For the recent April 12 Power System announcement I found myself updating all of the Technical Overview Redpapers for the various changes in each model family. What that means is shifting through something internally we call the feature matrix. The feature matrix has been around for while and is the central source of what feature goes with what server, when it was announced, and what it should be called both before announcement and after announcement. It takes business justification to get access to because it contains a lot of sensitive information, but it is vital for my teams when creating the tables used in the Technical Overview papers. And, in the 10 or so years I've been using it, I think I've found only a single error.
It isn't very user friendly, so I typically load the information into a spreadsheet, and sift and sort to find out what is coming or going. Occasionally I find some curious feature codes - so here are this blog's set:
- EU19 - How many of you know this one?. It is Cable Ties & Labels
A set of 10 hook and loop fabric ties 35.5 cm (14-inch) in length to conveniently attach cables or cords to rack or other cables. Set of 16 labels 2x4 inches (5x10 cm) in sized to identify cables when installing or moving or servicing equipment.
The maximum supported on a system is 9999! But you only can get 254 on your initial order. Label away!
- ECW0 - Optical Wrap Plug <- Memorize this one, they used to be included with an adapter and now they are not.
A wrap plug is a small connector designed to perform a diagnostic test called a loopback test. This wrap plug is inserted into a SR optical port on a PCIe Fibre Channel adapter or a SR or LR optical port on a PCIe Ethernet adapter
This is a multi-mode LC fiber optic wrap plug with an inside/outside optics diameter of 50/125. Its IBM part number as of early 2016 is 12R9314. An earlier equivalent function IBM part number which is no longer shipped is 11P3847.
It is strongly recommended that Fibre Channel adapters (HBAs) fill any empty adapter ports with a wrap plug. There is no technical issue leaving a port empty. However, filling all ports with a cable to a device/switch or with a wrap plug can speed the booting/IPLing of a partition and can avoid error messages uselessly pointing to a planned empty port.
There is no technical issue leaving an Ethernet port empty. Whether an Ethernet port is empty or contains a wrap plug should not impact boot/IPL time or impact empty-port messages.
- EHKE - CAPI Flash NoSQL
This feature is added anytime feature EJ16 is selected. This is for CAPI Flash NoSQL Impress your peers with this one.
- ECSO - Made in China
Not all models support this feature, such as the 8335-GTA. Tell your family during dinner about this one. Best served with a hot soup.
- EL7V - 1.6TB SFF-2 SSD 4k eMLC4 for Linux
NOTE: This feature is for ESS only.
This SFF (2.5") SAS Solid State Drive (SSD) is shipped from IBM with 1.6TB capacity formatted with 4096 byte sectors. The drive is supported in SFF Gen2 SAS bays in the #5887 or #EL1S EXP24S I/O drawer. CCIN is 59C2
Limitation: JBOD mode is not supported
This SSD is restricted and not generally available. It is for use only in 8247-22L for systems with FC EGSB (which is a solution offering - not sure which)
-Scott Vetter
