HostEngine-X2

HostEngines are rack mount computers that connect to GPU-Xpander products for hosting up to eight double-wide or sixteen single-wide GPUs or other PCI Express (PCIe) adapters or controllers. Connect up to eight NVIDIA® Tesla® 2050 / 2070 or Quadro® 5000 / 6000 GPUs to a single computer using HostEngine-X2 and GPU-Xpander Rackmount 8 for rendering, for color grading or for high-performance compute (HPC) cluster operations.

XpanderBlade-X1 with GPU-Xpander Rackmount 8HostEngine-X2 Dual Xeon Host Computer

HostEngines are rack mount computers that connect to GPU-Xpander products for hosting up to eight double-wide or sixteen single-wide GPUs or other PCI Express (PCIe) adapters or controllers. Connect up to eight NVIDIA Tesla 2050 / 2070 or Quadro 5000 / 6000 GPUs to a single HostEngine-X2 using GPU-Xpander Rackmount 8 for rendering, for color grading or for high-performance compute (HPC) cluster operations.

By connecting the HostEngine-X2 rackmount computer to GPU-Xpander Rackmount 8, you can add up to eight double-wide GPUs such as NVIDIA® Tesla 2070 or Quadro 6000 for running Autodesk® 3ds Max or Bunkspeed® Shot with Mental Images® iray on Microsoft® Windows® 7, or BlackMagic Design® DaVinci Resolve® 8.0 for Linux.

Features and Benefits
HostEngine-X2 computer features single or dual Intel® Xeon® 64-bit, 3.2GHz or lower-speed processor(s) with the Intel 5520 chipset.  The standard dual Xeon processors provide 6 cores each, support 12 simultaneous processing threads and provide 12MBytes of integrated Intel Smart Cache®. XpanderBlade-X2 provides seven PCIe Gen 2.0 x16 (x8 electrical) expansion slots. Each slot accommodates a half-height controller such as the Cubix Host Interface Controller (HIC) that connects to GPU-Xpander. Each HIC connects to multiple slots within a GPU-Xpander Rackmount 8 or other GPU-Xpander products. Connect each of multiple HICs in one HostEngine-X2 to a GPU-Xpander Rackmount 8 or one HIC in each HostEngine-X2 to a GPU-Xpander Rackmount 8 (see sample configurations in the image at the right).

HostEngine-X2 is a 2U computer that mounts horizontally within a rack mount cabinet and accommodates the Cubix HIC that connects to GPU-Xpander products. Optionally, HostEngine-X2 is available as a 4U computer that accommodates three full-height, full-length PCIe x8 or x16 GPUs or other cards.

Service individual nodes as needed to increase uptime by up to 75 percent. You can quickly and easily add or remove HostEngine to / from your rackmount cabinet without affecting other HostEngine computers. You can quickly and easily add or remove hard disk drives to / from HostEngine without affecting other HostEngine computers.

Connections
HostEngine provides two PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse, two USB 2.0 ports, two Gbps Ethernet ports, a COM port and a dedicated management LAN port. The AC power receptacle is also on the rear panel.

HostEngine also provides access for Cubix PCIe x16 HICs that connect to GPU-Xpander Rackmount 8 or other GPU-Xpander enclosures using external PCIe x16 cables. With these connections, you can mount XpanderBlade immediately above or below GPU-Xpander Rackmount 8.

For HostEngine detail and pricing, contact Cubix or visit the CubixGPU On-line Store.

HostEngine

HostEngine Host Computers for GPU-Xpander Rackmount Products

HostEngine-X2 Technical Specifications

Processors
Intel® Xeon 5600 (Westmere) or 5500 (Nehalem) Series
2 processors with identical revision, core voltage and bus (core) speed
1366-pin LGA socket
3.46GHz and lower speeds / up to 6 cores / up to 12 threads
Up to 12MByte Intel Smart Cache
64-bit computing
6.4 GigaTransactions/second (GT/s) Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) speed

Chipset
Intel 5520 with QPI technology for increased bandwidth and scalability
1333, 1066 or 667MHz front side bus speeds

Memory
192GBytes using 12 x paired, quad-ranked DDR3 FBDIMMs maximum 
48GBytes using 12 x paired, dual-ranked DDR3 DIMMs maximum
1GByte, 2GByte, 4GByte, 8GByte and 16GByte sizes
Registered, ECC and Fully Buffered DIMMs (FBDIMMs) or non-ECC and Unbuffered DIMMs
DDR3-1333MHz (PC3-10666), DDR3-1066MHz (PC3-8500) or DDR3-800MHz (PC3-6400)
3 branches of 2 channels each with a maximum of 2 x DIMMs per channel

