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

To: Craig Stevenson who wrote (16029)	4/30/1998 1:22:00 PM
From: George Dawson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29386

More on multistaging versus cascading. I think I finally have it figured out multistaging is a special case of cascading to optimize bandwidth through the fabric. Let's say your goal is to make a 64 port fabric using cascading and what I think multistaging is: 1. Cascading - connect 5-16 port FC switches. Using one port on each switch to connect to the next switch results in 4 interconnect links and the aggregate bandwidth is the speed in the links x 4. Latency is the 4 hops x latency/switch. 2. Multistaging - requires 12-16 port FC switches, arranged so that each switch in rows of 4 switches are connected to each switch in the subsequent layer. Results in a 100% non-blocking fabric with full bandwidth to all 64 users. Latency is 3 hops x latency/switch. The 64 port single stage switch would seem to be the best solution. If Brocade has a different twist on the latency and blocking characteristics of cascading with one or two ports I would like someone to point that out to me. I have read the available information on their web site and I can't find it. George D.