sunflash-Distributed to mailing list sun/NC/north-carolina sunflash-Send requests, problems to owner-sunflash@suntri.east.sun.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Fibre Channel Systems Initiative Announced SunFLASH Vol 63 #1 March 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 63.01 Fibre Channel Systems Initiative Announced The Fibre Channel Systems Initiative, (FCSI), a joint effort of Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, and Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation, to create high-speed "on-ramps" to the digital information highway, today announced that it has completed its first set of profiles targeted for developers of high-speed networking and mass-storage solutions. o The Fibre Channel Functional Profile (FCFP) version 2.0 -- defines Fibre Channel as used in SCSI connections and defines the interface to existing SCSI environments. o The Fibre Channel IP Profile -- defines Fibre Channel as used in TCP/IP applications o Fibre Channel Profile within the context of the Fibre Channel standard. o The Fibre Channel Common Feature Set Profile (206 lines) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following announcement was made Tuesday, March 1, 1994 by Sun Microsystems Computer Corp, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and the Fibre Channel Systems Initiative. If you have any questions regarding this announcement, please contact Deeanna Franklin of SMCC Public Relations at (415) 336-7226; Kelly Emo, HP, (408) 447-5334; Greg Golden, IBM, (914) 642-5463; Brad Lee Brenner, FCSI (at Copithorne & Bellows) (415) 966-8700. ********************************************************************** FIBRE CHANNEL SYSTEMS INITIATIVE COMPLETES FIRST DEFINITIONS OF NEXT-GENERATION HIGH-SPEED COMMUNICATIONS SOLUTIONS Fibre Channel Profiles Help Design On-Ramps to the Information Super-Highway. San Francisco, March 1, 1994 -- The Fibre Channel Systems Initiative, (FCSI), a joint effort of Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, and Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation, to create high-speed "on-ramps" to the digital information highway, today announced that it has completed its first set of profiles targeted for developers of high-speed networking and mass-storage solutions. FCSI announced in February, 1993, its intentions to create four Fibre Channel profiles in its first year. With this announcement, all four profiles are complete and ready to be used in building Fibre Channel components, products, and solutions. Profiles are definitions that enable the development of Fibre Channel products that support open, interoperable standards. The profiles will speed the process of bringing products to market, which are fully interoperable and are designed to directly meet the needs of specific market segments. By having products with the right functionality and ensured interoperability, Fibre Channel users have solutions that immediately solve their business problems and support their strategic computing applications. "The availability of these Fibre Channel profiles ease and advance the implementation of a myriad of products based on the Fibre Channel standard and will open possibilities for computer applications that have remained impractical up to today." said Dr. Ed Frymoyer, Program Manager, Fibre Channel System Initiative. "These profiles will enable the growth of affordable Fibre Channel communications for thousands of businesses supporting commercial and technical applications." Fibre Channel is a very high-speed interconnect that uniquely supports both network traffic and mass-storage connections. It can provide support for networked applications, which move large amounts of data as well as provide very fast back-end support for accessing large quantities of data from mass storage subsystems. This capability makes Fibre Channel a strategic solution for accessing and transferring information across the digital information highway, essentially fulfilling the role of a highway on-ramp. According to Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, in a presentation to the Commonwealth Club of California on February 11, 1994, on the subject of the Information Superhighway, "Open interfaces are volume, are lower cost, are more innovative, and are more available and more accessible to large amounts of people than mandated, proprietary interfaces. I believe what is key is barrier-free interfaces." "The availability of open, interoperable standards will accelerate the availability of communication solutions forming the basis for the information highway," said Phil Hester, Vice President of Systems and Technology for IBM's Advanced Workstations and Systems. "Efforts such as the profiles defined by FCSI are exactly what are needed to make interoperable, high-speed communications a common denominator for support of the information industry." FCSI's Completed Profiles: The Fibre Channel Systems initiative has completed work on the following four Fibre Channel profiles: * The Fibre Channel Functional Profile (FCFP) version 2.0 -- defines Fibre Channel as used in SCSI connections and defines the interface to existing SCSI environments. Fibre Channel mass-storage solutions based in this profile will be able to provide gigabit per second peripheral connections up to 100 times faster than current solutions, and the coupling of high-speed mass-storage solutions with powerful computers will provide support needed for critical new applications such as the transfer of huge image files. This profile was announced in August, 1993, and has subsequently been evaluated by the industry and enhanced with feedback to improve its overall robustness and performance. These improvements form the basis of changes to the overall Fibre Channel standard and provide an example of how FCSI, together with the mass storage and networking industry, are(sic) quickly moving to create interoperable products. * The Fibre Channel IP Profile -- defines Fibre Channel as used in Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) applications, supporting the TCP/IP protocol. TCP/IP is a popular communications protocol designed to interconnect a wide variety of different computer equipment. The development of a Fibre Channel IP profile highlights the viability of Fibre Channel for both workstation clustering and as a network connection. This profile will enable the easy connection of workstations to the vast highway of existing TCP/IP networks. * The Fibre Channel Profile Structure -- defines how to construct a Fibre Channel Profile within the context of the Fibre Channel standard. This profile will be used by groups other than FCSI to define their own profiles for specific segment and application needs. This profile is a blueprint for the creation of future profiles. * The Fibre Channel Common Feature Set Profile -- defines a standard set of Fibre Channel features that all Fibre Channel profiles will use in common. This profile defines the default set of standard Fibre Channel capabilities, providing a baseline for building interoperable products. Availability of the Profiles: The Fibre Channel profiles are available electronically via anonymous ftp from playground.sun.com, directory:/pub/incoming, or by sending a request for a hard copy to: FCSI Administration, c/o Gladys Van Polanen Petel, Sun Microsystems, Mailstop UMTV16-10, 2550 Garcia Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043-1100. The FCSI, a joint program of Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems was formed in February, 1993, in order to foster rapid development of interoperable solutions. FCSI works closely with the Fibre Channel Association (FCA), a group of more than forty members who represent the entire range of suppliers, developers, and users of Fibre Channel technology. Hewlett-Packard Company is an international manufacturer of measurement and computation products and systems recognized for excellence in quality and support. The company's products and services are used in industry, business, engineering, science, medicine, and education in approxiamately 110 countries. HP has 96,600 employees and had revenue of $20.3 billion in its 1993 fiscal year. IBM's Advanced Workstations and Systems is responsible for the design, development and manufacture of the standards-based RISC System/6000 POWERstations/POWERserver* product family. These systems support more than 6,500 software applications available for IBM's AIX/6000* operating system, enabling users to maximize the power of the RISC System/6000 to meet their business needs. Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation (SMCC), the world's leading supplier of open client-server computing solutions, is an operating company of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun is the exclusive computer supplier to World Cup Soccer 1994. SMCC has its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. # # # IBM,RISC System/6000 POWERstations/POWERserver and AIX/6000 are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp. Sun, Sun Microsystems, Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. and the Sun logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other products or service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners. ********************************************************************** For information about SunFlash send mail to info-sunflash@Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@Sun.COM. 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