Supernova (server)

Supernova is a cancelled server product line at one time under development at Sun Microsystems.

The (also cancelled) UltraSPARC Rock processor was intended to slot into this line of servers. Details of the server specifications were released into Open Solaris Architecture Review case FWARC/2008/761.^[1]

Physical resources

The Physical Resource Inventory (PRI) of the ARC 2008/761 indicates the Supernova platforms was intended to support: IEEE 1275 OpenFirmware, platform virtualization through Logical Domains (LDOM), independent system controller (SC), and Fault Management Architecture (FMA) Domain Services.^[2] The FMA feature was originally referenced to FWARC/2006/141, but this was closed and extended in FWARC/2008/455 "to successfully diagnose PCI fabric errors that occur in root domains."^[3]

Input/Output descriptions

The iodevice Machine Description (MD) Node Specification of ARC 2008/761 indicated planned support for both PCI Express (PCIe) hot-pluggable slots as well as a bridge to older PCI eXtended (PCI-X).^[4]

Input/Output expandability

Hitendra Zhangada described a variety of PCIe parameters in software which support the hardware platforms. Bronze servers would support PCIe slots 0-5. Silver servers would support I/O boats 0-1 and PCIe slots 0-7 for each boat. Platinum servers support I/O boats 0-3 and PCIe slots 0-7 for each boat. Silver-II servers support PCIe slots 00-19. Platinum-II servers support boards 0-7 and slots 0-3 for each board.^[5]

Server product line

Common features

Hitendra Zhangada, SPS Common SW Features Engineering, at Software Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc. wrote an email on December 9 in 2008 sponsoring a fast-track software ARC case describing Supernova platforms AT480 and AT880. Ravi Subbarao of Sun Microsystems, Director of Enterprise Systems Software, sponsored ARC 2008/761. The email described platforms bindings and interface changes: in MD, PRI and OpenBoot device node.^[6]

AT7180

There was a speculated SPARC Enterprise AT7180, as a single socket model, reported to handle as many as 32 hardware threads.^[7]

AT7280

There was a speculated SPARC Enterprise AT7280, as a dual socket mode, reported to handle as many as 64 hardware threads.^[8]

AT7480

The Supernova Silver-II model, or SPARC Enterprise AT7480, was intended to be a quad socket model, reported to handle as many as 128 hardware threads.^[9] The AT7480 is based upon the PCI Express bus architecture with an OpenFirmware.

AT7880

The Supernova Platinum-II, or SPARC Enterprise AT7880, was reported to be an 8-socket model handling as many as 256 hardware threads.^[10] The AT7880 is based upon the PCI Express bus architecture with an OpenBoot firmware. Pingchung Lee, Responsible Engineer for ARC 2008/761 explains in a December 10 email in 2008 that the AT7880 has eight individual CPU boards and each CPU board has one Sun Neptune multithreaded 10 Gigabit Ethernet chip on board.^[11]

References