Adaptec 9110G Frequently Asked Questions

Fibre Channel Host Adapters
Adaptec Fibre Card 9110G and Adaptec Fibre Card 9210LP
®
1. What is Fibre Channel?
Fibre Channel is a high-performance connection
standard designed for bi-directional, serial data
communication between servers, mass storage subsys-
tems, and peripherals through hubs, switches, and
point-to-point connections. Fibre Channel provides
long-distance connectivity and the high bandwidth need-
ed to move large data files between server and storage. It
is ideal for storage area networks, computer clusters, and
other data intensive computing configurations.
2. What are the primary features and
benefits of Fibre Channel?
a. Data Rate
Feature:
9110G: 1 Gb/sec throughput = 100 Mbytes/sec, (200
Mbytes/sec full duplex)
9210LP: 2 Gb/sec throughput = 200 Mbytes/sec,
(400 Mbytes/sec full duplex)
Benefit: Ability to provide the necessary bandwidth for
today's data update and data throughput intensive
applications.
b. Cabling Distances Between Nodes
Feature:
Long Wave Optical: 10 kilometers
Short Wave Optical: 550 meters
Copper with Active GBICs: 30 meters
Copper with Passive GBICs: 13 meters
Benefit: Placement of servers and storage devices is not
bound by short, inflexible cables. Optical cables allow for
remote high speed back up to protect critical data and
disaster recovery.
c. Maximum Device Support
Feature:
Arbitrated Loop: 126 devices
Switch Fabric: approximately 16 million devices
Benefit: Storage can be easily expanded without adding
host adapters. Terabyte capability on a single host adapter.
d. Hot Pluggable Hard Drives
Feature:
Removal and insertion of drives on the fly
Benefit: Simple and reliable maintenance.
e. Automatic ID Assignment
Feature:
No configuration utilities, dip switches or jumpers
needed.
Benefit: Simple configuration and centralized ID
assignment.
f. Dual Ported Hard Drives
Feature:
Redundant data paths.
Benefit: High availability of data and recovery.
3. Is Fibre Channel a defined standard?
It is an open standard defined by ANSI and it operates
over both copper and fiber optic cable and is capable
of supporting multiple protocols besides SCSI. The
high-speed data transfer rate of Fibre Channel makes
it ideal for storage.
4. What kind of industry support is there
for Fibre Channel?
The technology is supported by major system and
component manufacturers such as Adaptec, Compaq,
Dell, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Seagate.
5. What are the features of the Adaptec
Fibre Card 9110G and the Adaptec Fibre
Card 9210LP?
Feature 9110G
Availability September 2000
Form Factor Standard Size
PCI connector 64-bit/
33 & 66 MHz PCI
Internal Copper
Connection
External Copper or
Connection Optical
Flash BIOS No
Channels 1
Operating Windows NT
Systems Windows 2000
9210LP
Early 2001
Low Profile
64-bit/
33 & 66 MHz PCI
No
Copper
or Optical
Yes
1
®
, Windows NT,
Windows 2000,
NetWare,UnixWare,
Linux, Solaris x86