The IBM BladeCenter was IBM's blade server architecture, until it was replaced by Flex System in 2012. The x86 division was later sold to Lenovo in 2014.
History
Introduced in 2002, based on engineering work started in 1999, the IBM eServer BladeCenter was relatively late to the blade server market. It differed from prior offerings in that it offered a range of x86 Intel server processors and input/output (I/O) options.
The naming was changed to IBM BladeCenter in 2005. In February 2006, IBM introduced the BladeCenter H with switch capabilities for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and InfiniBand 4X.
A web site called Blade.org was available for the blade computing community through about 2009.
In 2012, the replacement Flex System was introduced.
Enclosures
IBM BladeCenter (E) The original IBM BladeCenter was later marketed as BladeCenter E. Power supplies have been upgraded through the life of the chassis from the original 1200 to 1400, 1800, 2000 and 2320 watt.
The BladeCenter (E) was co-developed by IBM and Intel and included: 14 blade slots in 7U Shared Media tray with Optical drive, floppy drive and USB 1.1 port 1 (upgradable to 2) Management modules Two slots for Gigabit Ethernet switches (can also have optical or copper pass-through) Two slots for optional switch or pass-through modules, can have additional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or Myrinet 2000 functions Power: Two (upgradable to four) power supplies, C19/C20 connectors Two redundant high-speed blowers
IBM BladeCenter T
BladeCenter T is the telecommunications company version of the original BladeCenter, available with either AC or DC (48 V) power. Has 8 blade slots in 8U, but uses the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter E. To keep NEBS Level 3 / ETSI compliant special Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS) compliant blades are available.
IBM BladeCenter H
Upgraded BladeCenter design with high-speed fabric options, announced in 2006. Backwards compatible with older BladeCenter switches and blades. Features: 14 blade slots in 9U Shared Media tray with Optical drive and USB 2.0 port 1 (upgradable to 2) Advanced Management modules Two slots for Gigabit Ethernet switches (can also have optical or copper pass-through) Two slots for optional switch or pass-through modules, can have additional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or Myrinet 2000 functions Four slots for optional high-speed switches or pass-through modules, can have 10 Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X. Optional Hard-wired serial port capability Power: Two (upgradable to four) power supplies, with Souriau UTG input connectors Two redundant high-speed blowers
IBM BladeCenter HT
BladeCenter HT is the telecommunications company version of the BladeCenter H, available with either AC or DC (48 V) power. Has 12 blade slots in 12U, but uses the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter H. But to keep NEBS Level 3 / ETSI compliant special NEBS compliant blades are available.
IBM BladeCenter S
Targets mid-sized customers by offering storage inside the BladeCenter chassis, so no separate external storage needs to be purchased. It can also use 120V power in the North American market, so it can be used outside the datacenter. When running at 120V , the total chassis capacity is reduced. Features: 6 blade slots in 7U Shared Media tray with optical drive and 2× USB 2.0 ports 1 Advanced Management module as standard (no option for secondary module) Storage: Up to 12 hot-swap 3.5" (or 24 2.5") SAS or SATA drives with RAID 0, 1, and 1E capability (RAID 5 and SAN capabilities optional with two SAS RAID controllers) Two optional Disk Storage Modules for HDDs, six 3.5" SAS/SATA drives each 4 hot-swap I/O switch module bays Power: Two 950/1450-watt, hot-swap modules and ability to have two optional 950/1450-watt modules, offering redundancy and power for robust configurations; C19/C20 connectors Four hot-swap redundant blowers (plus one fan in each power supply)
Blade nodes list
Intel based
Modules based on x86 processors from Intel.
HS12
(2008) Features: Processor: Celeron single-core 445 to quad-core Intel Xeon up to 2.83GHz Memory: 6 DIMM slots (up to 24GB) Hot-swap drives
HS20
(2002–2006) Features:
Processors: One or two Intel Xeon DP (single or dual-core) Memory: 4 DIMM slots Option for one or two 2.5" drives (ATA100, SCSI U320 or Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) depending on generation) Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)