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The System z10 EC Model E12 is limited to 64 features
– any combination of FICON Express4, FICON Express2
and FICON Express LX and SX features.
The FICON Express4, FICON Express2 and FICON
Express feature conforms to the Fibre Connection (FICON)
architecture and the Fibre Channel (FC) architecture, pro-
viding connectivity between any combination of servers,
directors, switches, and devices in a Storage Area Network
(SAN). Each of the four independent channels (FICON
Express only supports two channels per feature) is capa-
ble of 1 Gigabit per second (Gb/sec), 2 Gb/sec, or 4
Gb/sec (only FICON Express4 supports 4 Gbps) depend-
ing upon the capability of the attached switch or device.
The link speed is auto-negotiated, point-to-point, and is
transparent to users and applications. Not all switches and
devices support 2 or 4 Gb/sec link data rates.
FICON Express4 and FICON Express2 Performance
Your enterprise may benefi t from FICON Express4 and
FICON Express2 with:
• Increased data transfer rates (bandwidth)
• Improved performance
• Increased number of start I/Os
• Reduced backup windows
• Channel aggregation to help reduce infrastructure costs
For more information about FICON, visit the IBM Redbooks
®
Web site at: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/ search for
SG24-5444. There are also various FICON I/O Connectivity
information at: www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/connectivity/.
Concurrent Update
The FICON Express4 SX and LX features may be added
to an existing z10 EC concurrently. This concurrent update
capability allows you to continue to run workloads through
other channels while the new FICON Express4 features are
being added. This applies to CHPID types FC and FCP.
Continued Support of Spanned Channels and Logical
Partitions
The FICON Express4 and FICON Express2, FICON and
FCP (CHPID types FC and FCP) channel types, can be
defi ned as a spanned channel and can be shared among
logical partitions within and across LCSSs.
Modes of Operation
There are two modes of operation supported by FICON
Express4 and FICON Express2 SX and LX. These modes
are confi gured on a channel-by-channel basis – each of
the four channels can be confi gured in either of two sup-
ported modes.
• Fibre Channel (CHPID type FC), which is native FICON
or FICON Channel-to-Channel (server-to-server)
• Fibre Channel Protocol (CHPID type FCP), which sup-
ports attachment to SCSI devices via Fibre Channel
switches or directors in z/VM, z/VSE, and Linux on
System z10 environments
Native FICON Channels
Native FICON channels and devices can help to reduce
bandwidth constraints and channel contention to enable
easier server consolidation, new application growth,
large business intelligence queries and exploitation of On
Demand Business.
The FICON Express4, FICON Express2 and FICON
Express channels support native FICON and FICON
Channel-to-Channel (CTC) traffi c for attachment to serv-
ers, disks, tapes, and printers that comply with the FICON
architecture. Native FICON is supported by all of the z10
EC operating systems. Native FICON and FICON CTC are
defi ned as CHPID type FC.
Because the FICON CTC function is included as part of
the native FICON (FC) mode of operation, FICON CTC is
not limited to intersystem connectivity (as is the case with
ESCON), but will support multiple device defi nitions.
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