IBM Z10 EC manual OSA-Express2 availability, Purpose/Traffic, Type, Features

onto System z10. With reduced latency, improved through- put, and up to 96 ports of LAN connectivity, (when all are

4-port features, 24 features per server), you can “do more with less.”

The key benefi ts of OSA-Express3 compared to OSA- Express2 are:

•Reduced latency (up to 45% reduction) and increased throughput (up to 4x) for applications

•More physical connectivity to service the network and fewer required resources:

–Fewer CHPIDs to defi ne and manage

–Reduction in the number of required I/O slots

–Possible reduction in the number of I/O drawers

–Double the port density of OSA-Express2

–A solution to the requirement for more than 48 LAN ports (now up to 96 ports)

The OSA-Express3 features are exclusive to System z10.

OSA-Express2 availability

OSA-Express2 Gigabit Ethernet and 1000BASE-T Ethernet continue to be available for ordering, for a limited time, if you are not yet in a position to migrate to the latest release of the operating system for exploitation of two ports per PCI-E adapter and if you are not resource-constrained.

Historical summary: Functions that continue to be sup- ported by OSA-Express3 and OSA-Express2

•Queued Direct Input/Output (QDIO) – uses memory queues and a signaling protocol to directly exchange data between the OSA microprocessor and the network software for high-speed communication.

–QDIO Layer 2 (Link layer) – for IP (IPv4, IPv6) or non- IP (AppleTalk, DECnet, IPX, NetBIOS, or SNA) work- loads. Using this mode the Open Systems Adapter (OSA) is protocol-independent and Layer-3 indepen- dent. Packet forwarding decisions are based upon the

Medium Access Control (MAC) address.

–QDIO Layer 3 (Network or IP layer) – for IP workloads. Packet forwarding decisions are based upon the IP address. All guests share OSA’s MAC address.

•Jumbo frames in QDIO mode (8992 byte frame size) when operating at 1 Gbps (fi ber or copper) and 10 Gbps (fi ber).

•640 TCP/IP stacks per CHPID – for hosting more images.

•Large send for IPv4 packets – for TCP/IP traffi c and CPU effi ciency, offl oading the TCP segmentation processing from the host TCP/IP stack to the OSA-Express feature.

•Concurrent LIC update – to help minimize the disrup- tion of network traffi c during an update; when properly confi gured, designed to avoid a confi guration off or on (applies to CHPID types OSD and OSN).

•Multiple Image Facility (MIF) and spanned channels – for sharing OSA among logical channel subsystems

The OSA-Express3 and OSA-Express2 Ethernet features support the following CHPID types:

CHPID	OSA-Express3,	Purpose/Traffic
Type	OSA-Express2
	Features
OSC	1000BASE-T	OSA-Integrated Console Controller (OSA-ICC)
		TN3270E, non-SNA DFT, IPL to CPC and LPARs
		Operating system console operations
OSD	1000BASE-T	Queued Direct Input/Output (QDIO)
	GbE	TCP/IP traffic when Layer 3
	10 GbE	Protocol-independent when Layer 2
OSE	1000BASE-T	Non-QDIO, SNA/APPN®/HPR and/or TCP/IP
	passthru (LCS)
OSN	1000BASE-T	OSA for NCP
	GbE	Supports channel data link control (CDLC)

OSA-Express3 10 GbE

OSA-Express3 10 Gigabit Ethernet LR

The OSA-Express3 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) long reach (LR) feature has two ports. Each port resides on a PCIe adapter and has its own channel path identifi er (CHPID).

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