PCI Express expansion slots
7 x Gen 2.0 x16 (x8 electrical)

Network
2 x Intel PRO/1000 RJ-45 Ethernet ports
Intel 82576 dual-port network controller
10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, and 1000BASE-T

Storage
Serial ATA (SATA) standard
  4 x SATA connectors provide support for RAID 0, 1 and 5 (Windows)
  2.75-inch (70mm) drive with a thickness of 0.25-inch (6.35mm)

Rear panel
COM1 (DB-9) serial port
2 x Universal Serial Bus (USB) version 2.0
PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse (miniDIN-6 each)

Power
One single-phase, auto-ranging, 90-240VAC, 4.7-2.3Amps, 50/60Hz power supply
  750Watts in standard 2U
  1500Watts in optional 4U with up to 3 double-wide GPUs

Operating Environment
0° to 30° Celsius (32° to 86° Fahrenheit) temperature
5% to 80% non-condensing humidity

Dimensions 
3.50” H x 19.00” W x 25.50” D (6.35 cm H x 48.26 W x 64.77CM D) 2U standard
7.00” H x 19.00” W x 25.50” D (12.70 cm H x 48.26 W x 64.77CM D) 4U option

Weight 
29.40 lbs. (13.34kg) 2U standard
34.40 lbs. (15.60kg) 4U option

Warranty
Parts/labor return to manufacturer 1 year
Optional 2, 3 or 4 years

XpanderBlade-X1 Dimensions

hostengine-x2
29.4 lb.
HostEngine-X2




Support and Troubleshooting

HostEngine-X2 is running but GPU-Xpander Rackmount 8 is not running even though power is connected.

  • Shut down HostEngine normally from within the operating system (OS).
  • Disconnect power from HostEngine.
  • Check the external PCIe cable connection to make sure it is firmly seated in the host interface controller.
  • You should feel a click when it it is firmly seated in the host interface controller.
  • Reconnect power to HostEngine.
  • Make sure that the Power Good LED is lit green.
  • Start HostEngine.

Power on/off HostEngine-X2 connected to GPU-Xpander normally.

  • With GPU-Xpander connected to HostEngine-X2 and running, shut down HostEngine-X2 normally at the OS.
  • With GPU-Xpander connected to HostEngine-X2 and with power connected, power up HostEngine-X2; both will boot up.

Run HostEngine-X2 with GPU-Xpander powered off.

  • To run XpanderBlade-X2 without GPU-Xpander connected, power down HostEngine-X2, remove power from GPU-Xpander and boot HostEngine-X2.
  • When you are ready to run GPU-Xpander again, power down HostEngine-X2, connect power to GPU-Xpander and boot HostEngine-X2.

The Cable LED (P0) and the slot LEDs (P1, P5, P7 or P9) inside GPU-Xpander light steady green but the operating system (OS) does not detect the installed GPUs.

  • Power down the OS to shut down HostEngine-X2 and GPU-Xpander.
  • Disconnect power from GPU-Xpander.
  • Remove and replace the GPUs, making sure to seat the GPUs firmly within each PCIe slot and to seat firmly all of the auxiliary power cables.
  • Power up GPU-Xpander and then power up HostEngine-X2. When the OS boots, if it is plug and play, it should detect the GPUs.

The Slot 1, 2, 3 or 4 LEDs (P1, P5, P7 or P9) inside GPU-Xpander flash green when the Cable Link LED (P0) shines steady green.

  • Download the latest driver for the GPU from the vendor's site.
  • Install the driver.
  • Put a load on the GPUs in those slots, because some GPUs do not use full bandwidth until and unless they are running a load.

Warnings appear in Windows Device Manager.

  • You installed appropriate Intel chipset utility and other drivers for HostEngine-X2.
  • You installed current drivers for third-party GPUs or other adapters as appropriate.
  • Contact Cubix to find out if device driver updates are available.

Before You Contact Cubix
Find the unique serial number (s/n) located on the XpanderBlade.  Have this s/n ready when you contact Cubix Customer Service.

Fill out and submit the Contact Cubix form.
Email customerservice@cubix.com
Hours  8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific, Monday through Friday
Closed weekends and holidays
USA or Canada Telephone 800.829.0554
International Telephone 775.888.1000