Hitachi 9900 Series Hitachi Data Systems, Ebcdic, Electronic vaulting, ESA/390, Escon, Ethernet

Hitachi Data Systems

EBCDIC

Abbreviation of Extended Binary-Coded Decimal Interchange Code. Pronounced eb-sih-dik, EBCDIC is an IBM® code for representing characters as numbers. Although it is widely used on large IBM® computers, most other computers, including PCs and Macintoshes®, use ASCII codes. See also ASCII, binary, synchronous, and asynchronous.

Electronic vaulting

The transfer of data to an offsite storage facility via a communication link rather than via portable media. Typically, electronic vaulting is used for batch or journaled updates to critical files to supplement full backups that are taken periodically.

ESA/390®

Enterprise Systems Architecture/390®. Often abbreviated S/390®, ESA/390® is an IBM® architecture for mainframe computers and peripherals. Processor systems that follow this architecture include the IBM ES/9000® family. In 2000, IBM® changed the server series name to eServer zSeries.

ESCON®

Enterprise Systems Connection architecture is an IBM® mainframe ESA/390® computer peripheral interface or connection between two mainframes for data exchange. The I/O interface utilizes ESA/390® logical protocols over a serial interface that configures attached units to a communication fabric. ESCON® is based on networking technology. ESCON® provides direct channel-to-channel connections between mainframe systems over fiber-optic links at distances up to 43 kilometers or 25 miles. ESCON® also provides a way for communication controllers and other devices to share a single channel to a mainframe.

ESCON Director

An I/O interface switch that allows the interconnection of multiple ESCON® interfaces in a distributed-star topology.

Ethernet

A Local Area Network (LAN) protocol developed by Xerox® in cooperation with Digital Equipment and Intel in 1976. Ethernet supports a star or bus topology and supports a data transfer rate of 10 megabits per second or 10 Mbps. The Ethernet specification formed the basis of the IEEE 802.3 standard, which specifies the physical and lower software layers. Ethernet uses the CSMA/CD access method for handling simultaneous demands and is one of the most widely implemented LAN standards. Ethernet is also known as 10BaseT. See also Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet.

Fabric

A group or network of switches arranged in such a way as to enhance scalability and connectivity.

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