the next generation is coming very soon...
Fibre Channel Industry Association Unveils Strategic
Technology Roadmap; ``Roadmap Provides Template for
Fibre Channel Industry'
Tuesday November 16 6:06am
Source: BusinessWire
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 1999--The Fibre
Channel Industry Association (FCIA) announced today the release of its
technology roadmap -- designed to strategically address the issues of Fibre
Channel interoperability and standardization.
The FCIA's technology roadmap, which was created by a team of FCIA
experts with input from leading members of the NCITS (National Committee
for Information Technology Standards) T11 committee, provides a blueprint
for the technical development and future issues surrounding Fibre Channel
technology.
"We have successfully created an industry roadmap for members of the Fibre
Channel community to utilize for product development planning, as well as
assist in integrating Fibre Channel technology," remarks Paul Boulay, FCIA
Technology Roadmap Committee Chairperson. "In addition, the FCIA's
technical committee predicts even higher bandwidth rates -- ranging from 200
MB/s to 24 GB/s, by the year 2004."
Fibre Channel technology will achieve tremendous bandwidth rates and
scalability during the next five years due to technological evolution in the
semiconductor, optical transceiver and protocol processing chip industries.
While the capability of Fibre Channel is projected to increase each year as
solutions demand even higher performance levels, the devices and
infrastructure components will not require change -- but will remain functional
and useful into the future.
The FCIA's technology roadmap also addresses connectivity and
interoperability issues. As the organization continues to work toward
increasing interoperability among vendors/products, the technology roadmap
provides a forward-thinking plan to ensure its success. One method in which
the FCIA is working toward increasing interoperability is through its
SANMark program, a series of tests used to verify compliance with the
specifications. The goal of the SANMark program is to ensure the highest
level of interoperability in an open, heterogeneous Fibre Channel environment.
Fibre Channel is continually evolving to meet the needs of the IT community
and enable advanced system architecture. In addition, it remains the
foundation and key enabling technology for Storage Area Networks (SANs).
"Fibre Channel is a key technology that will enable the future of open systems
data infrastructure," concludes Boulay. "It delivers an interoperable, scalable
structure with a solid technology base that will meet the requirements of
emerging standards in the future." |
