Chipkill not working within the BIOS on V20z and V40z platforms.

Asset ID:	1-73-1020158.1
Update Date:	2011-02-22
Keywords:

Solution Type FAB (standard) Sure

Solution 1020158.1 : Chipkill not working within the BIOS on V20z and V40z platforms.

Impact

Unexpected reboots and/or hangs may occur on the V20z/V40z with AMD Dual Core Opteron Processors as a result of the Chipkill feature not working properly within the BIOS.

Contributing Factors

This issue impacts software updates and NSV versions prior to Sun Fire V20z/V40z Server SW 2.8.2.

Symptoms

Systems can reboot and/or hang with no specific error messages displayed in the log files.

Root Cause

Confirmed that this issues exists in all Software updates and NSV versions prior to Sun Fire V20z/V40Z Server SW 2.8.2.

Corrective Action

Workaround:

No workaround available - see Resolution section below.

Resolution:

A new BIOS has been created to correct the chipkill function: Sun Fire V20z/V40z Server SW 2.8.2.

Recommend all customers that have V20z/V40z servers with AMD Dual Core Opteron Processors install the new Sun Fire V20z/V40z Server SW 2.8.2. The only change from the previous Sun Fire V20z/V40z Server SW 2.8 version is that chipkill is now enabled.

V20z/V40z Server SW 2.8.2 (or above) can be found via the below URLs;

V20z: http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/v20z/downloads.jsp
V40z: http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/v40z/downloads.jsp

Comments

In order to successfully install the chipkill fix, please install the sp firmware from Sun Fire V20z/V40z Server SW 2.8 followed by installing the bios firmware from Sun Fire V20z/V40z Server SW 2.8.2 (or above). When installed correctly the sp version will be 2.4.0.20 (or above) and the bios version will be either V20z BIOS version 1.35.5.1 or V40z BIOS version 2.35.5.1.

For information about FAB documents, its release processes, implementation strategies and billing information, go to the following URL:

http://tns.central/fab

For Sun Authorized Service Providers go to:

http://tns.central/SPE/fab/

In addition to the above you may email:

FAB-Manager@sun.com

Internal Contributor/submitter
Jake.Bell@Sun.COM

Internal Eng Responsible Engineer
Qingsu.Hu@Sun.COM Responsible Manager: Dennis.Lee@Sun.COM

Internal Eng Business Unit Group
NSG (Network Systems Group)

Internal Sun Alert & FAB Admin Info
18-Feb-2009: completed draft and sent to Extended Review.
21-Feb-2009: Modified per Ext Rvw feedback - sending to Publish.

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