George,
<<It turns out after all of these years that - yes, latency IS important. Now if they would just tell us whether there is any Q silicon in the MDS 9000.>>
I think you posted a different link.
qlogic.com
I think we have established 2/3 years ago that on a loaded network, latency will play a key roll in throughput. As FC is becoming the technology of choice for new storage deployment, the enterprise setups are going to be more complex. Q's switches will gain more advantage over its competitors due to its component nature(blades) and lower latency IMHO.
ASIC or no ASIC from Q in MDS 9000s, I think it is semantics. What I mean is that all IP, SCSI, may be iSCSI, backplane, casing are all CSCO/Andiamo, the FC part, HBAs, switching blades are Q's. One (the so-called analysts, probably being told by someone in CSCO/Andiamo because they don't know what questions to ask) can argue that there is no Application Specific Integrated Circuits from anyone. But, in reality, there are slots within the casing for SCSI/FC interface (FICON ?). Technically, it is pure HBAs and switches sitting next to iSCSI. Just that there are no cables to reckon with. These so-called analysts would have you to believe that CSCO/Andiamo are making their own FC circuits, how sad and incompetent these so-called analysts are. Just the same group which would take the forecast of company CEOs instead of doing their own researches in coming up with their own assessments of company fundamentals. |
