Seagate ES.2 FC manual FC-AL physical interface, Physical characteristics, Physical description

9.5FC-AL physical interface

Figure 6 shows the location of the J1 Fibre Channel single connection attachment (FC-SCA). Figure 8 provides the dimensions of the FC-SCA connector.

Details of the physical, electrical, and logical characteristics are provided within this section. The operational aspects of Seagate’s Fibre Channel drives are provided in the Fibre Channel Interface Manual..

J1 interface connector

Figure 6. Physical interface

9.5.1Physical characteristics

This section defines physical interface connector.

9.5.1.1Physical description

FIbre Channel drives may be connected in a loop together or with other compatible FC-AL devices. A maxi- mum of 127 devices may have addresses; however, one of the addresses is reserved for a fabric port switch device. This means 126 addresses are available for FC-AL devices. More FC-AL compatible devices may physically reside on the loop, but they will not be functional because they would not be able to obtain valid addresses.

Port bypass circuits (PBCs) allow devices to be inserted into unpopulated locations or removed from the loop with loop operation recovery after a brief interruption. These PBCs are located external to the FC-AL device. Figure 7 shows the relationship between the PBC and FC-AL device.

From Previous

Drive

Port Bypass

Circuit N–1

Drive N–1

Port Bypass

Circuit

	To Next
MUX	Drive	Port Bypass
		Circuit N+1

Select
Serial	Serial	Drive N+1
In	Out
Drive N

Figure 7. Port bypass circuit physical interconnect

56 Barracuda ES.2 FC Product Manual, Rev. B