[Request] Fujitsu D3049-Axx Mainboard - XEON E3 v2 Ivy Bridge Support

[Teetrinker]

I would like to ask you to look into adding Ivy Bridge XEON E3 v2 microcode to the BIOS of the Fujitsu D3049-Axx mainboard. 

The original Fujitsu D3049 mainboard (revision Axx, i.e., D3049-Axx) was released with Sandy Bridge, and this board supports intel Pentium Gxx and XEON E3 v1 processors. It was used in Fujitsu's Primergy TX120 S3 and TX140 S1 servers.

Later, when intel released Ivy Bridge, Fujitsu could have just upgraded their existing servers to support the new architecture, but instead decided to generate new sales by releasing new products specifically for Ivy Bridge, namely TX120 S3p and TX140 S1p. And because these new products couldn't just use the same board as their Sandy Bridge predecessors, Fujistu also released a new version of the D3049 maninboard (revision Bxx, i.e. D3049-Bxx) to go along with it.

From a hardware perspective, D3049-Axx and D3049-Bxx appear to be identical (same chipset, same components, same layout, even the BMC is the same; the only difference seems to be the part number). However, only the BIOS for the -Bxx variant has the Ivy Bridge microcode (when an Ivy Bridge processor is inserted in a D3049-Axx the board doesn't boot but beeps with a CPU error). And unfortunately, the -Bxx BIOS can't be flashed to -Axx boards.

Since both variants are similar, I was hoping that Ivy Bridge support for XEON E3 v2 could be retrofitted to the -Axx board variant's BIOS (if only one CPU can be added, my choice would be the code for the E3-1220 v2 (SR0PH) as these are dirt cheap and perfect for the thermal profile of the TX120 S3 chassis).

The D3049-Axx BIOS (V4.6.4.1-R1.27.0 which is the latest version) can be downloaded here:
https://support.ts.fujitsu.com/IndexDown...59B671C445

The D3049-Bxx BIOS (V4.6.5.3-R1.29.0) can be found here:  <--- this is the one to edit
https://support.ts.fujitsu.com/IndexDown...CB3D1A3960

The D3049 Technical Manual (covers both -Axx and -Bxx revisions) can be found here:
https://support.ts.fujitsu.com/IndexDown...42FAF19EF2

Attached are screenshots from CPU-Z and AIDA64's mainboard CPUID of the D3049-Axx board in my own TX120 S3 (which currently has an Sandy Bridge XEON E3-1220 installed).

Lastly, from what I know the BIOS for these boards is UEFI, however it seems Fujitsu has removed all UEFI options from the UI of both board revisions and locked them in legacy (BIOS) mode, so should you be able to unlock the UEFI features as well then this would be really great!

Thank you,

Teetrinker

[DeathBringer]

Try to flash D3049-B1.UPD by any hardware programmer.

[Teetrinker]

Try to flash D3049-B1.UPD by any hardware programmer.

Unfortunately I don't have a hardware programmer (I also never used one).

Also FWIW, I did find some older posting where someone with the same problem (wanting to upgrade his server to Ivy Bridge) mentioned that he was able to flash the -Bxx BIOS into an -Axx revision board via the recovery function of the mainboard but the board wouldn't work, so my guess is that there is something in the -Bxx BIOS files which makes it incompatible with the -Axx boards.

The other thing is that, even if we managed to flash the -Bxx BIOS to the -Axx board and get it working, the different BIOS strain would probably also result in a change of the model ID of the server (i.e., TX120 S3p instead of TX120 S3), and if that's the case then this might well end up invalidating the activated license code for the KVM function of the BMC (iRMC).

So modification of the original -Axx BIOS is probably the safest route.

[DeathBringer]

Only real experiment with a hardware programmer can help.

[Teetrinker]

Only real experiment with a hardware programmer can help.

So you're saying adding the microcode for newer processors to the existing -Axx revision BIOS can't be done? And if so, why?

As mentioned I don't have a hardware programmer, so if this is required then I guess this is a non-starter. I'm still curious as why it's not possible to just change/add the microcode for newer processors to the existing BIOS.

[DeathBringer]

Adding microcode will not add support for new CPU.

[Teetrinker]

Adding microcode will not add support for new CPU.

So what else is needed, also considering that Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge are mostly interchangeable on a hardware level and that most Sandy Bridge boards only require a microcode update to support Ivy Bridge processors.

Forgive my ignorance, but I'm a bit confused when in this forum alone there are numerous cases where support for new processors was added to an existing BIOS with information from a notable different board, yet here is a case where both boards (target and donor) are pretty much identical from a hardware perspective and you say that adding the necessary information to the target board's BIOS to support a drop-in interchangeable CPU is impossible?

[DeathBringer]

most Sandy Bridge boards only require a microcode update to support Ivy Bridge processors.

No, there no BIOS without native support of Ivy Bridge that can boot with it with after adding microcode.