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PowerEdge M915

Technical Guide

Maximized

performance and

bandwidth for

mission-critical

workloads and

applications

Summary of content (53 pages)

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PowerEdge M915 Technical Guide Maximized performance and bandwidth for mission-critical workloads and applications.
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Dell This document is for informational purposes only. Dell reserves the right to make changes without further notice to any products herein. The content provided is as is and without express or implied warranties of any kind. Dell, PowerEdge, and Dell OpenManage are trademarks of Dell, Inc. AMD, AMD Opteron, AMD PowerNow!, CoolCore, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
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Dell Table of Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Product Comparison ........................................................................................... 6 1.1 Overview .................................................................................................. 6 1.2 Maximum Workload Performance ...................................................................... 6 1.3 Boost Business Performance ............................................................................ 6 1.
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Dell 7.5 Memory Speed .......................................................................................... 7.6 Sparing ................................................................................................... 7.7 Mirroring ................................................................................................. 7.8 Memory Scrubbing...................................................................................... 8 Chipset ..........................................................
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Dell B 2. Product Safety Certifications ......................................................................... B 3. Electromagnetic Compatibility ....................................................................... B 4. Ergonomics, Acoustics and Hygienics ............................................................... Appendix C. Industry Standards ...............................................................................
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Dell 1 Product Comparison 1.1 Overview The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 is a 4-socket full-height blade server ideal for mission-critical applications needing maximum I/O scalability and performance. 1.2 Maximum Workload Performance Input, process, analyze and report data on the same platform; consolidate servers; and scale during peak workloads. With up to 48 processor cores, the Dell PowerEdge™ M915 offers you the performance you need to run your important business applications and workloads.
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Dell   software. Multi-chassis management provides one console access to several blade enclosures. Industry leading power and cooling: Efficient power supplies (fully redundant up to 92+%) utilize minimal power without compromising productivity. High-efficiency fans and intuitive chassis airflow ducting drive enterprise-class power consumption draw.
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Dell Feature M910 M915 R815 R910 Optional Hard Drive Controller PERC H200 PERC H700 PERC 6/i PERC H200 PERC H700 PERC H200 PERC H700 PERC H200 PERC H700 Availability Hot-plug hard drives Hot-plug redundant power and cooling ECC memory Single Device Data Correction (SDDC) Support for memory demand and patrol scrubbing High availability failover cluster support Hot-plug hard drives Hot-plug redundant power and cooling ECC memory Single Device Data Correction (SDDC) Support for memory demand and pa
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Dell Feature M910 M915 R815 R910 4 x 1GbE LOMs Broadcom® BCM5709S 4 x 1GbE LOMs Broadcom® BCM5709S or 2 x 10GbE Broadcom BCM57712 4 x 1GbE LOMs Broadcom® BCM5709C 1GbE or 10Gb Embedded NIC Options: 4-port (4 x 1GbE) Embedded NIC Broadcom® 5709C, or 4-port (2 x 10Gb SFP+ and 2 x 1GbE) Embedded NIC Broadcom 57711 + Broadcom 5709c Optional: various NICs available 2 front, 1 internal 2 front, 1 internal 2 front, 4 back, 1 internal 2 front, 2 back, 1 internal See M1000e Technical Guide See M1000e T
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Dell 2 New Technologies The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 features AMD Opteron™ 6100 series processors, designed specifically for high-end server applications, DDR3 memory, DIMM thermal sensors, PCI Express Generation 2, an internal redundant SD module, and iDRAC6 Enterprise. The Opteron 6100 series features up to twelve-core processing to maximize performance and performance/watt for data-center infrastructures and highly dense deployments.
