Fibre
Channel is a technology standard that captured the minds
of the computer industry and media long before any real
product availability. Many are still surprised by the
apparent smaller range of products available with FC interfaces
as compared with other technologies.
There
is one important fact to bear in mind here: Fibre Channel's
complex design, and the relative maturity of the technology
driving it, is aimed initially at a very specific market.
It also carries a distinct advantage over alternative
volume products that reach mass production and wide
acceptance before standards are really in place. For
once the computer industry has moved at a more realistic
and mature pace - a pace more in-keeping with the mature
market level to which FC is intended.
The most obvious and simplest range of produsts to port
to Fibre Channel from more conventional or legacy interfaces
is high-end data storage systems.
Many
manufacturers have ported their SCSI based systems to
FC and now offer both ranges simultaneously. Seagate,
IBM, and Quantum, for example, all offer FC-enabled
hard drives. HP have released DLT Library systems with
FC interfaces, Raidtec offer FC versions of their RAID
arrays. Many other manufacturers have followed suit
with many investing in new product development with
design aimed specifically at Fibre Channel.
The porting of networking products from conventional
networking (the Ethernet side of the market if you like)
is lagging behind the data storage aspect. Both areas
of development are needed to utilise the true benefits
of FC technology. Right now however, the market probably
requires education rather than mass products thrown
in a bewildering array all competing for a small slice
of market share. That is the finest way to kill a technology.
This slow but steady release of FC products can be accounted
for in a number of ways. Firstly, fibre channel is not
intended to succeed SCSI systems as the one of the main
interfaces of choice for higher -end storage systems.
SCSI is alive and well and actually gaining in market
share. Rumours of its death have been greatly exaggerated
. . .
Server-based solutions are ideal platforms for SCSI
sub-systems where the additional bandwidth of Fibre
Channel would not offer a massive increase in data transfer.
It is important to bear in mind the difference between
a potential bandwidth (80MB/sec with Ultra2 SCSI for
example) and the realistic data transfer rate of an
individual data storage device.
It
is only by saturation of the bandwidth by the simultaneous
access of multiple devices that the maximum throughput
of any interface can be approached. See The
Pipeline Effect for further details on this topic.
It may even answer many question concerning previous
disappointment at data transfer rates.
|
