User guide

The information in this appendix defines Fibre Channel, describes its
advantages, and outlines how it is in the Compaq StorageWorks RAID
Array 4000.
Fibre Channel has an integrated set of standards developed by the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI). This set of standards defines new
protocols for information transfer. Fibre Channel is an open industry standard
interconnect and high-performance serial I/O protocol that supports
simultaneous transfer of data using many different protocols. Fibre Channel
provides for extremely low error rates while performing at high data transfer
speeds. By using both an encoding scheme and strong cyclic redundancy
check (CRC) on each frame, Fibre Channel technology ensures data integrity.
The advantages of Fibre Channel technology include:
■ Higher Performance
q 100 MB/s data bandwidth on one Fibre Channel loop
q Higher I/O throughput
■ Connectivity Improvement
q Supports multiple data format packets (SCSI, IPI-3, and IP
protocols). The Compaq StorageWorks RAID Array 4000 supports
the SCSI protocol.