Hex-channel memory?

[osuki]

I have a SuperMicro X8DTU-F Motherboard with two Xeon E5530s installed. Each processor supports tri-channel memory, but with two processors does this effectively mean hex-channel memory? 

 

Also, each channel has two slots. I know that if I populate both slots in one channel, they have to be the same type of memory. But does all the memory have to be the same (speed, capacity?) across all channels for the tri-channel to work properly? I have a mishmash of different memory installed at the moment (1x4gb, 3x 2gb), it seems to work fine, but am considering buying a few 4gb sticks early next year. Any performance difference will be minimal, but I just wonder about how it works. Thanks!

[porina]

It is probably better to think of it as dual tri-channel than 6 channel. You have 3 channels per CPU. I'm only guessing, but I think if you can match the 3 channels on each CPU, that would be better than mixing on the same CPU.

[ARikozuM]

No. Each chip has three channels. They don't share memory with each other. 

[NumLock21]

It's still triple channel, cannot combine them. Only system with hexa-channel ram as of now, is Xeon Scalable and Xeon Phi.