FC Plugfest Readies 4GFC and 10GFC Products for 2005 Market Launch
February 10 2005 - 3:12PM
PR Newswire (US)
FC Plugfest Readies 4GFC and 10GFC Products for 2005 Market Launch
Leading Fibre Channel Vendors Convene at UNH-IOL to Ensure Smooth
Technology Transition SAN FRANCISCO and DURHAM, N.H., Feb. 10
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Fibre Channel Industry Association
(FCIA) announced today that it successfully completed its plugfest
during the week of January 10 at the University of New Hampshire
InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). Leading Fibre Channel (FC)
vendors collaborated to ensure interoperability and backward
compatibility for a variety of next-generation 4 Gb/s (4GFC) Fibre
Channel products. The plugfest was open to all FC vendors and was
attended by 23 hardware and software companies, broadly
representing the Fibre Channel industry. All segments of the SAN
infrastructure were well represented. The tests included: Host Bus
Adapters (HBAs), Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and storage arrays,
switches, test generators and protocol analyzers. Tests also
included a new generation of 10GFC switches and analyzers.
Sponsored by the FCIA, the plugfest provided a forum for testing
interoperability between different manufacturers' FC products,
which are expected to enter the market in 2005. While most
attendees tested 4GFC products, some also tested 10 GFC switches to
be used in Storage Area Network (SAN) fabrics. Among the companies
attending the Plugfest were FCIA members Agilent, Amphenol, ATTO,
Brocade, Cisco, CNT, Emulex, Finisar, Fujitsu, Hitachi Global
Storage Technologies, I-TECH, LeCroy/CATC, LSI Logic, Molex,
PMC-Sierra, QLogic, Seagate, Sierra Logic, Vitesse and Xyratex. "In
2005, the Fibre Channel storage market will extend to next
generation 4GFC products. It is mandatory that vendors provide
solutions that are interoperable and backward compatible with
existing installations," said Werner Glinka, Chairman of the Fibre
Channel Industry Association. "Products that are interoperable and
backward compatible will insure that investments in Fibre Channel
storage infrastructure are protected and upgrades will work
smoothly with existing storage systems." "Fibre Channel storage is
growing by leaps and bounds. Companies are readying a new
generation of products, while the older technologies aren't going
away," said David Woolf, UNH-IOL Consortium Technical manager for
Fibre Channel. "Interoperability and backward compatibility will
continue to be very important for Fibre Channel. We're also
building a 4GFC and 10GFC test bed with key industry players for
fine-tuning and debugging between group tests." The next 4/10GFC
plugfest has been scheduled for the week of May 16, 2005. All
companies having an interest in 4/10GFC product interoperability
are invited to participate. Contact the FCIA for more information.
The UNH-IOL also runs the FC Consortium, a separate association of
companies building new products and interested in testing them on
an ongoing basis. "Hitachi has taken numerous steps in the past
year to advance 4Gb/s Fibre Channel because the new interface
standard will provide a significant performance boost and protect
existing Fibre Channel investments," said Manjeshwar Bhat, general
manager, Enterprise HDD Business Unit, Hitachi Global Storage
Technologies. "Hitachi's successful plugfest demonstration once
again illustrates Hitachi's position as a technology innovator and
performance leader." "Cisco is committed to providing our customers
with the highest level of investment protection possible, which
includes forward and backward compatibility for 4Gbps and 10Gbps
Fibre Channel modules within the Cisco MDS 9000 family of products,
as well as interoperability with other vendors' products," said Ed
Chapman, Cisco senior director of product management.
