Blackbird/Hardware Compatibility List

Fans

• As of BMC firmware branch "04-16-2019", Noctua Industrial 140mm (NF-A14 iPPC-2000) do not work correctly. However, normal Noctua 140mm (NF-A14 PWM) work as expected even using a splitter for 4 total fans.

Memory

See POWER9 Hardware Compatibility List/Memory.

PCIe Devices

See POWER9 Hardware Compatibility List/PCIe Devices.

NOTE: On the Blackbird, pin 1 of the "BMC TTL AUXILIARY SERIAL HEADER" (J10116) conflicts with some PCIe cards (or their metal mounting bracket) in the lower PCIe 4.0 x8 slot. This is the case for e.g. the Supermicro AOC-SHG3-4M2P, where the metal bracket touches pin 1 of J10116 such that either the pin gets bent or the card does not fully seat. Since the conflicting distance is less than 1mm, either the metal bracket or the PCB (depending on which one touches the pin) can be filed/ground a tiny bit (with a hand file or dremel), so that the cards fully seats without bending the pin. When doing so, care must be taken to not let any metal dust touch the PCIe card. Ideally the conflict would only be between the metal bracket and the pin, in which case the metal bracket can be unscrewed from the card and modified separately. Afterwards it should be properly cleaned and (if necessary) dried, before being remounted to the card.

Here are some pictures from mx08's modification to the Supermicro AOC-SHG3-4M2P's metal bracket:

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  Conflict (card not fully seated)

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  Metal bracket removed

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  Metal bracket modified

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  Metal bracket re-mounted

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  Conflict resolved

An alternative would maybe be to place a 1mm spacer between the top end of the PCIe card's metal bracket and the case, so that the card can be tightened properly while still making firm contact (?) with the PCIe slot.

SATA Storage Drives

Connected via optional on-board 88SE9235 controller, or via PCIe controller. NVMe cards are also supported.

See also

• Talos II/Hardware Compatibility List