72 IBM Power 750 and 760 Technical Overview and Introduction
Figure 2-12 Comparison between existing Fibre Channel and network connection and FCoE connection
Table 2-18 lists the available Fibre Channel over Ethernet adapter. It is a high-performance
Converged Network Adapter (CNA) using SR optics. Each port can provide network interface
card (NIC) traffic and Fibre Channel functions simultaneously. NPIV support is available, but
requires VIOS for all operating systems.
Table 2-18 Available FCoE adapter
For more information about FCoE, see An Introduction to Fibre Channel over Ethernet, and
Fibre Channel over Convergence Enhanced Ethernet, REDP-4493.
2.7.11 InfiniBand host channel adapter
The InfiniBand architecture (IBA) is an industry-standard architecture for server I/O and
inter-server communication. It was developed by the InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) to
provide the levels of reliability, availability, performance, and scalability necessary for present
and future server systems with levels significantly better than can be achieved by using
bus-oriented I/O structures.
InfiniBand (IB) is an open set of interconnect standards and specifications. The main
IB specification is published by the InfiniBand Trade Association and is available at the
following location:
http://www.infinibandta.org/
InfiniBand is based on a switched fabric architecture of serial point-to-point links, where these
IB links can be connected to either host channel adapters (HCAs), used primarily in servers,
or to target channel adapters (TCAs), used primarily in storage subsystems.
The InfiniBand physical connection consists of multiple byte lanes. Each individual byte lane
is a four-wire, 2.5, 5.0, or 10.0 Gbps bidirectional connection. Combinations of link width and
byte-lane speed allow for overall link speeds from 2.5 Gbps to 120 Gbps. The architecture
Ethernet
and Fibre
Channel
Cables
Ethernet
Cable
Fibre Channel
Cable
FC Switch
Ethernet Switch
CEC or I/O Drawer
Ethernet
CEC or I/O Drawer
FC
Rack
Fibre Channel (FC)
Device or FC Switch
Ethernet
Cables
Ethernet
Cable
Fibre Channel
Cable
FCoE Switch
CEC or I/O Drawer
Rack
Fibre Channel (FC)
Device or FC Switch
FCoE
Ethernet Device/
Switch
Ethernet Device/
Switch or FCoE
Device/Switch
Feature
code
CCIN Adapter description Slot Size OS support
5708 2B3B 10 Gb FCoE PCIe Dual Port adapter PCIe Full height AIX, Linux
EN0H 2B93 PCIe2 4-Port (10 Gb FCOE & 1 Gb
Ethernet) SR & RJ45 adapter
PCIe Full height AIX, IBM i,
Linux