fibre channel-arbitrated loop

1 definition found

fibre channel-arbitrated loop - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop
  
     <hardware, standard> (FC-AL) A fast serial bus interface
     standard intended to replace SCSI on high-end servers.
  
     FC-AL has a number of advantages over SCSI.  It offers higher
     speed: the base speed is 100 megabytes per second, with 200,
     400, and 800 planned.  Many devices are dual ported, i.e., can
     be accessed through two independent ports, which doubles speed
     and increases fault tolerance.  Cables can be as long as 30 m
     (coaxial) or 10 km (optical).  FC-AL enables
     self-configuring and hot swapping and the maximum number
     of devices on a single port is 126.  Finally, it provides
     software compatibility with SCSI.
  
     Despite all these features FC-AL is unlikely to appear on
     desktops anytime soon, partly because its price, partly
     because typical desktop computers would not take advantage
     of many of the advanced features.  On these systems FireWire
     has more potential.
  
     [Current status?  Reference?]
  
     (1999-09-12)