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Dell 3 System Information For the latest information on supported features for the Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915, visit Dell.com. Table 2. Product Features Summary Feature Technical Specification Processors AMD Opteron™ 6100 series processors Chipset AMD (SR5670 and SP5100) Memory1 Up to 512GB1 (32 DIMM slots): 1GB/2GB/4GB/8GB/16GB DDR3 up to 1333MHz Drive Bays Up to two 2.5‖ SSD or SAS hot-plug drives Storage1 Hot-plug Hard Drive Options: 2.
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Dell Operating Systems Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 SP2, x86/x64 (x64 includes Hyper-V™) Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, x64 (includes Hyper-V™ v2) Microsoft Windows® HPC Server 2008 Novell® SUSE® Linux® Enterprise Server Red Hat® Enterprise Linux Virtualization Options: Citrix® XenServer™ Microsoft Hyper-V™ through Microsoft Windows Server 2008 VMware® vSphere™ 4.1 (including VMware ESX® 4.1 or VMware ESXi™ 4.1) For more information on the specific versions and additions, visit Dell.
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Dell 4 Mechanical 4.1 Chassis Description The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 is a full-height blade server that requires an M1000e chassis to operate. It occupies 2 slots in the M1000e rack chassis for a maximum of 8 blades in one M1000e chassis. It can be mixed with other existing Dell blades and is designed to mix with possible future half-heightdouble-wide and full-height-double-wide blades.
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Dell 4.3 Front View and Features Figure 1 shows the front view of the M915. Figure 1. Front View See the Blade Features section in the About Your System chapter of the Dell PowerEdge Modular Systems Hardware Owner's Manual on Support.Dell.com for more information.
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Dell 4.4 Back View and Features Figure 2 shows the back view of the M915. Figure 2. Back View See the Blade Features section in the About Your System chapter of the Dell PowerEdge Modular Systems Hardware Owner's Manual on Support.Dell.com for more information. 4.5 Power Supply Indicators The power supplies must be connected to a power distribution unit (PDU), and not directly to an electrical outlet. The power supplies require a 200V–240V power source.
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Dell 4.7 Side View Figure 3 shows the side view of the M915. Figure 3.
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Dell 4.8 Internal-Chassis View Figure 4 shows the internal-chassis view of the M915. Figure 4. Internal Chassis View 4.9 Rails and Cable Management See the PowerEdge M1000e Technical Guide.
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Dell 4.10 Chassis View Figure 5 shows the M915 mounted in the PowerEdge M1000e chassis. Figure 5. M1000e Chassis 4.11 Fans For detailed information, see the Dell PowerEdge Modular Systems Hardware Owner’s Manual on Support.Dell.com. 4.12 Cabling For detailed information, see the Dell PowerEdge Modular Systems Hardware Owner’s Manual or the Rack Installation Guide on Support.Dell.com. 4.
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Dell 4.15 Cover Latch The blade module includes a latch for the cover. See the Opening and Closing the Blade section in the Installing Blade Components chapter in the Dell PowerEdge Modular Systems Hardware Owner’s Manual on Support.Dell.com for more information. 4.16 TPM (Trusted Platform Module) The TPM is used to generate/store keys, protect/authenticate passwords, and create/store digital certificates.
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Dell 5 Power, Thermal, Acoustic 5.1 Power Supplies See the PowerEdge M1000e Technical Guide for information on power supplies and power supply specifications. 5.2 Power Efficiency One of the main features of blade servers is enhanced power efficiency. The M915 achieves higher power efficiency by implementing the following features:            User-configurable power options with the M1000e Chassis Management Controller (CMC) (see M1000e documentation online at Support.Dell.
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Dell Half sine shock on all six sides of 71G +/- 5% with a pulse duration of 2ms +/- 10% Storage Altitude Operating -15.2m to 3048m (-50 to 10,000ft) Note: For altitudes above 2950ft, the maximum temperature is derated 1°F/550ft Storage -16 to 10,600m (-50 to 35,000ft) Maximum Vibration Operating 0.26Grms at 5-350Hz in operational orientations Storage 1.
