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The Cool Team’s challenge was to turn high density into a power and cooling advantage – without compromises. We had to come up with a technology that could double airflow with less power and less noise. We looked everywhere for inspiration. Just when we were about to go with the status quo, we discovered model airplane hobbyists who were experimenting with break-through designs that would sustain battery life without compromising speed. Eureka! Two perspectives on a similar problem led to a revolution in the laws of fan physics that produced the new HP Active Cool fan and PARSEC architecture.
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During the design development stage, we could hear an extremely annoying sound coming from the high speed fans. Obviously this was not going to be acceptable from an end-user or design requirement standpoint. We knew we had to find and answer that we could bring to market fast. In response, the team invented a Recta-Ring resonator—a quick, effective, and low-cost solution for welcomed silence. The result was our server blades vs. rack servers emit half the decibels. The sound that you don’t hear coming from HP BladeSystem comes from us.
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I did something that had never been tried before in industry standard servers. Using Pro/ENGINEER, I created a three-dimensional model of the fan that could be easily modified by adjusting a small set of input parameters. This allowed us to make changes, produce parts using a 3D printer, and test the parts all in a matter of hours instead of weeks. This way, we literally tested hundreds of possible variations quickly and cost effectively. Without this capability, the time constraints of optimizing the fans could have been a barrier, and the cooling capabilities for HP BladeSystem could have been compromised. Inside those hundreds of tests, we found a design with 4x the performance than anything in the industry.
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I was inspired by the self-explanatory LCD displays on HP All-in-One Printers. I built a prototype using a server VGA PCI card directly connected to the TFT panel and wrote firmware for an inexpensive microcontroller that drives the LCD. The design goal for setting up an entire HP BladeSystem was less than 15 minutes. With Onboard Administrators insight display, it really can be done in just a couple of minutes. Plus, it provides immediate access to system health and operating information without attaching a PC to the enclosure.
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The only options for Ethernet and Fibre Channel network connections were pass-thru modules and switches and each had serious limitations. So, HP assigned us the task of finding a better approach. We concluded that a combination of hardware cable reduction and server-edge virtualization was the answer. Working closely with key customers, we refined and tested product concepts and ultimately defined the Virtual Connect Architecture—a breakthrough solution that makes IT organizations change-ready and more productive.
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I invented the fabric connectivity architecture of the HP BladeSystem enclosure to cover a wide range of customer needs. It will support mainstream environments immediately and allow customers to take advantage of extremely high bandwidth connectivity and enable new classes of switches such as Virtual Connect and Shared IO modules in the future. Given that fabric connectivity impacts how we size and scale server blades, mezzanine cards, and switches, I would like to think that I planted a good DNA seed in the heart of HP BladeSystem that will deliver unlimited blade possibilities for customers in the future.
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Our mission was to design diagnostics test software that works across x86, x86-64, and Itanium processors. We investigated what was out there and developed a proof-of-concept to validate a solution for integrating HP Insight Diagnostics. The end result: an automated common, consistent diagnostic test solution and customer order hardware verification across all ProLiant and Integrity servers based on Xeon, Operton or Itanium. Automation establishes virtual presence and control for server testing within the data center or at remote locations, eliminating the need for IT personnel to be physically present. A consistent and easy-to-use set of blade test tools reduces support, maintenance, and training costs.
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We wanted to give customers the same choice in I/O that they were accustomed to in rack mount servers without sacrificing the benefits of cable-free, hot plug installation. The answer was to embed the intelligence and information into the BladeSystem components so that the components could solve problems themselves. My concept of electronic keying lets the switches and mezzanines communicate their capabilities electronically to the Onboard Administrator, which resolves conflicts prior to operation. It lets customers provision and repair their I/O fabrics simply and easily in the field. This level of insight and intelligence solved a very complex problem, in a very simple way.
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To conserve backplane space and cost, we could only use one power connector per half-height blade. This meant rotating the bottom row blades 180 degrees. Upside down blades were not very desirable from a customer or design standpoint. So we found a way to connect the server blades to the backplane with two power connectors, eliminating the need to rotate them. Although it’s a very simplistic idea, I believe our dual power connectors add to the overall look and feel of HP BladeSystem, not to mention ease of use and installation. Nothing is too small to make it easier for customers.”
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Printable version
