[1] Introduced in 2002, based on engineering work started in 1999, the IBM eServer BladeCenter was relatively late to the blade server market.

In February 2006, IBM introduced the BladeCenter H with switch capabilities for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and InfiniBand 4X.

Upgraded BladeCenter design with high-speed fabric options, announced in 2006.

Features: Modules based on PowerPC- or Power ISA-based processors from IBM.

Each module had one UltraSPARC T2 with 64 threads at 1.2  GHz and up to 32 GB of DDR2 SDRAM processor memory.

To use the other switch module bays, a daughtercard needs to be installed on each blade that needs it, to provide the required SAN, Ethernet, InfiniBand or Myrinet function.

Mixing of different type daughtercards in the same BladeCenter chassis is not allowed.

Gigabit Ethernet switch modules were produced by IBM, Nortel, and Cisco Systems.

BLADE Network Technologies produced some switches, and later was purchased by IBM.

External Gigabit Ethernet ports vary from four to six and can be either copper or optical fiber.

Speed from the blade InfiniBand daughtercard to the switch is limited to IB 1X (2.5 Gbit).

The advantage is that from the Operating System on the blade everything seems normal (regular Ethernet or SAN connectivity), but inside the BladeCenter everything gets routed over the InfiniBand.

There are several InfiniBand options: The IBM Roadrunner supercomputer used a custom module called the TriBlade from 2008 through 2013.