Kelly, Thomas:
The May 13 PR [below] from McData indicates to me that this specific application is an update card to bridge between FICON and ESCON for the already existing Model 5 Director that McData produces for IBM. I don't think this is the FC SAN switch referred to in yesterday's IBM Seascape announcement. However, combined with Craig's prior reference to a new McData switch nothing can be assumed regarding the outcome. Roy Sardinia has handicapped any potential IBM OEM to Brocade. Now all we need is the always gracious and charming AR to weigh in... Maybe he is no longer in the loop so to speak.
Neil
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BROOMFIELD, Colo., May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 7, IBM Corp. announced that the 9032 Model 5 Director will be the first product to support IBM's new high-performance I/O channel, the S/390 Fibre CONnection (FICON*). McDATA Corp. today announced that McDATA, with assistance from IBM, is developing for sale to IBM the new feature within the 9032 Model 5 Director that will function as the bridge between the FICON and ESCON protocols. FICON takes advantage of the ANSI Fibre Channel standard transport with the introduction of a performance-enhancing S/390 layer.
Announced by IBM in October 1997, the 9032 Model 5 Director is supplied to IBM by McDATA. The Model 5 Director currently provides up to 248 ESCON connections and supports high availability features for enhanced reliability. IBM markets the Model 5 Director worldwide.
The FICON Bridge card will help provide customer investment protection for currently installed ESCON control units , such as disk storage and tape control units, and allow S/390 FICON channels and ESCON control units to attach to the same Model 5 Director. When installed in the Model 5 Director, each FICON Bridge card is capable of performing the work of up to eight ESCON channels. Up to 16 FICON Bridge cards (equivalent to 128 ESCON ports or one half of the Model 5's capacity) are supported in a single 9032 Model 5 Director.
"We are extremely pleased to be working on the implementation of this support for S/390 FICON," said Jack McDonnell, president and chief executive officer of McDATA. "We believe that Fibre Channel provides tremendous benefits to the S/390 environment. Adding the FICON Bridge card feature to the 9032 Model 5 Director is a key step in IBM's transition to Fibre Channel."
"The Model 5 Director will be the first device to support FICON," stated Bryan R. Golnek, vice president of licensing, alliances and OEM of the IBM S/390 Division. "It is very important to IBM that customers can help protect their existing investment in ESCON as we introduce FICON on our S/390 products. The FICON Bridge card being developed by McDATA helps achieves this goal."
"We see tremendous growth potential in the Fibre Channel industry," said Michael Klayko, executive vice president of sales and marketing for McDATA. "The IBM announcement is consistent with our belief in this technology's power to help address the user's escalating storage and information access requirements."
McDATA is a leading manufacturer of high-availability ESCON and Fibre Channel switches that provide dynamic connection between hosts and peripherals in large enterprise data centers. McDATA also offers design, implementation planning, integration test, and training services for companies building Fibre Channel fabrics. Headquartered in Broomfield, Colo., McDATA has more than 200 employees. Information about McDATA's product and services can be found on the World Wide Web at mcdata.com or by calling 1-800-545-5773.
FICON and ESCON are trademarks of IBM Corporation. McDATA is a registered trademark of McDATA Corporation.
SOURCE McDATA Corp.
CO: McDATA Corp.; IBM Corp. |
