-C H A P T E R

C H A P T E R 3

Sun Fire Visual Grid System Hardware Requirements

This chapter describes the Sun Fire Visual Grid system hardware requirements and supported system configurations.

Graphics Accelerator Hardware

Network Hardware

Supported Configurations

See the diagrams in System Configuration Examples for examples on hardware networking configurations.

Graphics Accelerator Hardware

Only the Sun XVR-4000 graphics accelerator is supported by the Sun Fire Visual Grid system. A system can have other frame buffers installed; they cannot, however, be used in conjunction with the Sun Fire Visual Grid software.

Network Hardware

Each slave must be connected to the master by at least two separate networks--a Gigabit Ethernet network connection for X protocol data and a Myrinet network for OpenGL data. The Ethernet connection can pass through a switch, but the Myrinet connections must be point-to-point. For security and performance reasons, consider isolating the Sun Fire Visual Grid system Gigabit Ethernet network from the main corporate network (see Chapter 6).

Sun Fire Visual Grid software includes software that aggregates bandwidth across three point-to-point Myrinet links between the master host and each slave host. This makes it possible to increase bandwidth beyond what is possible for a single Myrinet card. A total of six Myrinet cards are required for each slave--three are installed in the slave computer and three in the master computer. A Myrinet fiber cable is used to attach each pair of Myrinet cards in point-to-point fashion, without a network switch; therefore, three Myrinet cables are required between each master and slave. The Myrinet cards and cables are part of the installation kit (Installation Kit).

Note - The Gigabit Ethernet gear (if required) or cables are not included as a standard part of the Sun Fire Visual Grid installation kit.

Myrinet Networking Cards

Every slave must have exactly three Myrinet PCI network cards, and they should be plugged into the same distribution of 66/33 Mhz PCI bus slots.

For a Sun Fire 4800/6800 master, each slave must be connected to a separate I/O assembly on the master.

Myrinet connections must be point-to-point; a Myrinet switch is not supported at this time.

Myrinet driver packages for Solaris that are delivered as part of the Sun Fire Visual Grid software distribution must be installed. The installation script performs this installation automatically.

Note - Do not download the Myrinet driver packages directly from the Myricom web site.

Do not install other non-Sun Myrinet cards in any of the master or slaves. The only exception would be installation in a separate system domain in a Sun Fire 4800/6800 master.

Myricom Myrinet Card Requirements

Six Myrinet-2000-Fiber/PCI interface PCI short cards (Myricom part no.
M3F-PCI64C-2) for each slave computer. Three are for the slave and three are for the master.

Myrinet-2000-Fiber cables (50/125 multimode fiber pairs with LC connectors) 25 meters in length (Myricom part no. M3F-CB-25M) for each slave computer. If necessary for a particular installation configuration, longer cable lengths should function without problems.

Ethernet Networking Cards

A Gigabit Ethernet network for the master-slave connection is required. Any
Sun-supported Gigabit Ethernet network card is acceptable.

Sun standard Gigabit Ethernet network cards are supported.

Each slave has a built-in fiber Gigabit Ethernet adapter.

USB Card

For a Sun Fire 4800/6800 master, you must install a USB card into one of the PCI slots so that the keyboard and mouse can be attached. This keyboard and mouse is used when running X Windows. The Sun Fire V880z already has USB ports for a keyboard and mouse.

A USB card that fits into a Sun Fire 4800/6800 PCI slot is included in the Sun Fire Visual Grid system installation kit. The USB card is only supported for a keyboard and mouse, and other USB 1.0 and USB 1.1 functionality. USB 2.0 is not officially supported with this card, although it should function properly.

Serial Port

For a master Sun Fire 4800/6800, you can obtain serial port capability by using an Edgeport Standard Serial Converter (Edgeport model number 301-1000-04), which is a USB-to-RS232 serial converter.

Keyboard, Video, and Mouse Extenders

A keyboard and mouse extender device is required for a Sun Fire 4800/6800. Otherwise, the keyboard and mouse cables will not reach far enough to connect to that computer. Some installations might also need video extenders, which provide remote access to the video some distance away from a Sun Fire V880z, typically over fiber links. This equipment must be purchased separately and is not included in the Sun Fire Visual Grid system installation kit. For help obtaining the equipment, contact your Sun service representative.

Supported Configurations

TABLE 3-1 lists the supported system configurations. For networking diagram examples, see System Configuration Examples.


Master Computer	Slave Computer
Sun Fire V880z with one Sun XVR-4000 graphics accelerator (4-6 CPUs)	One Sun Fire V880z with two Sun XVR-4000 graphics accelerators (2 CPUs)
Sun Fire V880z with two Sun XVR-4000 graphics accelerators (4 CPUs)	One Sun Fire V880z with two Sun XVR-4000 graphics accelerators (2 CPUs)
Sun Fire 4800	Up to two Sun Fire V880z computers with one or two Sun XVR-4000 graphics accelerators (2 CPUs)
Sun Fire 6800	Up to four Sun Fire V880z computers with one or two Sun XVR-4000 graphics accelerators (2 CPUs)

For configurations beyond the limits in TABLE 3-1, see Support Services at:

http://www.sun.com/service/online

Sun Fire 4800 and Sun Fire 6800 Configurations

For Sun Fire 4800 and Sun Fire 6800 Visual Grid configurations only, the single Sun XVR-4000 graphics accelerator option enables configurations with an odd number of frame buffers. In this configuration, however, you can only have one Sun Fire V880z slave with one Sun XVR-4000 graphics accelerator.