Product Description
IBM EMX0 PCIe Gen3 I/O Expansion Drawer
The IBM EMX0 is a high-performance PCIe Gen3 I/O expansion drawer designed for IBM Power Systems servers. This 4U rack-mount enclosure adds up to 16 additional PCIe Gen3 slots (full-height, full-length) via optical cable connection, enabling massive I/O scalability for network adapters, storage HBAs, NVMe controllers, GPU accelerators, and other PCIe cards in AIX, IBM i, Linux, and VIOS environments on Power8, Power9, and select Power10 systems.
Product Description
The IBM EMX0 (feature code EMX0) is a PCIe Gen3 I/O expansion drawer that connects to the host server via PCIe3 Optical Cable Adapters (#EJ05, #EJ07, #EJ08, etc.) and active optical cables (AOC pair, e.g., ECC8). It occupies 4U of rack space and houses up to four fanout modules (e.g., #EMXF or #EMXG), each providing 6 PCIe Gen3 slots (2 × x16 + 4 × x8), for a total of 24 slots per drawer (with four fanout modules installed). The drawer supports full-height, full-length PCIe cards and blind-swap cassettes (BSC) for hot-plug maintenance. It delivers low-latency PCIe lane extension (up to 64 Gbps per x8 link) for remote I/O expansion, making it ideal for high-density virtualization, large databases, AI/ML training, high-speed networking, and storage-intensive workloads requiring more PCIe slots than available in the host chassis. The EMX0 is fully qualified for Power8, Power9, and Power10 systems, offering massive I/O scalability without consuming host PCIe slots.
Features
- 4U rack-mount enclosure with up to 24 PCIe Gen3 slots (using four fanout modules)
- PCIe Gen3 x8 optical cable connectivity (up to 64 Gbps per link)
- Supports full-height, full-length PCIe adapters (NICs, HBAs, GPUs, NVMe controllers, etc.)
- Blind-swap cassettes (BSC) for hot-plug adapter maintenance
- Redundant hot-plug power supplies and cooling fans
- Advanced cable management and rack-optimized design
- Full IBM qualification for AIX, IBM i, Linux, VIOS
- Concurrent maintenance support (with compatible firmware)
Technical Specifications
- Feature Code: EMX0
- CCIN: Not assigned (drawer, uses system feature code)
- Part Number: Varies by configuration (typically 02WFxxx series or related)
- Form Factor: 4U rack-mount
- PCIe Slots: Up to 24 (6 per fanout module × 4 modules)
- Slot Configuration: 2 × x16 + 4 × x8 per fanout module (e.g., #EMXF/#EMXG)
- Interface: PCIe Gen3 x8 optical (via AOC cables)
- Power: Dual redundant hot-plug power supplies (typically 900W–1400W each)
- Cooling: Redundant hot-plug fans
- Compatibility: Power8, Power9, select Power10 models with PCIe3 optical adapters
Compatibility
The IBM EMX0 PCIe Gen3 I/O Expansion Drawer is compatible with:
- Power Systems Models:
- Power8: E870/E880 (9119-MME/MHE), S824 (8286-42A), S814 (8286-41A), and other Power8 models with PCIe3 optical support
- Power9: E950/E980 (9009 series), S922/S914/924, and related models with PCIe Gen3 optical adapters
- Power10: S1012/S1014/S1022/S1022s/S1024 (scale-out), E1080 (enterprise), and other Power10 models with backward-compatible PCIe Gen3 optical support
- Operating Systems: AIX 7.1+ / 7.2+ / 7.3+, IBM i 7.1+ / 7.2+ / 7.3+ / 7.4+ / 7.5+, Linux (RHEL/SUSE/Ubuntu), VIOS
- Host Adapters: PCIe3 Optical Cable Adapters (#EJ05, #EJ07, #EJ08, etc.)
- Cables: ECC8 10m AOC pair (or shorter compatible optical cables)
- Fanout Modules: #EMXF (6-slot), #EMXG (6-slot, enhanced)
- Limitations: Requires PCIe3 optical host adapter and AOC cables; optical only (no copper at full distance); performance limited in Gen2 slots; not compatible with PCIe Gen4/Gen5 drawers (use newer drawers for Gen4/Gen5)
Verify exact host adapter, cable, and firmware requirements via IBM Sales Manual or resources for your specific Power Systems model.
Warranty
This product comes with a 60-day warranty covering parts and functionality.
