Northbridge NX801

If you're in the IS business, you're likely concerned about scalability. You probably wonder how much computing power you have and how much you will need in the future. Perhaps you're ready to upgrade your LAN to accommodate the Internet, electronic commerce, collaborative computing, more employees, or more data warehousing. If you need more speed, you need Axil Computer's symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) server, the Northbridge NX801. This easy-to-use, enterprise-level server uses Adaptive Memory Crossbar architecture to scale up to eight 200MHz Pentium Pro processors and 8GB of SDRAM. The Northbridge NX801 passed the Windows NT Magazine Lab's rigorous tests with flying colors.

Preflight Inspection
Axil offers many options and upgrades for the Northbridge NX801. The server can house two to eight processors, 128MB to 8GB of SDRAM, a Level 2 cache ranging from 512KB to 1MB, and as many as twenty-four 9GB SCSI hard disks. The Lab's test unit came with the maximum eight 200MHz Pentium Pro processors, a 512KB Level 2 cache, 2GB of SDRAM, one 3.5" disk drive, a 12X SCSI CD-ROM drive, a Diamond Stealth64 video graphics card, and 24 Seagate Barracuda 4GB SCSI-3 hard disks.

The Northbridge NX801 is 38" tall, 17" wide, and 28" deep, so it is only slightly larger than standard four-processor servers. Its chassis is a flat black case that features the AxilTouch display panel. The display panel is a touch-activated LCD that continuously monitors and reports on the system's power supplies, cooling fans, access doors, memory, UPS, hard disks, and CPUs. You can touch an icon on the display panel to pull up information, such as a fan's temperature and speed or a graph of CPU usage. The display panel also controls access to the unit's front doors. You must have a password to unlock the front doors. If you lose power to the system, you can bypass the electronic locks to manually open the front doors, but the process requires partial disassembly of the chassis. You open the rear door with a key.

From a technician's perspective, the Northbridge NX801 is a dream system. You can slide out every component without using a screwdriver or special tool, and the unit's internal modular design makes changing components a snap. The rear door provides access to the AC power switch, system cooling fans, and expansion slots. The unit's front doors provide access to the hard disks, disk drives, and CD-ROM drive. You can easily remove the cooling fans by opening the rear access panel and pulling the fans' small locking tabs. The top portion of the unit's frame holds the CPU Module Assembly, a drawer that houses the motherboard and slides horizontally out the back of the unit. On the left side of the CPU Module Assembly are eight PCI expansion slots. On the right side of the CPU Module Assembly are four P6 module slots, each of which houses a PCI-type card that holds two of the unit's CPUs. I pulled out the CPU Module Assembly and had no trouble removing the CPUs or changing the expansion cards. When I had the CPU Module Assembly out, I added four Intel 82557-based Ethernet PCI adapters, which I connected to the Lab's benchmarking network. The only design drawback I noticed in the Northbridge NX801 was that the CPU Module Assembly is relatively heavy, but the runners you slide it on are thin sheet metal. You must align the tray perfectly and lift it slightly to reseat it.

The lower half of the chassis contains the memory boards, three power supplies, and the hard disk slots. After I removed the fans and lowered an internal panel, I easily removed the memory boards and replaced a power supply from the back of the unit. I was impressed to see 64 Dual Inline Memory Module (DIMM) slots filled with 2GB of SDRAM.

Flight Manuals
The Northbridge NX801 comes configured with a version of Windows NT Server 4.0 that Axil has modified with an eight-processor hardware abstraction layer (HAL). Axil created this version of NT (the UNL Processor Edition) specifically for the Northbridge NX801. The server comes with a hardware support disk, an installation guide, a reference guide, and a reference CD-ROM.

The installation guide is superb. It leads you step-by-step through unpacking the Northbridge NX801, identifying its major components, supplying power to the system (the unit requires a 220-volt outlet), and setting up NT. The reference guide is an excellent resource for repairing or replacing any major system component and troubleshooting most problems. It includes component descriptions, diagrams, and detailed technical information. The only change I would make to the reference guide is that I would include more detailed instructions about software installation.

The Northbridge NX801 CD-ROM contains an HTML version of the installation and reference guides; Adobe Acrobat 3.0 (for viewing the product documentation's Portable Data Format--PDF--files); and a special version of Service Pack 2 (SP2), which Axil has modified to support the eight-processor HAL. The company makes drivers and updated service packs available at its Web site (http://www.axil.com).

For my testing, I completely reinstalled the NT 4.0 UNL Processor Edition on the Northbridge NX801. The reinstallation caused no major problems. The system's documentation does not include detailed instructions about installing this version of NT, but Axil provides installation information at ftp://www.axil.com/public/nt/tools/Readme .txt. The setup prompted me for the hardware support disk, which provides additional code that helps NT install correctly. I assigned fixed IP addresses to the system's four network adapter cards using TCP/IP as the network protocol. After I reinstalled NT, the Northbridge NX801 communicated flawlessly with the Lab's benchmarking domain.

The only major problem I faced during the installation process came when I restarted the system after installing Axil's SP2. I received unusual BIOS warnings about the memory and SCSI adapters, and eventually the system crashed. Axil's technical support directed me to a release bulletin that came with the system but that I had not bothered to read. The bulletin informed me that restarting the system from NT can corrupt the BIOS CMOS checksum. Axil recommends that you shut down and then reset the Northbridge NX801 with the power switch every time you reboot the system. Axil claims to have fixed this problem in BIOS version 2.2, which the company recently released.