FC-2 Chips
The Fibre Channel protocol consists of different layers. The FC-
0 and FC-1 layer define the physical
media, Open Fibre Control and the 8b10b coding scheme. The Fibre Channel
handshake protocols are defined in FC-2.
Devices
The following manufacturers have or will have chips that handle the FC-2
layer:
Adaptec
Features
-
Full-speed Fibre Channel interface
-
Choice of 32-bit or 64-bit data transfers
-
Integrated RISC multitasking processor
-
Full-duplex send and receive payload buffers
-
Independent command and data channels
-
Couples to industry standard serializer/deserializer and transceiver components
Contact: Adaptec - 23-Mar-1998
C-STAR
This chip is in development, prototypes are expected to be available by
Q3-1997
Contact: Samek Mokryn C-STAR Inc. 20 Major Hale Drive Framingham, Massachusetts
01701
Tel: 508-877-4306 Fax: 508-877-4189 E-mail: samek.cstar@prodigy.com
- 16-Jan-1997
Hewlett Packard
See also the (i)chip
(TSI to PCI Interface for HP Tachyon Fibre Channel Controller) from the
company Interphase.
-
Second generation controller IC, based on HP's TACHYON architecture
-
Targeted to Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) designs, including Public
Loop Support
-
Supports both Class 2 & 3
-
1 Gigabit/second Fibre Channel rate
-
Full Duplex support with parallel inbound & outbound processing
-
32/64-bit PCI interface, compliant to PCI v2.1
-
Complete hardware handling of entire SCSI I/O via FCP on-chip assists
-
Full Initiator & Target mode functionality
Contact: HP Tachyon web site.
Bob Whitson, Hewlett Packard; Tel: +1 (916) 785-5288; Fax: +1 (916)
785-2875; E-m: Bob_Whitson@hp5200.desk.hp.com
- 6-Jan-1998
LSI Logic
If you want to build your own Fibre Channel chip, you could use LSI Logic's
Fibre Channel core. It provides an ANSI-compliant, low-cost, high speed
interconnect standard targeted for mass storage devices and workstation
clustering. Along with other standard cores from LSI Logic, the Fibre Channel
core enables a completely new or tightly integrated approach to a single-chip
adapter or disk controller solution.
Contact: LSI
Logic
QLogic Corporation
Features
-
Direct connection to 64-bit PCI bus
-
Compliance with ANSI SCSI standard X3.131-1994
-
Compliance with Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) Direct Disk Attach
profile, class 3 operation. Supports 100 MB/sec sustained data transfer
rate
-
Initiator or target mode
-
Onboard RISC processor to execute operations at the I/O control-block (IOCB)
level from host memory
-
No host intervention required to execute SCSI operations from start to
finish
-
Simultaneous, multiple logical threads
Product description
The ISP2100 is a single-chip, highly integrated, bus master, FC-AL processor
that targets SCSI applications. This chip connects the PCI bus to a Fibre
Channel loop and contains an onboard RISC processor. The ISP2100 is a fully
autonomous device, capable of managing multiple I/O operations and associated
data transfers from start to finish without host intervention. The chip
supports one Fibre Channel loop, and has on-chip 8B/10B encode and decode
logic with a 10-bit interface to external transceivers. The chip has integrated
frame buffers. As far as the PCI interface goes, it has three DMA channels,
with 64-bit PCI support and the possibility to connect a BIOS PROM. The
device is available in a 225-pin PGA or BGA package.
See also FIBRE
CHANNEL SCSI-3 TARGET DEVELOPER KIT for QLogic ISP2100 SCSI Interface Controller
from Interface Solutions Group
- 21-Oct-1997
FTEC420 Triple Embedded Controller for Fibre Channel
The FTEC is a Fibre Channel controller for use on disk drives. It has a
disk port, a Fibre Channel port, a microprocessor port and a data buffer
port.
Features
-
Support for dual-port Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL)
-
100 Mbytes/sec data transfer rate
-
On-chip 8b/10b encode and decode
-
10-bit interface to external transceivers
-
Enhanced, programmable Reed Solomon ECC
-
ID-less disk formatter providing magnetoresistive (MR)-head support
-
Embedded servo field skipping support
-
Variable length sectors up to 5966 bytes
-
Sufficient DMA bandwidth for sustained, simultaneous transfers between
host and disk
QLogic - QLogic
contact information - 17-Jul-1997
Seagate
Aurora 170 (not being sold)
Seagate does not sell the Fibre Channel chips they use in their disk drives.
Symbios
Features
-
1 chip in 353-PBGA package
-
64-bit PCI bus master
-
FC-AL controller
-
I2O ready with 32-bit ARM RISC I/O processor
-
3.3 Volt part, 2.5 Watt typical power consumption
-
Supports 1062 Mbps links
-
Up to 2 KByte FC frames
-
FC 10 KByte receive and 4.5 KByte transmit buffers
-
Manages FC links at Exchange level for mass storage
Contact: Symbios, Symbios
Logic Sales Representatives and Distributors - 8-Jul-1997
CERN - High Speed Interconnect
- FCS
Erik van der Bij - 23 March
1998 - Disclaimer