1. A switching storage world
Major storage vendors converge on arbitrated loop solutions,
with a twist
By Mario Apicella
InfoWorld | JUN 6, 2003
A recent announcement from Fujitsu adds new Eternus3000 storage arrays models for
entry-level and mid-range storage system captured my attention this week. The larger
unit, the Eternus3000 model 600, can attach as many as 240 FC (Fibre Channel) drives
for a maximum capacity of 35TB to Linux, Unix, and Microsoft Windows server using
2Gbps connections.
Interestingly, the model 600 promises to increase I/O performance by 80 percent over
the previous 400 model, taking advantage of fast 2.8GHz processors and of a switched
internal architecture that leverages Vixel’s Inspeed SOC (Switch on a Chip) between
controllers and disk drives.
This announcement from Fujitsu is very interesting by itself because it adds more
storage arrays to the already very competitive low-end and mid-range segments. In
addition, the adoption of a switched internal architecture deserves attention of its own,
because it confirms the continued interest by storage vendors for Vixel’s Inspeed
technology.
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2. According to Beth White, vice president of marketing at Vixel, Inspeed has gathered the
attention of major OEMs, including Apple Computer, Avid Technologies, BlueArc, HP,
Network Appliance, NEC, Sun Microsystems, and others that she was not at liberty to
disclose at this time.
You probably read of Vixel Inspeed in previous columns, but let’s recap the basics of this
intriguing technology. As we all know, many FC storage arrays adopt a loop
configuration, FC-AL (Fibre Channel arbitrated loop), to connect storage controllers to
disk or tape devices. Although you can attach as many as 126 devices to FC-AL, this very
popular architecture is nevertheless a compromise between performance and cost.
Intuitively, a switched architecture that allows controllers to target each disk drive
independently ensures better throughput, but also adds a significant cost to final
products, which makes the already more expensive FC solutions less competitive,
especially in the low- and mid-tier segments.
What the Inspeed technology offers is essentially a miniature FC switch, able to establish
point-to-point connections between controllers and tape or disk devices on a FC-AL,
cutting dramatically the latency typical of that environment. In addition to better
performance, Inspeed SOCs facilitate error diagnostic and recovery from device failures,
which adds less glamorous, but nonetheless significant, benefits to solutions that
include that technology.
It will be interesting to measure the impact that new emerging point-to-point protocols,
such as SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), will have on the very diversified low end of the
storage market. However, predicting the possible effect of SAS on loop-based and
switched-FC solutions will remain guesswork until next year, when actual SAS solutions
will appear on the market.
For now, Vixel Inspeed solutions have no immediate rivals and respond to conflicting
customer demand for affordability and smooth, swift operations with a unique switch-
on-a-chip approach that combines the moderate cost of FC-AL with the benefits of
switched connections.