Product category: Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: Avago Technologies | Subject: HDMP-0540
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 04 June 2004
Loop switch speeds fibre-channel arrays
A novel highly integrated 4Gbit/s loop switch IC can replace older port bypass circuits and use intelligent port management features to reduce system costs and downtime.
A novel highly integrated 4Gbit/s loop switch IC can replace older port bypass circuits and use intelligent port management features to reduce system costs and downtime Implementing Agilent's Fibre Channel arbitrated loop (FC-AL) switch helps storage array manufacturers meet today's most critical storage-area network (SAN) requirements: performance, reliability, availability and serviceability
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The Agilent HDMP-0540 loop switch is designed to connect disk drives in a JBOD (just a bunch of disks) configuration using FC-AL topology.
It is part of the industry's broadest solution set for 4Gbit/s Fibre Channel, including fibre-optic transceivers, physical layer ICs, board-level solutions and test equipment.
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Agilent is also making a 2Gbit/s loop switch available with similar features.
These loop switch ICs provide 22 ports of connectivity and can be cascaded to control the FC-AL maximum of 126 disk drives per loop.
The HDMP-0540, from Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group, takes FC-AL connections from the host and connects them through a crossbar switching core to connect multiple storage devices to multiple initiators or hosts.
The single-chip device features significantly lower power consumption versus multiple discrete PBCs, thus reducing overall system design, implementation and maintenance costs.
The Agilent loop switch also reduces costs by eliminating the need for an external processor to achieve Fibre Channel disk drive connectivity.
It provides a generic two-wire interface for configuration and port management, and its port diagnostic features allow storage systems to monitor and debug ports independently.
The loop switch complies with FC-AL and FC-AL2 (second-generation) standards and has field upgradeable EEPROM capabilities for system configuration modifications.
The loop switch has 22 full-duplex ports, each configurable to be host, device or cascade capable, and each port includes an integrated serdes.
It supports 1.0625, 2.125 and 4.25Gbit/s FC-AL and FC-AL2 operation, is capable of multiple cascading links per switch for complex configurations, and provides automatic load balancing using cascaded ports for maximum system performance.
The loop switch incorporates data retiming to ensure jitter compliance for consistent performance, and provides comprehensive quality of service information from each port for fault isolation and high availability and easy serviceability.
Samples of the 4Gbit/s HDMP-0540 loop switch are planned to be available for selected customers in June 2004.
Production volumes will be available by the third quarter of 2004.
The 2Gbit/s HDMP-0520 loop switch is expected to be available through Agilent's direct sales channel and worldwide distribution partners in June 2004. Request a free brochure from Avago Technologies ...
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