Z10 BC Channels and I/O Connectivity

z10 BC Channels and I/O Connectivity

ESCON Channels

The z10 BC supports up to 480 ESCON channels. The high density ESCON feature has 16 ports, 15 of which can be activated for customer use. One port is always reserved as a spare which is activated in the event of a failure of one of the other ports. For high availability the initial order of ESCON features will deliver two 16-port ESCON features and the active ports will be distributed across those features.

Fibre Channel Connectivity

The on demand operating environment requires fast data access, continuous data availability, and improved ﬂ ex- ibility, all with a lower cost of ownership. The four port FICON Express4 and FICON Express2 features available on the z9 BC continue to be supported on the System z10 BC.

Choose the FICON Express4 features that best meet your business requirements

To meet the demands of your Storage Area Network (SAN), provide granularity, facilitate redundant paths, and satisfy your infrastructure requirements, there are ﬁ ve features from which to choose.

FICON Express4 Channels

The z10 BC supports up to 128 FICON Express4 chan- nels, each one operating at 1, 2 or 4 Gb/sec auto-negoti- ated. The FICON Express4 features are available in long wavelength (LX) and short wavelength (SX). For customers exploiting LX, there are two options available for unre- peated distances of up to 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) or up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). Both LX features use 9 micron single mode ﬁ ber optic cables. The SX feature uses 50

or 62.5 micron multimode ﬁ ber optic cables. Each FICON Express4 feature has four independent channels (ports) and can be conﬁ gured to carry native FICON trafﬁ c or Fibre Channel (SCSI) trafﬁ c. LX and SX cannot be inter- mixed on a single feature. The receiving devices must cor- respond to the appropriate LX or SX feature. The maximum number of FICON Express4 features is 32 using four I/O drawers.

Exclusive to the z10 BC and z9 BC is the availability of a, lower cost FICON Express4 2-port feature, the FICON Express4-2C 4KM LX and FICON Express4-2C SC. These features support two FICON 4 Gbps LX and SX chan- nels respectively. The FICON Express4-2-port cards are designed to operate like the 4 port card but with the ﬂ ex- ibility of having fewer ports per card.

Feature		FC #	Infrastructure	Ports per
				Feature

FICON Express4 10KM LX		3321	Single mode ﬁber	4

FICON Express4 4KM LX		3324	Single mode ﬁber	4
FICON Express4-2C	4KM LX	3323	Single mode ﬁber	2
FICON Express4 SX		3322	Multimode ﬁber	4
FICON Express4-2C	SX	3318	Multimode ﬁber	2

Choose the features that best meet your granularity, ﬁ ber optic cabling, and unrepeated distance requirements.

FICON Express2 Channels

The z10 BC supports carrying forward FICON Express2 channels, each one operating at 1 or 2 Gb/sec auto- negotiated. The FICON Express2 features are available in long wavelength (LX) using 9 micron single mode ﬁ ber optic cables and short wavelength (SX) using 50 and

62.5micron multimode ﬁ ber optic cables. Each FICON Express2 feature has four independent channels (ports) and each can be conﬁ gured to carry native FICON trafﬁ c or Fibre Channel (SCSI) trafﬁ c. LX and SX cannot be inter- mixed on a single feature. The maximum number of FICON Express2 features is 20, using four I/O drawers.