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Dell o The highest fan-speed request from the above algorithms is used to set the appropriate fan speed for the blade o The ambient and hardware configuration sets the minimum fan speed—other algorithms increase fan speed as needed to maintain proper cooling 5.6 Acoustics Table 4 shows the acoustical performance for a typical configuration of the M1000e chassis with four PowerEdge M915 blade servers installed. Acoustical performance varies with hardware configurations. Table 4.
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Dell 6 Processors 6.1 Overview The AMD Opteron™ 6100 series processors (G34) are designed specifically for high-end server applications. The G34 processor features up to twelve-core processing to maximize performance and performance/watt for datacenter infrastructures and highly dense deployments. The processor also features AMD Opteron micro-architecture and AMD64 architecture for flexibility in 64-bit and 32-bit applications and operating systems.
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Dell 6.3 Supported Processors For the latest information on supported processors for the PowerEdge M915, visit Dell.com. Table 6. Supported Processors Model Speed Power Cache Cores 6180SE 2.5GHz 140W 12MB 12 6176 2.3GHz 115W 12MB 12 6174 2.2GHz 115W 12MB 12 6172 2.1GHz 115W 12MB 12 6168 1.9GHz 115W 12MB 12 6166HE 1.8GHz 85W 12MB 12 6164HE 1.7GHz 85W 12MB 12 6140 2.6GHz 115W 12MB 8 6136 2.4GHz 115W 12MB 8 6134 2.3GHz 115W 12MB 8 6128 2.
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Dell 7 Memory 7.1 Overview The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 utilizes DDR3 memory, providing a high performance, high-speed memory interface capable of low latency response and high throughput. The platform supports Registered ECC DDR3L DIMMs (LV RDIMM). The M915 memory system supports up to 32 DIMMs. 7.2 DIMMs Supported The M915 memory interface uses 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB DIMMs. UDIMMs are not supported. 7.3 DIMM Slots The M915 has 32 DIMM slots, organized in four channels per processor.
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Dell   Quad-rank DIMM types can support speeds up to 1066 MHz. If DIMMs of different speeds are mixed, all channels will operate at the fastest common frequency. 7.6 Sparing Memory sparing (spare bank) is supported in certain configurations with 32 memory modules installed. If online sparing is enabled, identical DIMMs must be installed in the same slots across each channel. The memory sparing feature must be enabled in the Memory Information screen in the System Setup programs.
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Dell 8 Chipset 8.1 Overview The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 chipset has a dual I/O Bridge (IOB) configuration with AMD SR5670 IO bridges and the SP5100 Southbridge. The SR5670 is designed to support AMD’s G34 processor family, HyperTransport 3 Interface (2.6 GHz), DDR3 memory technology, and PCI Express Generation 2. 8.2 AMD I/O Bridges The PowerEdge M915 I/O Board uses two AMD SR5670 IOBs to provide links between the G34 processor(s) and I/O components.
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Dell 8.6 PCI Express Mezzanine Connectors The M915 supports four PCI Express Gen 2 x8 mezzanine connectors. The M915 does not support quad-port Gb Ethernet mezzanine cards because the M915 mezzanine cannot be bifurcated into two x4 PCIe lanes.
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Dell 9 BIOS 9.1 Overview The M915 BIOS is based on the Dell BIOS core, and supports the following features:  G34 support  Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT) support  PCI 2.3 compliant  Plug-and-play 1.0a compliant  MP (Multiprocessor) 1.4 compliant  Ability to boot from hard drive, optical drive, iSCSI drive, USB key, and SD card  ACPI support  PXE and WOL support for on-board NICs  Memory sparing support  SETUP access through key at end of POST  USB 2.0 (USB boot code is 1.
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Dell 10 Embedded LAN on Motherboard (LOM) 10.1 PCI Express Network Daughtercards The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 is designed to support two network daughtercards:   2 x 1GbE dual Broadcom® BCM5709S 2 x 10GbE Broadcom BCM57712 10.2 Broadcom BCM5709S The embedded Broadcom BCM5709S dual-port LAN controllers are located on the M915 network daughtercard.
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Dell 11 I/O Mezzanine Card Options 11.1 Overview The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 contains four PCIe Gen2 mezzanine slots. Installation of mezzanine cards requires an M1000e I/O Module (IOM) of the same fabric technology to be installed in the corresponding fabric slot of the mezzanine to support data flow through that fabric/slot. For more information, see the PowerEdge M1000e Technical Guide. 11.
