One advantage of HP/HPE Blade Enclosures compared to competitors (such as IBM Blade Systems) has been that the older generation enclosures have been able to accommodate new generation BL servers just by upgrading the firmware for OA in the enclosure (Onboard Administrator). However improvements to back-plane of the enclosure in the new generation enclosures have enabled faster I/O capabilities (such as 10Gbit/s Ethernet adapters and switches, and Infiniband). The physical design of the enclosures has not changed since the first versions (other than the larger LCD screen at the front compared to the first generation enclosures, and new plastic covers and HPE branding on the 3rd generation enclosures).