| Fibre Channel is a technology for transmitting data between
computer devices at a data rate of up to 1 Gbps, or one billion bits per
second. (A data rate of 10 Gbps has been proposed by the Fibre Channel Industry
Association.) Fibre Channel is especially suited for connecting computer
servers to shared storage devices and for interconnecting storage controllers
and drives. Since Fibre Channel is three times as fast, it has begun to
replace the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) as the transmission interface
between servers and clustered storage devices. Fibre channel is more flexible;
devices can be as far as ten kilometers (about six miles) apart if optical
fiber is used as the physical medium. Optical fiber is not required for
shorter distances, however, because Fibre Channel also works using coaxial
cable and ordinary telephone twisted pair. |
