dynamic
> reconfiguration either:
	PCI hotswap - it's in any current kernel tree as PCI_HOTPLUG (or
HOTPLUG_PCI ??) and I believe it's still listed as experimental.

> Q.
> What are the benefits of using PCI-X?
	If you've got a system with HW redundancy (like RAID controllers)
you can swap a card without the bus freezing - that's part of PCI-X and
hotplug.  Basically, PCI-X slots have a "power switch" that removes that
slot from the bus allowing for a card change.  There are, of course,
required kernel tweaks.  I don't have time to look over the links provided,
but (part of) PCI-X architecture supports PCI hotswap.

Don