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Dell 12 Storage 12.1 Drives The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 supports up to two 2.5‖ SSD or SAS hard disk drives. See Table 7 for information on supported hard drives. For the most up-to-date information on supported hard drives, visit Dell.com. Table 7. Supported Hard Drives Form Factor Capacity Speed Type 2.5‖ 50GB, 100GB N/A SATA SSD 2.5‖ 73GB, 146GB 15K SAS 2.5‖ 146GB, 300GB, 600GB, 900GB 10K SAS 12.2 Hard Disk Drive Carriers The M915 supports the Dell eleventh-generation 2.
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Dell 12.5 RAID Configurations Table 8. Factory RAID Configurations Configuration Hot-plug Min. HD Max.
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Dell 12.6.3 SATA Repeater The M915 does not support the SATA repeater. The only SATA drives supported by M915 are the SSD drives, which are only supported with a PERC solution. 12.7 Optical Drives Optical drives are optional in all M915 systems and connect to the blade through the front USB interface. The following internal slim-line drives are available on the M915:   DVD-ROM DVD+RW PATA (IDE) optical drives are not supported. 12.
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Dell 13 Video The M915 Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 6 (iDRAC6) incorporates an integrated video subsystem, connected to the 32-bit PCI interface of the AMD SP5100. This logic is based on the Matrox® G200. The device only supports 2D graphics. The integrated video core shares its video memory with the iDRAC6 128 MB DDR2 application space memory. This memory is also used for the KVM buffer. The M915 system supports the 2D graphics video modes shown in Table 10. Table 10.
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Dell 14 Rack Information For information on rack and cable accessories for the Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915, see the PowerEdge M1000e Technical Guide and the M1000e Rack and Cable Advisor Tool.
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Dell 15 Operating Systems The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 is designed to meet the Microsoft® WinLogo 3.0 design specifications. For the most up-to-date information, see the Operating System Support Matrix for Dell PowerEdge Systems on Dell.com.
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Dell 16 Virtualization 16.1 Overview Table 11 shows the supported and certified virtualization software for the Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915. Table 11. Virtualization Software Operating Systems ® ® Factory Install (FI) VMware ESX /ESXi™ 4.0 FI VMware ESX 4.0 Update 2 Non-Factory Install (NFI), Drop in Box (DIB) only VMware ESXi 4.0 Update 2 Embedded Edition FI VMware ESXi 4.0 Update 2 Installable Edition Download version (NFI, No DIB) VMware ESX 4.1 Update 1 NFI, DIB only VMware ESXi 4.
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Dell   Integrate existing infrastructure (networking, storage devices, and servers) into an AIM solution to provide investment protection and extend the useful life of existing data center assets. Significantly decrease the amount of time and people required to deploy hardware and get applications up and running by providing a repeatable, scalable framework for hardware implementation using AIM. More information can be found at Dell.com/AIM.
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Dell 17 Systems Management 17.1 Overview Dell delivers open, comprehensive, and integrated solutions that help you reduce the complexity of managing disparate IT assets. Combining Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers with a wide selection of Dell developed systems management solutions gives you choice and flexibility, so you can simplify and save in IT environments of any size.
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Dell 17.3 Embedded Server Management The PowerEdge M915 implements circuitry for the next generation of Embedded Server Management. It is Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) v2.0 compliant. The iDRAC (Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller) is responsible for acting as an interface between the host system and its management software and the periphery devices. iDRAC6 provides features for managing the server remotely or in data center lights-out environments.
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Dell whether that server is located in a different room, a different building, a different city, or in a different country. iDRAC6 Enterprise is a standard feature on the M915, and Virtual Flash (vFlash) media is a purchasable option. 17.6 iDRAC6 Enterprise The iDRAC6 Enterprise card provides access to advanced iDRAC6 features. The iDRAC6 Enterprise connects directly to the M915 planar and is mounted parallel to the planar with stand-offs.
