Pursuing its goal of creating very high-speed clustered configurations of the RS/6000 Unix workstations and servers, IBM Corp has turned for help on the fast optical links it will need to Ancor Communications Inc in Minnetonka, Minnesota. IBM sees the clustered configurations being used to process and share text, video and image data used in large, complex applications such as astrophysics, climatology and medical imaging. The two plan to work together on development of hardware and software components that support Fibre Channel Standard optical-link technology, not only for the RS/6000 but ultimately for connection to mainframes and other mid-range systems such as IBM’s AS/400, personal computers and peripherals. The two also hope to accelerate standards by contributing to the definition of an open architecture that can be used by others in the industry to develop software applications, hardware technologies and other products and components for Fibre Channel Standard-based networks. Fibre Channel Standard is sanctioned by the American National Standards Institute and transfers data at up to 1Gbps compared with 100Mbps for Fibre Distributed Data Interchange. Computing devices linked by the channel can be physically up to six miles apart. Ancor says it has extensive expertise in the research and design of components that meet the Fibre Channel Standard specification, and the initial activities will involve use of high-speed switching chips and software technologies from Ancor and related technologies from IBM. The products will be designed to support existing network protocols and interoperate with existing technolog ies such as FDDI, Ethernet and Token Ring. Testing of prototype products with university, national laboratory and commercial customers is expected to begin by the end of the year.
