C H A P T E R 1
This chapter includes the following topics:
■“Product Description” on page 1
■“Features” on page 2
■“Hardware and Software Requirements” on page 3
Product Description
The Sun PCI High Speed Quad Port Serial Interface adapter is high-speed serial interface (HSI) adapter for PCI applications and is referred to as the SunHSI/U™ adapter in this manual. The adapter offers comprehensive hot-plug compatibility with Solstice™ WAN software packages available through Sun. The SunHSI™ software is a transparent interface on the SunHSI/U adapter, providing a compliant environment for SunLink™ WAN packages operating on similar Sun communication modules.
The SunHSI/U adapter (see FIGURE 1-1) is an intelligent, four-port communication controller with onboard CPU and memory dedicated to WAN communication functions. This architecture operates much more efficiently at high data rates than unintelligent WAN modules. Onboard intelligence allows the workstation or server to be off-loaded from many of the low-level communication tasks that it must perform when there is no native intelligence on the controller.