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Dell Feature Base Management Functionality vFlash Media   IPv6   Dynamic DNS   Dedicated NIC   VLAN Tagging  iDRAC6 Enterprise Security and Authentication Role-based Authority    Local Users    Active Directory   SSL Encryption   Remote Management and Remediation Remote Firmware Update    Server power control    Serial-over-LAN (with proxy)    Serial-over-LAN (no proxy)   Power capping   Last crash screen capture   Boot ca
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Dell Feature Base Management Functionality iDRAC6 Enterprise vFlash Media Logging Features   RAC Log   Trace Log   System Event Log  17.8 Chassis Management Controller (CMC) See the PowerEdge M1000e Technical Guide.
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Dell 18 USB Peripherals The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 provides an internal USB connector for a USB flash memory key. The USB memory key can be used as a boot device, security key, or mass storage device. The M915 also supports an external USB DVD-ROM or DVD+RW.
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Dell Appendix A. Statement of Volatility The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 contains both volatile and non-volatile (NV) components. Volatile components lose their data immediately upon removal of power from the component. Non-volatile components continue to retain their data even after the power has been removed from the component. Components chosen as user-definable configuration options (those not soldered to the motherboard) are not included in the Statement of Volatility.
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Dell Remarks RTC is inside SP5100 south bridge chip. Jumper on motherboard can be used to reset to factory default settings. Network Daughter Card LOM Memory Size: 4Mb Type: [Flash PROM, EEPROM]: Flash Can user programs or operating system write data to it during normal operation? Yes, under software control.
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Dell Does it retain data when powered off? Yes Purpose? [boot code] H200 Firmware How is data input to this memory? Host controller How is this memory write protected? Software write protected H200 EEPROM Size: 64KB Type: [Flash PROM, EEPROM]: EEPROM Can user programs or operating system write data to it during normal operation? Yes Does it retain data when powered off? Yes Purpose? [boot code] Store board manufacture information How is data input to this memory? I2C bus from iDRAC6 How
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Dell Can user programs or operating system write data to it during normal operation? Yes (Customer can use DOS program to update CPLD image) Purpose? [boot code] Provide blade power sequencing and other blade control logic. How is data input to this memory? By way of specialized programming utilities used in the factory and possibly for field updates. How is this memory write protected? Software control.
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Dell Appendix B. Certifications B 1. Regulatory Certifications Regulatory compliance certificates can be located at the following sites:   http://ausreactorprd01/reactor/xCertSearch.asp http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/about_dell/values/regulatory_compliance /dec_conform?c=us&l=en&s=corp B 2. Product Safety Certifications The product has been certified and bears the Mark, as applicable, of the Product Safety authorities as indicated in Table 15. Table 15.
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Dell B 3. Electromagnetic Compatibility The product has been certified and bears the Mark, as applicable, of the EMC authorities as indicated in Table 16. Table 16.
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Dell Appendix C. Industry Standards The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 system conforms to the industry standards detailed in Table 18. Table 18. Industry Standards Standard URL for Information and Specifications ACPI Advance Configuration and Power Interface Specification, v2.0c http://www.acpi.info/ Energy Star EPA Version 1.0 of the Computer Server specification http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=archives.enterprise _servers Ethernet IEEE 802.3-2005 http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/802.3.
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Dell Standard URL for Information and Specifications UEFI Unified Extensible Firmware Interface Specification, v2.1 http://www.uefi.org/specs/ USB Universal Serial Bus Specification, Rev. 2.0 http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/ Microsoft® Windows® Logo Windows Logo Program System and Device Requirements, v3.10 http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winlogo/hwrequirements.