"Participation in the FCIA plugfest underscores our commitment to
Fibre Channel standards and complements our own extensive
interoperability testing in Cisco's SAN labs." "Emulex 4 Gb/s HBAs
and embedded storage switches are already in the test and
qualification phase with major OEMs, underscoring what we expect
will be a rapid transition to 4 Gb/s Fibre Channel technologies,"
said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing
for Emulex Corporation. "With the full range of Fibre Channel
vendors weighing in with 4 Gb/s product announcements, this speed
transition has a clear runway for moving into the adoption phase on
schedule." "As a technology that delivers twice the performance of
the current generation of Fibre Channel, while maintaining backward
compatibility, 4Gb brings great promise to the SAN space," said
Harry Mason, LSI Logic, director of industry marketing. "As users
begin to adopt this technology in 2005 and the coming years, it is
essential that vendors prove that their products comply with the
standard, interoperate and provide investment protection. This is a
priority of LSI Logic, which is why we welcomed the opportunity to
test our 4Gb HBAs with products from leading SAN component vendors
at the industry's first ever 4Gb plugfest." "The Fibre Channel
plugfest was an excellent opportunity for I-TECH to test the
robustness of our 4G Fibre Channel test solutions. It provided
considerable customer feedback and product exposure. We consider
industry plugfests to be invaluable in our product review cycle for
ensuring customer satisfaction and product quality. Our active
involvement in this and previous plugfests supports our continued
commitment toward industry-wide product interoperability," said
I-TECH CEO Steve Bucher. "At the FCIA Fibre Channel plugfest,
PMC-Sierra successfully demonstrated interoperability between our
2G and 4G FC Loop Switch product family and the industry leading
Fibre Channel hard disk drives, switches, enclosures and cables,"
said Travis Karr, Director of Strategic Marketing, Enterprise
Storage Division at PMC-Sierra. "Proven system interoperability
accelerates our customers' time-to-market, enabling new classes of
storage systems with increased capacity, performance and
reliability." "Agilent has a long-standing commitment to Fibre
Channel industry standards and interoperability. We participated at
the recent UNH plugfest and demonstrated great interoperability
results with our family of 4Gb Fibre Channel products; including
Tachyon DX4+ (PCI-X), QX4 (PCI-E) products, 4 Gb Loopswitch, and 4
Gb Fiber optic SFP modules," said Kevin Burbank, Marketing manager,
Storage products. "This event and the work surrounding it will
benefit the entire 4 Gb infrastructure and gives our OEM's
confidence in the readiness of the new technology and its
compatibility with prior FC speeds. " "This year's FCIA plugfest
will be a showcase for seamless interoperability of Fibre Channel
products from a variety of vendors," said Frank Berry, vice
president of corporate marketing, QLogic Corporation. "QLogic
expects plugfest activity around its new 4Gb products to move
quickly beyond basic interoperability, to advanced fabric
functionality in a multi- vendor environment." "Since 1996, Vitesse
has provided a broad family of loop controllers, enclosure
management processors, and other components for 1 and 2 Gb/s Fibre
Channel disk array systems. The plugfest provided the opportunity
to prove to leading OEMs that they can quickly migrate their
systems to 4Gb/s without risk of interoperability issues with other
4 Gb/s systems or legacy 1 and 2 Gb/s storage components" said Tim
Hornback, marketing director for Vitesse's Storage Products
Division. "This will enable a very fast changeover to higher
bandwidth in the SAN." "Named the 2004 Market Leader in Fibre
Channel Test and Measurement in 2004 by Analyst Firm Frost and
Sullivan, Finisar was proud to participate in the latest 4Gb Fibre
Channel plugfest at UNH," said Kevin Cornell, Sr. Vice President,
General Manager Network Tools Division, Finisar." Finisar will
continue to deliver industry-leading 1,2,4 and 10Gb Fibre Channel
analysis and testing products to designers and builders of Fibre
Channel equipment and will help push the envelope of the Fibre
Channel protocol for the future." About the Fibre Channel Industry
Association The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) is a
nonprofit international organization of manufacturers, systems
integrators, developers, systems vendors, industry professionals
and end users. With 80 member companies and FCIA affiliates in the
United States and Japan, FCIA is committed to delivering a broad
base of Fibre Channel infrastructure to support a wide array of
industry applications within the mass storage and IT-based arenas.
FCIA working groups focus on specific aspects of the technology,
targeting both vertical and horizontal markets including storage,
video, networking and SAN management. For more information on FCIA,
please visit our web site: http://www.fibrechannel.org/, contact
us: or call 1-415-561-6270. About the University of New Hampshire
InterOperability Laboratory Established in 1988, the University of
New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) is a non-profit
organization that offers comprehensive interoperability and
conformance-based testing through 19 technology-based groups,
called consortiums. Test solutions created at the UNH-IOL offer a
set of methods to increase interoperability through protocol
operations, signaling, point-to-point and multi-system scenarios.
For more information, visit the UNH-IOL website at:
http://www.iol.unh.edu/. All trademarks are the property of their
respective owners. DATASOURCE: Fibre Channel Industry Association
(FCIA); LSI Logic CONTACT: Chris Lyon, Executive Director of FCIA,
+1-425-317-9594 or ; or Jon Carlson of LSI Logic, ; or Chris Volpe
of UNH-IOL Public Relations, +1-603-862-4349 or Web site:
http://www.fibrechannel.org/ http://www.lsilogic.com/
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