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FibreChannel on Motherboard?

Friday May 30, 2003 4:23 pm PDT by Arnold Kim
As a followup to the PPC 970 ports article, MacBidouille claims that one or two of the unidentified connectors is FiberChannel.



FibreChannel is a high-bandwidth data transfer architecture that is used by Apple to interface with its Xserve RAID solution. This requires an add-on Fibre Channel PCI card to be installed into the Xserve or PowerMac.



Of note, MacBidouille's articles have never indicated that these motherboards were for PowerMac's, and have always been described as the PPC 970 motherboards.



It seems unlikely (to this writer) that Apple would build-in FibreChannel into PowerMac motherboards... and could indicate a few other possibilites beyond the obvious -- including the possibility that these rumors are simply false. Alternative explanations might be that what is described is a new Xserve or Xstation motherboard (first mentioned here).

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crassusad44
114 months ago
MacBidouille post more info on the mysterious connectors on the new PPC970 motherboard. It seems like were going to see Fiber Channel on the new PMs if MacBidouille are right.

http://www.macbidouille.com/niouzcontenu.php?date=2003-05-30
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crassusad44
114 months ago
We had infos on a part of the mysterious external connectors of the
mother board PPC 970. One of them (and probably 2) is a connector
Fiber channel to connect for example Xserve RAID

-----------------------------------------
machine translation, but it's quite accurate
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GrizzlyHippo
114 months ago
ooh, added fiber in my tasty 970 diet... can't wait for wwdc.

Grizzly.:D
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NavyIntel007
114 months ago
Ok so everyone rip out the CAT6 you just put in your house because fiber is here! :D :cool:
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mcl
114 months ago

Originally posted by NavyIntel007
Ok so everyone rip out the CAT6 you just put in your house because fiber is here! :D :cool:



Fiber-based Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre-channel (aka FC, commonly FC-AL [ Fibre-Channel-Arbitrated Loop) are not the same thing. The former is Ethernet using optical fiber for OSI layer 1, the latter is a fairly short-haul, high-speed optical alternative to SCSI (and notorious for driver problems on pretty much every platform on which it's been deployed. Sun's one of the the longest-running platforms using FC-AL, and their drivers STILL spontaneously LIP, and don't interop well with non-Sun GBICs.)
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Mr. Anderson
114 months ago

Originally posted by crassusad44
One of them (and probably 2) is a connector Fiber channel to connect for example Xserve RAID


XStation? Why would you want to have a RAID system hooked up to a desktop ;)

This might also be the return of the desktop server as well.

D
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g30ffr3y
114 months ago
for my home desktop use the ability to have a RAID set up is not going to be worth my computer dollars... i wouldve rather had the 5.1 surround...
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Catfish_Man
114 months ago
Fiber channel is a pretty high end/specialized thing to add. Perhaps this signals a new "workstation" Mac above the powermac?
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RandomDeadHead
114 months ago

Mac above the powermac



Now thats an idea,what will they do to make it faster than the powermac? Put four or six procs in them?
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arn
114 months ago
it is an odd thing.

I have serious doubts that Fibrechannel is going to be built into a PowerMac.

Even build into an XStation would be a little odd... but perhaps more likely.

It's not built into the Xserve... you need to buy a PCI card for it.

Either this rumor is wrong, or those motherboards aren't for the PowerMacs...

arn
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