SOFTPAQ NUMBER: SP29494 PART NUMBER: 339056-003 FILE NAME: SP29494.EXE TITLE: Systems ROMPaq Firmware Upgrade Diskette for HP ProLiant ML370 G4 Servers. VERSION: 4.02A LANGUAGE: English CATEGORY: ROMPaqs DIVISIONS: Systems PRODUCTS AFFECTED: HP ProLiant ML370 G4 OPERATING SYSTEM: ALL SYSTEM CONFIGURATION: N/A PREREQUISITE: N/A EFFECTIVE DATE: January 12, 2005 ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION ALLOWED: Yes SOFTPAQ UTILITY VERSION: 2.X SUPERSEDES: SP28530 DESCRIPTION: This release provides updated system ROM images for the latest maintenance releases of HP ProLiant ML370 G4 Servers. New Features - ProLiant ML370 G4 ROM P50 (12/02/2004) ============================================ Added support for No Execution Mode (NX Mode). This feature allows systems to be protected against malicious code and viruses. In combination with an operating system that supports this feature, memory is marked as non-executable unless the location explicitly contains executable code. Some viruses attempt to insert and execute code from non-excecutable memory locations. These attacks are intercepted and an exception is raised. This feature must be enabled both in the operating system and in ROM-Based Setup. This feature is referred to as Data Execution Prevention (DEP) in Windows operating systems. Added support for future Intel Xeon processors. Added support for improved processor thermal protection when the processor reaches extreme temperatures. Added support to automatically lower power usage by processors which are halted (not performing any tasks). This operation occurs automatically and requires no user configuration. Added new ROM-Based Setup Advanced Option called Expansion Card Caching Optimization. Enabling this option allows very rare expansion cards (such as Quadrics Elan) to cache their I/O resources for improved performance. The card and its driver must support this optimization to take advantage of this feature. Unless an expansion card is installed, this option should be left disabled. Added initial support for the future x86 64-bit extensions Windows operating system. This support is only needed for the 64-bit extensions version of the HP System Management Driver. If not using the System Management Driver under this operating system, this support has no impact. Added new RBSU feature called Dynamic Power Savings Mode (Auto) under the ProLiant Power Governor option in Advanced Options. When this feature is enabled, the System ROM will modify the processor's power state based on the system's workload. When processor intensive workloads are being run, the processor will run in its highest power and performance state. When the processor is doing little work, the processor will run at a lower power and performance state. This allows the system to reduce its overall power usage while having minimal or no effect on performance. This feature works independent of the operating system and requires no additional drivers or OS support to operate. Problems Fixed - ProLiant ML370 G4 ROM P50 (12/02/2004) ============================================ Updated the support code for all Intel Xeon processors supported by this system. This addresses a critical issue in all Intel Xeon Processors with 800 MHz System Bus. All customers should update their System ROMs to address this processor issue. Updated to resolve issues with specific USB floppy, CD, and Drive Key devices which would not function properly and could result in POST lock-ups. There were timing issues with specific devices which were addressed. Updated to resolve issue that may result in system hangs on reboots during mini-setup of the Windows OS installation for systems that included an OS pre-installation from HP's factory. Previously, customers had to power off and on their servers to continue the installation to work-around this issue. Updated to resolve issue where systems with exactly 4 Gbytes of memory will not make all 4 GBytes available to the operating system. Typically, the system will report 3.5 Gbytes as being available to the operating system even though 4 Gbytes of DIMMs are installed. Various devices in the system, including embedded PCI devices, plug-in PCI devices, and PCI-Express devices, must have their memory mapped below 4 Gbytes. With previous ROM versions, the memory space used by these devices was lost. With the new version of the System ROM, the memory which was previously lost will be remapped to above 4 Gbytes. Thus, all memory will be available to the operating system, but some of that memory is only addressable above 4 Gbytes. To access memory above 4 Gbytes, the operating system must be configured to enable Physical Address Extensions (PAE) Mode. Consult your operating system user's guide on how to enable PAE mode. Updated to resolve issue where POST would hang when certain (typically high-performance) video cards were installed in the server. The problem occurred when any video card was installed in the server with an option ROM greater than 32 Kbytes. Updated to resolve intermittent issue that occurs on certain system reboots in which interrupts will not be distributed evenly among installed processors. Typically, all interrupts would be directed to one processor when this problem occurs. This condition can result in less than optimal performance. Upgraded the system ROM to include LSI U320 Firmware Version 1.03.39.00 for the embedded LSI U320 storage controller. The System ROM must contain this LSI U320 firmware version if the HP Single-Channel U320 SCSI HBA G2 storage controller is installed in an expansion slot. HOW TO USE: 1. Obtain a formatted 1.44 MB diskette. 2. Download the SoftPaq to a directory on your hard drive and change to that directory. The file that is downloaded is SP29494.EXE. 3. From that drive and directory, execute the SoftPaq file: SP29494 [ENTER] You will be prompted to place the formatted 1.44 MB diskette into a diskette drive to create diskette. 4. After the diskette is created, you may delete the downloaded file SP29494.EXE if you wish. Copyright 2005, Hewlett-Packard Company. All rights reserved. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies