Fibre Channel Industry Association Ratifies Standard for 8Gbs Fabrics
30 August 2004 - 11:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
Fibre Channel Industry Association Ratifies Standard for 8Gbs
Fabrics Vote Extends 8Gbs FC From an 'Inside the Box' Storage
Device Interconnect Into Switched San Fabrics SAN FRANCISCO, Aug.
30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Fibre Channel Industry Association
(FCIA) and its sister association, the Fibre Channel Industry
Association-Japan (FCIA-J), today announced that its members have
ratified the extension of the Fibre Channel roadmap to extend 8Gbs
Fibre Channel from an "inside the box" storage device interconnect
into switched SAN fabrics. The Fibre Channel industry is now
positioned to help customers preserve their 2Gbs Fibre Channel
(2GFC) and 4Gbs Fibre Channel (4GFC) infrastructure investments and
avoid costly 'fork lift' replacements. The vote supports the ANSI
INCITS T11 Technical Committee development of the 8Gbs Fibre
Channel (8GFC) electrical copper and optical interfaces in its
FC-PI-4 standard and ensures that Fibre Channel continues to
provide the highest performance available for storage
interconnects. Cost Effective Fibre Channel Migration Preserves
Current Investments While noting that its member companies are at
the present time introducing new families of 4GFC and 10GFC
products to the market, the FCIA explained that there is value in
sharing the roadmap with customers. They can use the information
that it contains on future product directions to plan a smooth
migration to higher speed products when they become available with
assurances that continued Fibre Channel investments will be
completely cost effective, and backward compatible with legacy
Fibre Channel products. When 8GFC products become available,
expected to be in the 2007-2008 time frame, customers will be able
to preserve their 2GFC and 4GFC infrastructure investments and
avoid a costly "fork lift" replacement. The "auto-negotiation"
feature of Fibre Channel enables 8GFC products to automatically
sense and adapt to the data rate capability of connected lower
speed Fibre Channel products without user intervention. For
example, when attaching to a 4GFC product, an 8GFC product will
automatically run at 4GFC. 4GFC products will be introduced this
year. It is anticipated that they will enjoy broad market
acceptance over the next several years as Fibre Channel continues
to be the storage and SAN interconnect of choice throughout all
small and large businesses. "We are pleased that the FCIA has once
again helped prevent industry fragmentation by providing a clear
and concise roadmap for future Fibre Channel migration as well as
providing invaluable market feedback into the Fibre Channel
standards community. With 8GFC on the roadmap, Fibre Channel's
future is ensured by meeting future performance demands while
preserving the current and ongoing investments that users make in
the technology. Our roadmap enables suppliers and users to plan
future products and architectures that complement the proven track
record of Fibre Channel applications. Providing all the benefits of
full backward compatibility to the large, rapidly growing Fibre
Channel installed base, 8GFC will deliver the most cost-effective,
highest performance for SAN applications," said Skip Jones,
Chairman of the Fibre Channel Industry Association Speed Forum
Committee. "Protecting investments is an important aspect of
technology planning for both IT manufacturers and their customers,
as it allows them to make better decisions about current and future
technologies," said Richard Villars, Vice President of Storage
Systems at IDC. "The FCIA roadmap for 8 Gigibit Fibre Channel
solutions that are compatible with today's 2GFC and coming 4GFC
products reflects a sensitivity to the importance of investment
protection for existing SAN infrastructures." "We look forward to
working with our partner vendors and suppliers to help ensure our
customers have a smooth transition to the 8GFC Fabric" said John
Howarth, Senior Director of Marketing, Xyratex. "As a leader in
2GFC and 4GFC Fibre Channel technology we support this new standard
and recognize the importance of protecting our customers current
investments while at the same time supporting faster and more
efficient storage networking solutions." "The vote for 8GFC fabric
is a watershed event for the entire SAN industry including
manufacturers, distributors, VARs and end-users," said Frank Berry,
vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp. "Manufacturers can now
move full-speed ahead in one direction that is based on standards,
while end-users are ensured of the backwards compatibility they
need to protect their SAN investments. The vote also demonstrates
the importance of the FCIA to the SAN industry." "PMC-Sierra
supports the FCIA's decision in establishing 8GFC fabrics as the
next generation SAN fabric which enables enterprise IT managers to
protect and leverage their current storage equipment investments
with a higher speed backward compatible roadmap that will meet
their future storage demands," said Mark Stibitz, Vice President
and General Manager of PMC-Sierra's Enterprise Storage Division.
"PMC-Sierra plans to leverage its high speed mixed signal expertise
to deliver optimized price-performance components that will enable
8GFC Fibre Channel to remain cost-effective and continue its lead
for SAN connectivity." "As a leader in the Fibre Channel market
place, McDATA supports our customers into the future as the market
demands ever increasing performance," said Jeff Vogel, Senior Vice
President of Worldwide Marketing, McDATA. "It's inevitable that
we'll see a progression of increasing bandwidth options as our
industry scales to meet the demands of data intensive applications
running in the network. We're pleased to support FCIA's move to
8GFC Fibre Channel fabrics as the industry association is providing
customers with a clear roadmap for performance increases as well as
for migration due to the backward compatibility provided by the
standard." "As a market leader in Fibre Channel solutions, LSI
Logic is investing R&D dollars in developing a broad range of
ASIC CoreWare(R) and storage standard products to support advances
in storage interconnection technology. We will continue to leverage
our position as a driver of industry standards to be a leader in
the 8GFC market, as we have in previous generations," said Dave
Jones, Vice President and General Manager of LSI Logic's Storage
ASICs division." "I-TECH supports the FCIA's continued effort to
meet the storage industry's needs by increasing Fibre Channel
performance to 8GFC in SANs. I-TECH's leadership in analyzer
technology for critical storage and network applications is
embodied in the only analyzer in the industry uniquely positioned
for the continued trend toward deeper trace memory and faster
display-to-capture times that this technology requires. Our
commitment to increased performance and interoperability is evident
in our products and supports FCIA's roadmap." Steve Bucher, I-TECH
CEO. "As the acknowledged leader in Fibre Channel Analysis, Finisar
is committed to support advances in the industry. Our products play
a key role in ensuring that the user community enjoys investment
protection by confirming interoperability as new speed barriers are
crossed. We see 8G as a substantial performance upgrade that will
enable Fibre Channel SANs to continue to meet the growing demands
that are placed on them and the mission-critical applications that
they support." Dr. Brian Staff, Vice President of Marketing,
Finisar Network Tools. "The industry's decision to establish 8GFC
as the next generation speed advances the long term value
proposition of Fibre Channel for all users," said Mike Smith, vice
president of worldwide marketing Emulex Corporation. "8GFC Fibre
Channel offers higher speed, backward compatibility and use of
existing infrastructure--all without significant change in cost. As
a leading supplier of SAN infrastructure, Emulex supports this
decision and will continue to help drive positive change and the
advancement of Fibre Channel technology for the benefit of end
users." "As the world leader in networking technology, Cisco has
always been a strong proponent of industry standards. Extending the
8GFC standard, with its higher performance and backward
compatibility, to fabric applications will help ensure that users
have a strong future growth path for their Fibre Channel storage
networks while preserving their investment in current technology,"
said Ed Chapman, Senior Director of Product Management in Cisco's
Storage Business Unit. "Offering customers the utmost flexibility
for designing their SANs, the Cisco MDS 9000 Family of switches has
been built to support any number of existing and future storage
transport protocols. Similar to our support for 4GFC, which we
expect to deliver in calendar year 2005, Cisco will provide support
for 8GFC as market demand warrants." "The addition of 8GFC as the
next step in a fully compatible line of link technologies
demonstrates the continued aggressive developments planned for
Fibre Channel." said Jay Kidd, CTO of Brocade Communications
Systems. "As faster server and faster storage devices come to
market, Fibre Channel is evolving in a cost effective, backwards
compatible manner to meet real customer needs from entry to
enterprise applications." "The definition of a physical layer
standard that is fully interoperable with the 4GFC solutions is a
win for customers. They can safely make investments in 4GFC
technology available now from companies such as Broadcom, knowing
that it will fully interoperate with next generation products and
technologies," said Michael McDonald, Senior Director of Broadcom's
Fibre Channel Storage Line of Business responsible for the
company's recently introduced 4GFC fabric switch silicon products.
"As a leader in Fibre Channel component technology, Agilent
understands the value of delivering greater price/performance and
providing a growth path that preserves existing infrastructure and
customer investment," said Martin Scott, Vice President and General
Manager of Agilent's Input/Output Solutions Division. "We are
delighted to participate in the FCIA and T-11 standard groups and
we're committed to delivering 8GFC solutions in the future. Based
on our early experience with a successful Tachyon 4GFC product
introduction, it's clear that new speeds will be adopted more
easily by providing a flexible upgrade path and by avoiding
disruption to the IT infrastructure." About FCIA The Fibre Channel
Industry Association (FCIA) is a nonprofit international
organization of manufacturers, systems integrators, developers,
systems vendors, industry professionals and end users. With 80
member companies and FCIA affiliates in the United States and
Japan, FCIA is committed to delivering a broad base of Fibre
Channel infrastructure to support a wide array of industry
applications within the mass storage and IT-based arenas. FCIA
working groups focus on specific aspects of the technology,
targeting both vertical and horizontal markets including storage,
video, networking and SAN management. For more information on FCIA,
please visit our web site: http://www.fibrechannel.org/, contact
us: or call 1-415-561-6270. DATASOURCE: Fibre Channel Industry
Association; LSI Logic Corporation CONTACT: Erin Lutz, media
representative for Skip Jones, FCIA Speed Forum Chairman,
+1-949-293-1055, or ; or Diana Hodges of LSI Logic Corporation,
+1-408-433-4245, or Web site: http://www.lsilogic.com/
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