fibre channel?

[cptnwinky]

does anyone have any idea what the heck a fibre channel drive is? i'm looking at getting a server for my company, and i've never seen a fibre channel drive before. i thought raid was the best i should get? is it a speed difference or size difference, or do they just want more of your money?

 

[Gunbuster]

Do you need a ton of drives on the same adapter/array (100s)? if yes, get Fibre

 

[cptnwinky]

so how fast does it run and how much can it hold?

 

[GoSharks]

400mbps if i remember correctly from before i fried my fc drive

 

[Gunbuster]

It can "hold" hundreds of drives

 

[utopia]

something like up to 1000 drives, and 300+ mps

 

[Pariah]

Fibre channel maxes at 126 drives per loop and is a 100MB/s duplex bus giving a theoretical limit of 200MB/s.

 

[SUOrangeman]

I have a fibre channel Ciprico RAID array downstarts. 9 x 18GB, I think. Even has an LCD readout showing transfer rates and an access light for each drive. Very sweet. Thing weighs more than I do!

-SUO

 

[thorin]

Fiber channel is serial data inferface the most popular form of which is Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL).

FC-AL was designed for mass storage devices that require very high bandwidth. Using fiber optics to connect devices, it supports full-duplex data transfer rates of 100MBps. FC-AL is compatible with, and is expected to eventually replace, SCSI for high-performance storage systems.

The Fiber Channel Industry Assoc.

Thorin