Fibre Channel Fabrics
Introduction
Fibre Channel fabrics are non-blocking switches that allow full connectivity
between all ports. Not all switches support all different classes of services
as well.
Devices using Arbitrated Loop can also be used to connect devices without
a fabric. It will give a lower total throughput, but has the advantage
that full connectivity is preserved with a lower investment.
Devices
Fibre Channel fabrics are or will be available from the following manufacturers:
Systran makes a Network
Transparent Switch that can be used for low frequency reconfiguration
of Fibre Channel and other networks. This product cannot be considered
as a Fibre Channel fabric as it does not comply to any FC switch specification.
Ancor
ANCOR Fibre Channel switches
have 8 to 64 ports and port speeds of 266 Mbps and 1062 Mbps. They are
called FCS 266 Fibre Switch 16, FCS 266 Fibre Switch 64 and FCS 1062 Fibre
Switch 16 dependent on the port speeds and number of ports.
Contact: Ancor Communications
Arcxel Technologies
-
8 ports
-
1 Gbps ports
-
Class 1, 2 and 3 support
-
FL-port support
Contact: Arcxel Technologies - 6-Aug-1997
Brocade
-
16 ports
-
1 Gbps ports
-
Class 2 and 3 support
Contact: Brocade Communications Systems
- 6-Aug-1997
IBM
Base configuration of eight ports that can transfer data at up to 266 Mbit
per second. The switch is expandable to 16 ports. IBM's switches have identical
characteristics as the Ancor switches.
Contact: IBM - 7-Jul-1997
McDATA
-
4-16 ports
-
266 Mbps ports
-
Class 2 and 3 support
-
32 ports
-
1 Gbps ports
-
Class 2 and 3 support
Contact: McData - 5-Mar-1998
CERN - High Speed Interconnect
- FCS
Erik van der Bij - 5 March 1998
- Disclaimer