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Chapter 1. Hardware overview
The IBM
FAStT Host Adapter is a high-performance, direct memory access
(DMA), bus-master, host adapter designed for high-end systems. The function and
performance are derived from the ISP2200A chip, making this FAStT Host Adapter
a leading-edge host adapter.
The ISP2200A chip combines a powerful RISC processor, a Fibre Channel protocol
manager (FPM) with gigabit transceivers, and a 64-bit peripheral component
interconnect (PCI) local bus interface in a single-chip solution. The IBM FAStT
Host Adapter supports all Fibre Channel (FC) peripheral devices that support
private-loop direct attach (PLDA) and fabric-loop attach (FLA).
What is Fibre Channel?
Fibre Channel technology is outlined in the Information Systems - Fibre Channel
Protocol for SCSI (small computer system interface - FCP) standard, revision 12,
30 May 1995. Fibre Channel is a high-speed data transport technology used for
mass storage and networking. The IBM FAStT Host Adapter connects:
Mainframe computers
Super computers
Workstations
Storage devices
Servers
Using a Fibre Channel arbitrated loop (FC-AL), 126 devices can be supported,
compared to 15 devices with Ultra SCSI.
Fibre Channel supports data transfer rates of 100 MB per second, which is more
than twice that of Ultra SCSI (40 MB per second). A multimode optical interface is
used for distances up to 500 meters. With increased connectivity and performance,
Fibre Channel is the technology preferred and used by system designers.
Fibre Channel adapter features
Fibre Channel adapter features include:
Compliance with Third Generation Fibre Channel Physical and Signaling
Interface - 3 (PC-PH-3), revision 9.2
Compliance with Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL-2) standard
Compliance with Intel
PCI version 2.2 specification
Compliance with U.S. and international safety and emissions standards
Support for bus-master DMA
Fast!UTIL basic input/output system (BIOS) utility program to customize the
configuration parameters on the IBM FAStT Host Adapter and attached drives
Supports Fibre Channel SCSI (FCP-SCSI) and internet protocol (IP) protocols
Supports point-to-point fabric connection (F-PORT FABRIC LOGIN)
Supports Fibre Channel service (Classes 2 and 3)
Copyright IBM Corp. 1998, 2002 3