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

To: trendmastr who wrote (18130)	9/24/1998 8:46:00 AM
From: Craig Stevenson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29386

To All, The September, 1998 issue of InfoStor magazine has SEVERAL Fibre Channel related articles. I received the magazine two days ago, but didn't get a chance to post anything on it until today. Some interesting Ancor tidbits: Page 20 has a diagram of the IBM Global Services SMARTcentre architecture. "The SMARTcentre includes Computer Network Technology's (Minneapolis) UltraNet Storage Director, a high-speed switching platform with a dual Fibre Channel interface attached to the Ancor GigWorks MKII switch." Page 22: "...IGS uses Ancor Communications' (Minnetonka, MN) 16-port GigWorks MKII Fibre Channel switches linked to IBM SP/2 and RS/6000 computers. Ron Howell, IGS network architect, says he's "achieving 94% of Fibre Channel's theoretical speed of 100MBps per loop." This compares to the 60% to 70% efficiency Howell says he has seen with ATM-based systems. Howell likes the switches' auto-sensing feature and support of Class-I Fibre Channel service." Page 23 contains some quotes from Thomas Ruwart, from the University Of Minnesota's Department of Astronomy Laboratory for Computational Science and Engineering. "To avoid the headaches of continually reconfiguring connections, the lab plans to link all of its systems on a single Fibre Channel switch. Currently, they are working with an Ancor switch because, according to Ruwart, "It's the one switch we have right now that supports arbitrated loop ports on the fabric."" Page 26 has information from Pacific Ocean Post, the post-production house that has worked on films such as "Independence Day" and "Titanic". There are two interesting items here. "Although Cox is now a strong advocate of Fibre Channel, he's also cut some teeth along the way. Though POP was one of the earliest implementers of Fibre Channel, originally working with Ancor's quarter-speed equipment, Cox says "It's only over the last seven or eight months that I reached the point where I was confident in using Fibre Channel as my primary network."" "The company has a large number of SGI workstations connected via Prisa Networks, HBA's, Brocade 16-port Silkworm switches, and Fibre Channel arrays from Ciprico and Box Hill Systems (New York, NY)." The things I learned: 1. It appears as if IBM Global Services has put a MKII at the heart of their SMARTcentre. That also means that this is 1 Gigabit gear. It was interesting that in this application, Class 1 seems to be important. 2. Because they mentioned FC/AL ports, the University of Minnesota must also be using a MKII, and once again that means 1 Gig gear. 3. Pacific Ocean Post was using the quarter-speed equipment, and has now switched to Brocade. Ancor's new zoning software is mentioned in the New Products section on page 52. There is a TON of additional Fibre Channel related information in this magazine. Two of the articles are titled, "Fibre Channel Enters the Mainstream" and "Fibre Channel SANs in Data Warehousing". I don't know if any of it is available online at infostor.com InfoStor magazine is published by PennWell Publishing Company. Editorial and Sales offices are at 603-891-0123. Single copy price is $10 in the U.S., and $15 International. (No, I don't work for PennWell. <g>) Craig