Glossary
Chipkill A technology developed by IBM for situations that demand high
availability. It allows a system (usually CPU or motherboard) to detect
problems with the computer’s memory and selectively disable the
problematic DIMMS.
ECC Error Correcting Code. A type of memory that corrects errors on the fly.
PCI-E Peripheral Component Interconnect Express. Formerly known as third-
generation I/O, this implementation of the PCI computer bus that uses
existing PCI programming concepts and communication standards, but
bases it on a much faster serial communications system.
PCI-X Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended. A computer bus technology
that increases the speed that data can move within a computer from
66 MHz to 133 MHz.
SAS Serial Attached SCSI. The successor to the original SCSI technology with
the ability to address up to 16,256 devices per port. It also has a more
reliable point-to-point serial connection at speeds of up to 3 Gbps.
Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T The most widely used LAN access method defined by the IEEE 802.3
standard; uses standard RJ-45 connectors and telephone wire. 100Base-T
is also referred to as Fast Ethernet. And 1000Base-T is also referred to as
Gigabit Ethernet.
IKE Internet Key Exchange. A method for establishing a security association
that authenticates users, negotiates the encryption method and exchanges
the secret key. IKE is used in the IPSec protocol.
I/O Input/output. Transferring data between the CPU and any peripherals.
IPSec IP Security. A security protocol from the IETF (Internet Engineering Task
Force) that provides authentication and encryption over the Internet.
Unlike SSL, which provides services at layer 4 and secures two
applications, IPSec works at layer 3 and secures everything in the
network.
IPMI Intelligent Platform Management Interface. System management
architecture for providing an industry-standard interface and methodology
for system management.
L2 cache Also referred to as Ecache or External Cache. A memory cache external to
the CPU chip. The AMD Opteron processor integrates 1 MB of L2 cache
per CPU.
MTBF Mean Time Between Failures. The average time a component works
without failure.
SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol. A set of protocols for managing
complex networks. The first versions of SNMP were developed in the
early 80s. SNMP works by sending messages, called protocol data units
(PDUs), to different parts of a network. SNMP-compliant devices, called
agents, store data about themselves in Management Information Bases
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