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Technology Stocks : The New QLogic (ANCR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J Fieb who wrote (27164)	5/28/2000 5:55:00 PM
From: Douglas Nordgren	Respond to of 29386

J, thanks for the interesting LSI piece on InfiniBand ( Message 13789459 ). Several points in the summation hilite QLGC's leverage in the coming "inflection point." Interoperability is key to any new technology. Infiniband is no exception and poses certain challenges to the designer to make sure the server I/O Infiniband subsystem interoperates with other subsystems in the enterprise. End-to-end interoperability from host-channel adapter to storage or networking element through the Infiniband fabric is very important. It is also important that the selected operating system support Infiniband. Infiniband is still in its infancy as a new technology, and the spec is still evolving. So, rather than hardwiring a device, the designer may choose to have an embedded microcontroller within the chip to gain extra programmable intelligence. End to end is in the bag for QLGC with ANCR on board, and QLGC's single chip FC controllers use an embedded RISC processor for programmable intelligence. I believe much of the intelligence in IB fabrics will reside in the HCAs and TCAs, with the switch just passing messages (much faster and cheaper fabric switch chips). This is where QLGC reciprocates with a leg-up for ANCR in implementing the SW connect. In IB end to end, the main competitor to QLGC is currently Agilent, who are also developing IB HCA, TCA, and switch. But for the IB market to take off, multiple sources will be necessary and will be required to interoperate. All the IB vendors at the January I/O conference vowed to not repeat Fibre Channel's experience with standards. Glad to see a prototype IB fabric demo-ing on the planet. Douglas